What's new

Hong Kong's troubles are deeper than even its own leaders realize

Falconless

FULL MEMBER
Joined
Oct 13, 2020
Messages
1,547
Reaction score
0
Country
Pakistan
Location
Pakistan
Social scars exposed thanks to Beijing's ongoing economic clampdown


William Pesek is an award-winning Tokyo-based journalist and author of "Japanization: What the World Can Learn from Japan's Lost Decades.


Hong Kong's wealthiest 1% are certainly enjoying a euphorically profitable COVID-19 pandemic.

Whether by coincidence or design, two industries most to blame for a record income gap are sailing through 2021 quite lucratively, namely financial services and property markets. But while those at the top of the city's food chain peruse their bank statements with glee, employees in retail, hospitality and tourism are counting losses.

Exhibit A: Home prices have surged to the highest levels since 1993. The combination of ultralow mortgage rates and heady demand are helping erase fallout from past bear markets -- from the 1997 Asian crisis to the early 2000s SARS outbreak.

The income divide partly behind 2019's giant protests, in other words, is now bigger than ever. And the other catalyst -- China's strangling of Hong Kong's autonomy -- is growing worse by the day.

Good luck figuring out what Hong Kong's Beijing overlords are up to. Since November, when plans by Jack Ma's Ant Group for history's biggest initial public offering got trampled by regulators, it has been hard to follow what "Xi Jinping thought" actually is. Now, with the Chinese president indulging in Mao Zedong-like sloganeering -- "common prosperity" and the like -- Hong Kong's existential crisis is only deepening.

Even the recent Tokyo Olympics gave reason to contemplate whether Hong Kong life has meaning, purpose or value against a Communist Party onslaught the city can no longer outrun. Euphoric medal winners found themselves assailed and bullied on mainland social media just for carrying the Hong Kong flag, making you wonder whether Hong Kong will be allowed to send its own team to Paris 2024.

A high-profile visit by Xi allies, ostensibly to discuss specifics on China's latest five-year plan, devolved into a lecture communicating impatience with Hong Kong's failure to China-fy as quickly as Xi would like.

The delegation was led by Huang Liuquan, deputy director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office. The gist of his message: The city has squandered valuable time since the 2019 protests to realign policies to the "new political climate" Xi appears to be inventing on the fly in Beijing.

China needs to give Hong Kong a minute here. What Xi is doing is simply not in the DNA of a city literally in the business of doing business. The disappearance of Ma and of Ant's IPO -- half of which was to be listed in Hong Kong -- is intrigue enough. Xi has since clamped down on Didi Global -- just days after its big IPO -- and descended on Alibaba Group Holding, Tencent Holdings, private education companies and myriad other tech giants.

Xi's seemingly anti-capitalist pivot has regulators telegraphing crackdowns on private equity. And, most chillingly, the Cyberspace Administration of China is now policing any speech or internet comments it deems critical of the economy, financial markets or domestic policy.

What does it mean? Xi's censorship-industrial complex will not say. But suffice it to say, if you are an analyst about to downgrade a mainland stock, a credit rating company concerned about default risks, an expat journalist with a story to tell about local corruption or what happened in Wuhan with COVID-19, or a bank economist convinced that China's gross domestic product data are flawed, you are being invited to shut up -- or else.

China is remarkably skilled at economic retribution for anyone who dares ask questions or misspeak. Australia's government, America's National Basketball Association, retailers like H&M and Nike, Hollywood personalities such as John Cena and myriad others are learning this the hard way.

But if you are Hong Kong, and your brand is the kind of feisty, transparent, bottom-line-driven capitalism that Xi seems to suddenly abhor, what do you do? Actually, Hong Kong's troubles are even deeper than Chief Executive Carrie Lam seems to realize. The social tensions that brought the city to a halt in 2019 may be remembered as kinder, gentler economic times.

https%253A%252F%252Fs3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com%252Fpsh-ex-ftnikkei-3937bb4%252Fimages%252F_aliases%252Farticleimage%252F4%252F6%252F6%252F0%252F36200664-4-eng-GB%252FCropped-1630495819A20210901%2520protester%2520Mong%2520Kok.jpg
Protestors gather along a street in the Mong Kok neighborhood in August 2019: the social tensions may be remembered as kinder, gentler economic times. © AP

Asia's "world city" now trails Brazil and Mozambique when it comes to inequality, a gaping hole in Hong Kong's veneer of hyperprosperity. Beneath the billionaire tycoons, chauffeur-driven bankers and gleaming skylines, many of the city's 7.5 million people are falling further behind -- and perhaps more keen than in 2019 to take to the streets.

Those massive protests heard around the globe were sparked by an extradition bill that Xi's government tried to force on Hong Kong. But the fuel behind it was Charles Dickens-level discontent about surging living costs, stagnant wages and a government too busy catering to Beijing to care.

Of course, now the billionaires, too, might be bracing for what is to come. Xi's Maoist turn is putting trillions of dollars of market capitalization at risk. Soon, Hong Kong's 1% may be clicking on their account statements with more fear than glee.

Once COVID-19 passes, Hong Kong Inc. will likely be more unbalanced than it was before the pandemic hit. An economy that satisfies no one but Xi in Beijing is not one with a vibrant future.

 
.
What do the Chinese members of this forum think of the claim that the economic issues in china’s Hong Kong fuelled the 2019 protests in?
 
.
I won't waste my time reading opinions by William Pesek, the former EE for Barrons and Bloomberg.

His articles about Asia is generally negative and many of them proved to be wrong.

But it is more than just negative as I discovered.

The only social scars in Hong Kong are those left behind by the saboteurs in 2019 using the term peaceful "Pro-democracy" as their fake front to deceive folks outside of SAR. Are they peaceful or violent?

The article is cleverly riddled with half truths tainted with subversive sinophobic ideological phrases with ill intention to destabilize Hong Kong.

Basically to instigates more street demonstrations and protests using vague term like pro-democracy and freedom.
Hong Kong at 3rd is one of the most free democracy in the world. USA is 17th and now even lower after Black George Floyd was not allowed to breathe.

After the introduction of Hong Kong Security Law followed by the flights of all foreign contractors deployed by oversea intelligence agencies, such clandestine activities will only ended up in jail.

Today the HK police have been successfully weeding out the elements left behind by the departing British Colonialist.

Joshua Wong recruited at the age of 14 by a foreign agency across the Pacific in Macao is now serving his jail sentence based on laws left behind by Britain. He will soon have to face the charges under the National Security Law.


:coffee: :cheers:
 
Last edited:
.
What do the Chinese members of this forum think of the claim that the economic issues in china’s Hong Kong fuelled the 2019 protests in?

The author's level is very poor. He doesn't even understand why the Chinese government wants to control the technology industry. Even an Indian can figured it out.


As for Hong Kong, that is our internal affair.
The economy we manage is not bad, so we don't need the advice of foreign experts.
 
.
As for Hong Kong, that is our internal affair.
The economy we manage is not bad, so we don't need the advice of foreign experts.
Doesn’t Hong Kong have one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world?
 
. . .
Doesn’t Hong Kong have one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world?

1, Before 1997, Hong Kong, ruled by the British, had the largest gap between the rich and the poor in the world.

2, China promised Britain that it would not implement the socialist system in Hong Kong within 50 years. Therefore, the laws of Hong Kong are different from those of the mainland. Hong Kong has always practiced Extreme Capitalism.

3, If the West really wants Hong Kong to narrow the gap between the rich and the poor, it is very simple. As long as Britain agrees with China to withdraw its original commitment, let China implement a socialist system in Hong Kong, increase taxes on Hong Kong capitalists and distribute welfare to Hong Kong people, Hong Kong can be like Macao.
If Britain does not agree, we will not break our promise. The problem of the gap between the rich and the poor in Hong Kong can only be solved after 2047.
 
.
the work of capitalism has been festering since many years ago that led to today's problems with mainland among hong kong residents & students.
 
.
Doesn’t Hong Kong have one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world?
Do you know poor minority lives in inner land of China get free new concrete housing with electricity, modern infrastructure and internet connection?

Do US gives free concrete housing for poor minority? They ask u to sleep on street and survive on your own.
 
. .
I have always said to Hong Kong people who hate China that if you don't want to be a Chinese, you can go back to your motherland, Britain.
Hong Kong has a large group of terrorists with foreign nationalities who specialize in creating confrontation and hatred with China. Creating hatred is the easiest thing. Indians in South Asia must have more empathy. Indians hate each other among different languages, and there is deep hatred among races of the same religion. The Bharatiya Janata Party is taking the violence against Muslims as the best weapon to unite Hindus.
 
.
Which is the result of Hongkong's excessive freedom. Strangely Hongkong's young people still pursue the freedom that made them marginalized
Freedom at least gives you a chance, no matter how slim it is. Without it, you are at mercy of someone else, very likely some government official. Yes, your life may be conformable. So are the birds in cages.
I have always said to Hong Kong people who hate China that if you don't want to be a Chinese, you can go back to your motherland, Britain.
Hong Kong has a large group of terrorists with foreign nationalities who specialize in creating confrontation and hatred with China. Creating hatred is the easiest thing. Indians in South Asia must have more empathy. Indians hate each other among different languages, and there is deep hatred among races of the same religion. The Bharatiya Janata Party is taking the violence against Muslims as the best weapon to unite Hindus.
Keep in mind that many people in Hong Kong escaped from mainland China or are the descendants of those people. Not trusting mainland China is a part of their culture signature.
 
.

Country Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom