Hong Kong twenty years after the handover

[Anonymous]

What's changed?



It's not the first time that political upheaval has had Hong Kongers scouting for boltholes.



From 1989, in the wake of the Tiananmen massacre, almost 60,000 people left the city every year, primarily for Canada, the United States and Australia, according to one academic study.



However, many came back as the nightmare scenarios some had imagined didn't emerge and Beijing largely left the city alone during the first 15 years of Chinese rule.



According to Canadian estimates, some 65,000 Hong Kong born people returned from Canada to Hong Kong between 1996 and 2011.



But in 2014, Beijing denied Hong Kongers the universal suffrage promised to the city under its mini-constitution, the Basic Law, triggering massive streets protests that paralyzed much of the city for more than two months.



Since then, fears have grown that Beijing neither cares about, nor pays heed, to the city's supposed autonomy.



In 2015, five men involved in publishing gossipy books on China's ruling elite -- two of whom had European passports -- disappeared only to reappear in Chinese custody weeks later.





Last year, a Chinese tycoon who held Canadian citizenship was abducted in the dead of night from the luxury Four Seasons hotel.



China has also moved to bar pro-democracy lawmakers from taking office, using a rarely invoked power.



This erosion of the city's autonomy has led to calls for Hong Kong's independence from a small but persistently vocal group.



Many fear that Hong Kong's new leader Carrie Lam, who was selected by a 1,200-strong committee and takes office July 1, will now enact a controversial security law, known as Article 23, that would "prohibit any act of treason, secession, sedition, subversion against China."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/26/asia/hong-kong-handover-exit/">http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/26/asia/hong ... over-exit/">http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/26/asia/hong-kong-handover-exit/

[Anonymous]

I still like Hong Kong, but I would prefer it was still British or independent.

[Angry White Male]

Every single place in the world was better under White rule/influence.  The locals keep thinking they can do it better, but not once have they been able to do so.



China will always be what it is...  A communist nation.



However, it knows that for global supremacy, it needs to maintain this...



I can buy Chinese tires for my truck for as low as $230/CDN.  US made tires are usually around double that!  The reason is that the Chinese government is actually subsidizing the manufacture of these tires, and then dumping them on the rest of the world.



Trucking companies are the absolute cheapest entities in the world, and are buying these dumped Chinese tires in the billions of dollars.



I stick with US made.

[Anonymous]

Every single place in the world was better under White rule/influence.  The locals keep thinking they can do it better, but not once have they been able to do so.



China will always be what it is...  A communist nation.



However, it knows that for global supremacy, it needs to maintain this...



I can buy Chinese tires for my truck for as low as $230/CDN.  US made tires are usually around double that!  The reason is that the Chinese government is actually subsidizing the manufacture of these tires, and then dumping them on the rest of the world.



Trucking companies are the absolute cheapest entities in the world, and are buying these dumped Chinese tires in the billions of dollars.



I stick with US made.

China is five thousand years old..



Communism is a new development..



What has been consistent is that the government in Peking is an extension of the dynasties.

[Angry White Male]

It works by having full control of most aspects of peoples lives...

[Anonymous]

It works by having full control of most aspects of peoples lives...

Actually they don't and in some ways the Chinese central government has less control than Western countries.

[Zetsu]

Hk used to be a really vibrant city, but now it seems rather dull and extreme place to live in every time I visit there.  I mean taxes are as low as 0-12% but property and housing is the most expensive in the world.  A lot of world wide brands can be the cheapest too in Honghong, like Aqua Design Amano, McDonalds, Tesla motors, etc while simple things like binoculars or supplements can be 5x the cost of North American prices.  Though I never really like that place to begin with, too much ignorance and arrogance among the locals, thinking they're better than mainland Chinese when most expats living there find them even worst, lol.

[Anonymous]

Hk used to be a really vibrant city, but now it seems rather dull and extreme place to live in every time I visit there.  I mean taxes are as low as 0-12% but property and housing is the most expensive in the world.  A lot of world wide brands can be the cheapest too in Honghong, like Aqua Design Amano, McDonalds, Tesla motors, etc while simple things like binoculars or supplements can be 5x the cost of North American prices.  Though I never really like that place to begin with, too much ignorance and arrogance among the locals, thinking they're better than mainland Chinese when most expats living there find them even worst, lol.

The middle class is being hollowed out in Hong Kong..



It has the most expensive housing I've ever seen..



And there is an attitude among the locals...even worse than Taiwanese.

[Anonymous]

Hk used to be a really vibrant city, but now it seems rather dull and extreme place to live in every time I visit there.  I mean taxes are as low as 0-12% but property and housing is the most expensive in the world.  A lot of world wide brands can be the cheapest too in Honghong, like Aqua Design Amano, McDonalds, Tesla motors, etc while simple things like binoculars or supplements can be 5x the cost of North American prices.  Though I never really like that place to begin with, too much ignorance and arrogance among the locals, thinking they're better than mainland Chinese when most expats living there find them even worst, lol.

The middle class is being hollowed out in Hong Kong..



It has the most expensive housing I've ever seen..



And there is an attitude among the locals...even worse than Taiwanese.

The middle class is disappearing here too thanks to overpriced housing. More importantly, we take in far too many immigrants/refugees. Carbon taxes and sending respurce jobs to foreign countries are contributing factors too.

[Anonymous]

Hk used to be a really vibrant city, but now it seems rather dull and extreme place to live in every time I visit there.  I mean taxes are as low as 0-12% but property and housing is the most expensive in the world.  A lot of world wide brands can be the cheapest too in Honghong, like Aqua Design Amano, McDonalds, Tesla motors, etc while simple things like binoculars or supplements can be 5x the cost of North American prices.  Though I never really like that place to begin with, too much ignorance and arrogance among the locals, thinking they're better than mainland Chinese when most expats living there find them even worst, lol.

The middle class is being hollowed out in Hong Kong..



It has the most expensive housing I've ever seen..



And there is an attitude among the locals...even worse than Taiwanese.

The middle class is disappearing here too thanks to overpriced housing. More importantly, we take in far too many immigrants/refugees. Carbon taxes and sending respurce jobs to foreign countries are contributing factors too.

In my province, the deficit went up to $10.8 billion..



We've already had one credit downgrade..



All this new debt means future pain for average Albertans..



Different from Hong Kong's problems.

[Anonymous]

I still like Hong Kong, but I would prefer it was still British or independent.

You would prefer that Beijing look the other way while shit disturbing Westerners use HK as a base to undermine China?



FUCK OFF TRAITOR!!    

[Romero]

I've been impressed by this young man:

The Netflix documentary Joshua: Teenager vs. Superpower tells the story of Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong and his ongoing fight against China's communist government. It's some real-life shit, and particularly relevant because of the political unrest that exists in the United States and around the world.



The line between reality and fiction has become increasingly blurred. Doomsday scenarios, end-of-the-world movies—those once farfetched storylines now can feel like where the world is actually headed. Watching Joshua—born in 1996—start the activist group Scholarism in 2011 at the age of 14, protest against the Chinese government's plan to implement a pro-communist education program, and make himself the face of the 2014 protests against the electoral reforms that brought thousands of citizens onto the streets of Hong Kong's financial district, I'm reminded of those blurred lines.



Hong Kong has always existed as an autonomous territory independent of China and allowed to grow as its own country. But 1997 marked the end of British rule of Hong Kong, and the territory was handed back to the People's Republic of China. Although there was a promise of a one-country, two-systems approach, Joshua says he's watched the communist regime deteriorate and erode that promise.



Joshua Wong: In 2011, when I established the activist group Scholarism, I could have not imagined that a year later, 100,000 people would take to the street and occupy for a week to urge the government to withdraw the national education curriculum. After that victory, it's still necessary for us to move on and continue to strike, to be ready to fight for democracy with the involvement of the young generation, especially since we are the generation born after the Handover.



http://www.gq.com/story/joshua-wong-hong-kong-interview">//http://www.gq.com/story/joshua-wong-hong-kong-interview

[Romero]

I still like Hong Kong, but I would prefer it was still British or independent.

You would prefer that Beijing look the other way while shit disturbing Westerners use HK as a base to undermine China?



FUCK OFF TRAITOR!!    

Undermine China? Traitor? Don't you remember that you and your family fled China because of how much it sucked there?

[Anonymous]

I still like Hong Kong, but I would prefer it was still British or independent.

You would prefer that Beijing look the other way while shit disturbing Westerners use HK as a base to undermine China?



FUCK OFF TRAITOR!!    

Undermine China? Traitor? Don't you remember that you and your family fled China because of how much it sucked there?

I don't think they fled Romero..



I would flee though if I was born in mainland China.