China making a move on Hong Kong to stop political unrest

Misleading title is : China parliament eyes Hong Kong national security law after unrest
Most of us knew it was coming we just needed to figure out how it would be forced down the throats of the citizens of Hong Kong.

IMO Thacher should have made the offer of British citizenship to the inhabitants of Hong Kong when she gave the Island back to The communist country of mainland China but she believed (just as many did) that a one country two government rule would work as China would be more civilized and westernized given time. At least Briton could have had a hard working bunch of people from Hong Kong instead of the many uneducated free loaders from the M.E...

Yes a different time back then as the west thought if we helped the CCP they would become more western and civilized.. That sounded great obviously as many believed it would work... In reality all it did was embolden the CCP/PLA to do as they please to whom they please...
Now the question becomes what the west will end up doing as far as trade agreements with Hong Kong (no tariffs) as China seems to be out of favor at present..

BEIJING: China's parliament said Thursday it will introduce a proposal for a national security law in Hong Kong at its annual session, in a move likely to stoke unrest in the financial hub.

Beijing has made clear it wants new security legislation passed after the semi-autonomous city was rocked by seven months of massive and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests last year.

"This is the end of Hong Kong, this is the end of One Country, Two Systems, make no mistake about it," Civic Party lawmaker Dennis Kwok told reporters.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Tanya Chan said Beijing had "shown zero respect for Hong Kong people" by attempting to enact the law without consultation.

www.bangkokpost.com...

This is an article and link I posted at another site on 08/14/2019

Do we feel sympathy watching a once free society slip into the grips of an oppressive and totalitarian system now ruled by a communist dictator for life in Chairman Xi Jinping? Sure we do. But they made these choices decades ago… now they have the consequences.
If Hong Kong tries to resist Beijing, they will be crushed. Hundreds more will be arrested and disappeared. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, will be killed. There is already a ongoing flight of wealth out of Hong Kong as the smart and wealthy position their assets overseas to survive the arrival of Beijing’s storm troopers.
The future for Hong Kong is dark. It is not going to end in anything resembling what exists today. Hong Kong will be Beijing 2.0, and will be entirely dominated by Chinese authoritarian rule. The difference in 2019 is the speed at which it is happening.

COVID slowed the game plan down but it was never shelved with regard to the crack down....IMO
theconservativetreehouse.com... /#more-168200

a reply to: 727Sky

Thacher should have......................

Thacher was a # dog. I grew up there during the 70s. There is no level of pain that I wouldn't.............................................................................................................................................. .............................

Sorry. Truly. That was right on a nerve.

Much of S.E. Asia pussy foots around anything that might be considered negative about the CCP.

IMO they have to to a certain extent as China's trade and tourist account for billions of dollars in GDP. It is not nice to mess with the CCP as they have a habit of black balling anyone who even frowns at them.

China to impose sweeping national security law in Hong Kong, bypassing city's legislature

HONG KONG - China's Communist Party will impose a sweeping national security law in Hong Kong by fiat during the annual meeting of its top political body, officials said Thursday, criminalizing "foreign interference" along with secessionist activities and subversion of state power.

The move is the boldest yet from Beijing to undercut Hong Kong's autonomy and bring the global financial hub under its full control, as it works to rewrite the "one country, two systems" framework that has allowed the territory to enjoy a level of autonomy for the past 23 years.

After steadily eroding Hong Kong's political freedoms, Beijing signaled that the national security law will be a new tool that allows it to directly tackle the political dissent that erupted on Hong Kong's streets last year. The months-long and sometimes violent protests began last June and fizzled out only over public health concerns related to the coronavirus outbreak.

The new tactic marks an escalation in Beijing's crackdown in the former British colony and the clearest indication that it views Hong Kong as a restive region to be brought to heel after last year's protests.
The city's future has become a point of contention in the intensifying rivalry between China and the United States; on Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington was "closely watching what's going on" in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have directly appealed to Washington for intervention, frequently waving American flags on the streets, and see themselves as the last bastion of resistance against an increasingly assertive Beijing under President Xi Jinping.

Other than doing something about the tariffs along with the favorable banking and trading agreements just what does anyone expect the USA or other western powers to do other than blow hot air ? Bad situation and I truly am sorry for the people of Hong Kong who know what freedom from the CCP/PLA means.
I have spent some time in Hong Kong back in the 70s and had a great time. The people were hard working straight forward more like the Taiwanese than the mainland communist control freaks. I have friends who have done manufacturing in mainland China one of them yesterday said if someone nuked the CCP headquarters during a meeting China would be 10,000 better off.... I would say he is not a CCP/PLA respecter or lover by any stretch !
www.greenwichtime.com...

a reply to: 727Sky

It is not nice to mess with the CCP as they have a habit of black balling anyone who even frowns at them

And that's why things have to change. Seriously.......are we all going to go back to the BS of kowtowing to China......just so we can have cheap crap..............surely not.

Personally, I'm a live on my feet kinda bloke..........just sayin. Sadly it seems knee pad businesses are likely going to thrive.

1) Hong Kong IS a part of China. The British leased it for 99 years. That lease is up . Blame the British.
2) 80 - 90% of the population of Hong Kong ARE Chinese citizens and most speak Cantonese.
Right or wrong , those are the facts.

originally posted by: Gothmog
1) Hong Kong IS a part of China. The British leased it for 99 years. That lease is up . Blame the British.
2) 80 - 90% of the population of Hong Kong ARE Chinese citizens and most speak Cantonese.
Right or wrong , those are the facts.

In 1984 Thatcher and Zhao Ziyang negotiated a plan for the Hong Kong lease to end. Hong Kong was to remain a semi-autonomous enclave for a 50-year period after the lease ended. The lease ended on July 1, 1997....1997 + 50 = 2047 ... The Cantonese language part and belonging to China since 243 BCE of your post is correct as far as I know.... as for as the rest.... If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

originally posted by: 727Sky

originally posted by: Gothmog
1) Hong Kong IS a part of China. The British leased it for 99 years. That lease is up . Blame the British.
2) 80 - 90% of the population of Hong Kong ARE Chinese citizens and most speak Cantonese.
Right or wrong , those are the facts.

In 1984 Thatcher and Zhao Ziyang negotiated a plan for the Hong Kong lease to end. Hong Kong was to remain a semi-autonomous enclave for a 50-year period after the lease ended. The lease ended on July 1, 1997....1997 + 50 = 2047 ... The Cantonese language part and belonging to China since 243 BCE of your post is correct as far as I know.... as for as the rest.... If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.

Negotiated or renegotiated ?
Semi being the key word in that statement , meaning not fully autonomous .
Blame the British.

originally posted by: 727Sky
COVID slowed the game plan down but it was never shelved with regard to the crack down....IMO

I totally disagree.

What I'm curious about is, how many of the leaders of the protests/freedom movement are now disappeared, victims of 'COVID-19'?

Same question for those leaders of the protesters in Iran...

I think if that law passes it gives an excuse to arrest protestors or dissidents of any form and charge them with crimes similar to treason.

So protesting can go from a night in jail and some fines, to 20 years in prison. At least that's how i saw the BBC putting it.

a reply to: 727Sky

Anyone who thought one country 2 governments was going to work was delusional. Especially since the Chinese demanded up front it only be temporary anyways. It automatically ended after 50 years.

originally posted by: Gothmog
1) Hong Kong IS a part of China. The British leased it for 99 years. That lease is up . Blame the British.
2) 80 - 90% of the population of Hong Kong ARE Chinese citizens and most speak Cantonese.
Right or wrong , those are the facts.

Actually not true. PART of it was British territory and was not leased.

Good old Democracy, it works so good it can build an empire, along with take it down.

The US should be sending support to the revolutionaries in Hong Kong instead of many of our so called "allies".

originally posted by: myselfaswell
a reply to: 727Sky

It is not nice to mess with the CCP as they have a habit of black balling anyone who even frowns at them

And that's why things have to change. Seriously.......are we all going to go back to the BS of kowtowing to China......just so we can have cheap crap..............surely not.

Personally, I'm a live on my feet kinda bloke..........just sayin. Sadly it seems knee pad businesses are likely going to thrive.

The push in the US (and the rest of the world) to open back up for business as soon as possible, to ostensibly prevent a catastrophic financial collapse, all but guarantees that “kowtowing to China” will resume and continue for the foreseeable future.

To re-open as so many on the boards have been demanding, businesses must resume operations as quickly as possible. That means that they must rely on already established supply lines for the goods and raw materials they need to function; since locating, re-negotiating, and establishing new sources would take time (weeks, months, years?) that would delay, perhaps, prevent, “recovery”.

Certainly the incentive to break with China as our “primary”, if not single source supplier has been highlighted by the CV19 pandemic;

But the unfortunate truth is that our Western focus on “the immediate bottom line” blinds us to the long-term necessity of changing our methods, and quite literally “dooms” us to repeating the (now proven self-jeopardizing) practices we’ve habituated.

a reply to: Bhadhidar

Actually there is a big push right now to move manufacturing to India and Japan. I believe the Trump admin is considering paying for moving costs to companies that want to do it.

Let's see if this all will bite China in the ass and leave nothing but a big tumor. If not then the whole world is demented.

a reply to: KiwiNite

If the US does not immediately start moving production we have only ourselves to blame for what comes.

originally posted by: KiwiNite
Let's see if this all will bite China in the ass and leave nothing but a big tumor. If not then the whole world is demented.

It most likely wont.

Until China breaches any of the very few hard rules of the agreement, we can really only be vocal and lament how idiotic the original documents were written.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04
a reply to: Bhadhidar

Actually there is a big push right now to move manufacturing to India and Japan. I believe the Trump admin is considering paying for moving costs to companies that want to do it.

I heard Apple is going to move iPhone production to India. And Trump is pressing hard to make sure essential items like medicine are made here in the US.

Like the OP said, we all knew this day was coming eventually. I'm still half-expecting Beijing to just say "Oh, F#ck it" and nuke Hong Kong off the map.

originally posted by: OccamsRazor04

originally posted by: Gothmog
1) Hong Kong IS a part of China. The British leased it for 99 years. That lease is up . Blame the British.
2) 80 - 90% of the population of Hong Kong ARE Chinese citizens and most speak Cantonese.
Right or wrong , those are the facts.

Actually not true. PART of it was British territory and was not leased.

Which part ?