Tag Archives: Hong Kong

Anatomy of the Hong Kong Disaster, by Ian Miller

Posted on March 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

Hong Kong was lauded for its exemplary response to Covid. Then the wheels fell off. From Ian Miller at brownstone.org:

It’s hard to believe that after two years of government policies completely failing to prevent the spread of COVID, there hasn’t been universal acceptance that attempting to control a highly infectious respiratory virus is nearly impossible.

Nearly every country that was once praised for their “response” to COVID has seen their numbers rise dramatically over time.

The mitigation commands — mask mandates, vaccine passports, mandatory vaccinations, lockdowns and lockdowns for the “unvaccinated” have all been disastrous blunders; hopeless flailing borne out of a desire to “do something” and to coerce desired behavior.

So it should come as no surprise that Hong Kong has joined the long list of jurisdictions to see their much praised policies collapse.

Equally unsurprising is that media and Twitter promoted experts have yet again ignored the ramifications of Hong Kong’s startling increases.

Media reports have consistently attempted to credit masking and other interventions with stopping COVID, but Hong Kong provides a brilliant example of premature celebration.

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Is War With China Becoming Inevitable? by Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted on October 13, 2020 | Leave a comment

It had better not be, because the US would lose. From Patrick Buchanan at buchanan.org:

“The Indians are seeing 60,000 Chinese soldiers on their northern border,” Secretary of State Michael Pompeo ominously warned on Friday.

He spelled out what he meant to commentator Larry O’Connor:

“The Chinese have now begun to amass huge forces against India in the north. … They absolutely need the United States to be their ally and partner in this fight.”

Pompeo had just returned from a Tokyo gathering of foreign ministers from the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or “Quad,” the group of four democracies — U.S., Japan, Australia, India — whose purpose is to discuss major Indo-Pacific geostrategic issues.

Exactly what kind of “ally and partner” the U.S. is to be “in the fight” between India and China over disputed terrain in the Himalayan Mountains was left unexplained. We have no vital interest in where the Line of Control between the most populous nations on earth should lie that would justify U.S. military involvement with a world power like China.

And the idea that Japan, whose territorial quarrel with China is over the tiny Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, thousands of miles away, would take sides in a Himalayan India-China conflict also seems ludicrous.

Yet, tensions are rising between the U.S. and China, as the list of ideological, political and economic clashes continues to lengthen.

And there is a transparent new reality: China seems in no mood to back down. Continue reading →

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Beijing’s Mystery Security Law Will Be a Giant Tell about Hong Kong’s Future, by Chris Oliver

Posted on June 28, 2020 | Leave a comment

China’s new security law for Hong Kong is a lot like the Obamacare legislation, implemented before anyone knows what was in it. From Chris Oliver at wolfstreet.com:

Sense of Foreboding in Hong Kong. Beijing’s black-box approach doesn’t bode well for local freedoms.

Hongkongers woke earlier this week to a timeline for a new national security law written in Beijing that sets out a handful of days before the legislation is passed. The troubling thing is that few know what’s actually inside the new law.

The controversial bill – widely regarded as already fixed in stone – is expected to be completed during the three-day session of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee which gets underway on Sunday, according to local newspaper reports citing mainland sources. One theory is that the bill will be passed on Tuesday, June 30, the eve of the 23rd anniversary of the handover that ended 156 years of British colonial rule. When the law will be enacted is not known, but sometime during either July or August looks likely (photo by Chris Oliver).

If the new law is passed next week as expected, it would mark about a month since its unveiling in late May – a blistering pace for a national law, especially one affecting Hong Kong, a city known for its low crime rate and social stability.

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Hong Kong Is no Longer British, Never Really Was, And It’s Time to Let Go of All Our Hypocritical, Nostalgic Colonial Nonsense, by Damian Wilson

Posted on June 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

Boris Johnson likes grand gestures that make no sense. From Damian Wilson at lewrockwell.com:

The UK’s offer of residency to three million residents of “Honkers” is guilt-driven meddling in affairs that are no longer British. Strangely, there is no international outcry at this display of diplomatic double standards.

Having left Hong Kong in the lurch once already, when it handed the colony over to China following the expiration of its 99-year lease, Britain is seeking to make matters worse with an offer of not-quite citizenship to three million of its people.

These folks are the Hong Kong Chinese who qualified for the booby prize of British national (overseas) status allowing them to… well, nothing really. The status has no tangible benefit.

But British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, in an ostentatious show of generosity, has offered those citizens of Hong Kong who might choose now as a good time to leave their homeland the opportunity of coming to live in the UK visa-free for 12-months and then, maybe, follow that up with full citizenship, no promises mind you.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Insurrection

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War for Hong Kong? by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.

Posted on June 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

China is trying to draw a line in the sand on Hong Kong, and the US should think long and hard about crossing it. From Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. at lewrockwell.com:

President Trump faces trouble, and he is handling it in a dangerous way. Our economy is reeling, as the Fed pours out billions of dollars in a futile effort to avert disaster. We know to our cost that politicians, faced with crisis at home, provoke war “to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels.”

Unfortunately, this is just what Trump is doing. According to a CNN news report on Friday, May 28, “President Donald Trump launched a blistering attack on Beijing Friday, naming misdeeds that range from espionage to the violation of Hong Kong’s freedoms, and announced a slew of retaliatory measures that will plunge US-China relations deeper into crisis.

‘They’ve ripped off the United States like no one has ever done before,’ Trump said of China, as he decried the way Beijing has ‘raided our factories’ and ‘gutted’ American industry, casting Beijing as a central foil he will run against in the remaining months of his re-election campaign.

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Is War Next? by James Rickards

Posted on May 28, 2020 | 1 comment

China is determined to squash Hong Kong, which will increase US hostility towards China. From James Rickards at dailyreckoning.com:

Remember the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong against Chinese authoritarianism?

Well, guess what? They’re about to start again. And U.S.-Chinese relations could get even worse than they are right now.

Are you prepared for a bumpy ride?

Let’s unpack this…

Last year’s protests came in response to a proposed law that would have allowed the extradition of Hong Kong residents to Beijing for trial on charges that arose in Hong Kong.

That would have deprived Hong Kong residents of legal protections in local law and subjected prisoners to torture and summary execution.

The legislation was proposed by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who many consider a puppet of Beijing.

The demonstrations grew exponentially, ultimately involving hundreds of thousands of protesters.

The list of demands also grew to include more democracy and freedom and adherence to Hong Kong’s rule of law.

Due to social media, these protests were seen around the world.

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Posted in Civil Liberties, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, Insurrection, Trade

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China: one country, two sessions, three threats, by Pepe Escobar

Posted on May 25, 2020 | Leave a comment

The China-US rivalry may be the issue that shapes the 21st century. From Pepe Escobar at asiatimes.com:

Getting back to domestic business quickly is essential for a renewed push on the grand chessboard

The annual meeting of the National People’s Congress. Photo: Xinhua

The key takeaways of the Two Sessions of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing are already in the public domain.

In a nutshell: no GDP target for 2020; a budget deficit of at least 3.6% of GDP; one trillion yuan in special treasury bonds; corporate fees/taxes cut by 2.5 trillion yuan; a defense budget rise of a modest 6.6%; and governments at all levels committed to “tighten their belts.”

The focus, as predicted, is to get China’s domestic economy, post-Covid-19, on track for solid growth in 2021.

Also predictably, the whole focus in the Anglo-American sphere has been on Hong Kong – as in the new legal framework, to be approved next week, engineered to prevent subversion, foreign interference “or any acts that severely endanger national security.” After all, as a Global Times editorial stresses, Hong Kong is an extremely sensitive national security matter.

This is a direct result of what the Chinese observer mission based in Shenzhen learned from the attempt by assorted fifth columnists and weaponized black blocs to nearly destroy Hong Kong last summer.

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Beijing Has Finally Run Out Of Patience With Hong Kong, by Tyler Durden

Posted on May 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

Freedom and totalitarianism cannot coexist within one system. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Update (1430ET): After China’s National Congress adopted a resolution calling for a new National Security law in Hong Kong, the SCMP spoke with a party insider to offer a more detailed account of how we arrived at this point, where Beijing is finally moving the pieces into place to justify a violent crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong.

Unsurprisingly, Beijing has given up on the idea that Hong Kong can be reformed from within, and that changes to the city-state’s “Basic Law” to impose mainland-style censorship and political repression won’t ever be undertaken voluntarily.

According to a mainland source familiar with Hong Kong affairs, Beijing had come to the conclusion that it was impossible for the city’s Legislative Council to pass a national security law to enact Article 23 of the city’s Basic Law given the political climate. This was why it was turning to the NPC to take on the responsibility.

Article 23 of the city’s mini-constitution requires the Hong Kong government to enact its own national security law prohibiting acts of “treason, secession, sedition, or subversion”.
“Some opposition politicians have shut the window for Hong Kong to enact its own national security law,” the mainland source said, citing the confrontational approach they had adopted towards Beijing.

“If the national security legislation is not done during the annual session of the NPC or shortly afterwards, is there any guarantee that it can be passed by the Legco in the next two years?

“We can no longer allow acts like desecrating national flags or defacing of the national emblem in Hong Kong.”

Notably -as we touched upon earlier – this is all happening at a critical time, as the US has until the end of May to certify HK’s “autonomy” under a recent law that has made certain economic and financial links enjoyed by Hong Kong dependent on this certification.

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Kyle Bass: On US and China Fallout and Recovery from COVID 19, and Hong Kong’s Looming Banking Crisis, by Jan Jekielek

Posted on April 19, 2020 | 1 comment

Kyle Bass has been bearish on China for a long time. Here he talks his book. From Jan Jekielek at Epoch Times via zerohedge.com:

With countries around the world in quarantine or lockdown mode to deal with the Wuhan coronavirus or CCP virus pandemic, what can we expect in terms of economic fallout?

What evidence has emerged showing the Chinese Communist Party is culpable?

What will happen to the US, Chinese, and Hong Kong economies as the pandemic wanes?

And why is Hong Kong’s situation particularly perilous?

In this episode, we sit down with Kyle Bass, the founder and chief investment officer of Hayman Capital Management, a Dallas-based hedge fund. Bass is a founding member of the Committee on the Present Danger: China, and he is also Chairman of the Board of The Rule of Law Foundation.

This is American Thought Leaders 🇺🇸, and I’m Jan Jekielek.

his interview has been edited for clarity and brevity… emphasis ours.

Jan Jekielek: Kyle Bass, such a pleasure to have you back on American Thought Leaders.

Kyle Bass: Thank you. Great to be here, Jan.

Mr. Jekielek: Kyle, you’ve been this fierce speaker on the Chinese Communist Party’s culpability behind this virus. We’re going to talk about all sorts of economy-related stuff because this is your wheelhouse and everyone wants to hear.

Mr. Bass: I just think it’s important for the press to really think about, and for the world to think about what really happened in a timeline, and not some conspiracy theory because China won’t allow us in, and won’t allow our scientists to try to find patient zero and origin of the virus. And in fact, you’ve probably seen recent communiques between the Chinese Communist Party and their labs that their lab output has to be censored by the CCP, or that has anything to do with the Wuhan virus, [has to be approved] before it goes to the rest of the world. So, they are very sensitive on this topic—number one.

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Posted in Banking, Business, Civil Liberties, Debt, Economy, Geopolitics, Government, Medicine, Propaganda

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Ukrainian neo-Nazis flock to the Hong Kong protest movement, by Ben Norton

Posted on December 6, 2019 | Leave a comment

The Hong Kong protests are attracting all sorts of opportunists. From Ben Norton at thegrayzone.com:

Ukrainian fascists who previously fought in a US-backed neo-Nazi militia joined the anti-China protests in Hong Kong, sharing their tactics and showing off their tattoos.

Neo-Nazis from Ukraine have flown to Hong Kong to participate in the anti-Chinese insurgency, which has been widely praised by Western corporate media and portrayed as a peaceful pro-democracy movement.

Since March 2019, Hong Kong has been the site of often-violent protests and riots that have run the city’s economy into the ground. The US government has funded many of the groups leading the pro-Western and anti-Beijing movement, and opposition leaders have coordinated closely with conservative political figures in Washington like Marco Rubio and Steve Bannon, lobbying for sanctions and other punitive measures against China.

Numerous delegations of far-right groups from across the world have traveled to Hong Kong to join the violent insurgency against Beijing, in which secessionists have attacked police with bowsand arrows, shot gasoline bombs out of catapults, and burned numerous people alive.

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