I realize that it’s a 45 minute video, and that it was a Bloomberg production, but all that notwithstanding, THIS is an excellent briefing on the situation in Hong Kong. Senator Ted Cruz has come and gone from Hong Kong as part of his Asian fact finding tour, having been rebuffed by the wooden headed Hong Kong governor (handicapped, being born without a personality, as she surely was). 
The question remains whether Hong Kong will survive. The Old Hong Kong vanished when the British handed it over to the People’s Republic of China, but there were whispers of that Old Hong Kong remaining, until now. They’re something less than whispers now. Maybe an off shore breeze that blows lightly in the morning hours?
When Western capital leaves, it will be just one more dismal land ruled by communists…maybe a Potemkin village will be erected to prove that people are happy in the new worker’s paradise?
People ask me whether Hong Kong can be saved. The stock answer is that I don’t know. Whenever you see two million people marching (out of a population of 7.3 million), you’d expect to see some part of the government consider compromise. But under a communist government, there is no room for compromise. The communists feel that if you put a lid on a boiling pot that you can hold it tight enough that steam won’t escape. Or in the alternative, maybe you just massacre everyone? It’s very depressing to witness.
Some of the people of Hong Kong look to the USA for a solution. 

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16 COMMENTS

  2. No reasoned answer from me. My response would be no intervention – their country, their problem. Sanctions yes! Anything that weakens communist China is in our best interest.

  3. They are going to be non-existent soon. And we'll sit back and do nothing because too many Dems and Repubs in Congress are being paid by the ChiComs.

    In a fair and just world, we'd be standing back, waiting to see if any Americans need rescuing by US Marines.

    But, well, it's not our fight.

    I can see protecting Taiwan, as we do have interests there. Same with Singapore. But HK? Sorry to say, as much as I'd love to see us save them, I don't know how without going to full war with the ChiComs.

    Sanctions, trade war, that sort of thing, as WSF said above, yes, very much so. Choke those SOBs until they can't swallow a single grain of rice. Choke that country until the country erupts in civil war and rightly breaks up into 2-4 separate nations.

    Hong Kong could have stayed with Britain a lot longer, but they screwed that up, didn't they? And, seriously, they (the HKers) trusted the ChiComs to follow an agreement? The ChiComs? Oh, puleeze.

    Sorry, as Pinochet would say, the only good Commie is a dead commie. And these people trusted commies to keep their words. Ooops.

    What's that phrase, "Not my monkeys, not my Circus."

    This would be somewhat the equivalent of ComChina coming to the aid of Portland if we had to take over that failed city-state.

    Let them live or die on the vine. Maybe some clandestine 3rd party help not linkable back to the US, but other than that, nope.

  4. The alternative to not fighting the ChiComs now is seeing them roll over us ( U.S. ) a few years down the road. However, I'm not sure that we can take them on at the same time as dealing with our domestic communists.

    Thanks for the post.
    Paul L. Quandt

  5. Although Mao Tse Tung is no longer calling the shots in China, his protege's are still keeping the revolution alive. Does anyone think that Mao would have come to some sort of compromise with these guys? Not on your life. And Xi is a chip off the ol' block. I fear that Hong Kong will probably suffer the fate that many cities did when under seige: a blockade, and 8 million people there depend on things coming in to sustain them. When those are denied, then what?

    Yes, bad things are coming to Hong Kong going forward.

  6. Hong Kong? What's that? We're too busy on Orange Man Bad and they're obviously colonial oppressors. Just look at all those US flags.

  8. "Don't fight the way your enemy fights best". In this case, on a battlefield defined as an island-
    Why assume this is limited to Hong Kong?
    Why wouldn't the Hong Kong rebels try to establish a wider field of conflict to bring the pain closer to home for the PRC- aka Beijing, the relatives of officials, etc. The island is ideal for the old "first with the most" N.B. Forest concentration of force idea, but the hornets nest can pop up anywhere. And the Chinese are no different than us, in that they have not had an existential fight in a long time. They may have taken for granted the same thing we have, that wars are fought on others territories, and there is no domestic kinetic price to pay.
    The PRC needs to be very careful what they unleash. It does not take a lot of dedicated levers to destabilize a nation dependent of modern infrastructure.

  10. Guessin' the protestors aren't too worried about their "social standing" points level. Bravery comes in many forms.

    Brings to mind this admonition from our Declaration:

    "But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

    Our Forefathers left England for a reason…yet it appears far too many on the Left demand a return to that level of government oppression. Not happening on my watch, and I believe the rats are running scared, as they should be.

  11. I think that you are wishing to throw out the baby with the bath water. Not everyone in those states are the evil forces which you rightly dislike.

    Paul

  12. Hahaha! Only if you mean Washington DC. I'd offer Manhattan NYFC and Los Angeles County (Chicoms already own the port, I think) as well. But not CA, OR and WA.

    More seriously, I wish the people of Hong Kong all the best, but they, for the most part, are NOT like us. While the HK Chinese are often entrepreneural go-getters, they also tend to be loud, grasping, rude, and ill mannered by Western norms. There is a reason the Chinese diaspora are often hated in Southeast Asia. The "Overseas Chinese" themselves will tell you that it's because the natives are lazy and ignorant as well as fundamentally stupid, and the hatred is entirely borne of jealousy. I am not entirely certain it is the case that the natives are always to blame and the Overseas Chinese always the unfairly maligned "good guys". Intelligence and hard work certainly are huge contributors to the success of Overseas Chinese in SE Asia, but nepotism and an overarching sense of cultural superiority are also at play.

    A while back I semi-facetiously suggested granting visas to any HK citizen who wanted to emigrate to the US, on the basis of them being political refugees credibly threatened with death. Those with over, say $500k USD in transferable assets get to live wherever they want (and can afford). The remainder must move to a specific set of cities [1] for at least 5 years, or until they have paid a certain amount in federal taxes (amount to be determined).

    Yes, I claimed that the HK man on the street is not necessarily a great fit for the US, but he is an infinitely better prospect than many of those being imported from MENA, sub-Saharan Africa, and Central America. Also, removing the human capital from HK (or rather facilitating its self-removal) will torque off the Chicoms and remove much of the value of their prize. And granting them refugee status will further reveal the hypocrisy of our internal enemies and traitors (as well as upsetting a number of sincere and genuine, but misguided persons).

    [1] My personal list of destination cities would include: Detroit; Baltimore; Camden, NJ; Flint, MI; St Louis; Memphis, TN; Milwaukee; Cleveland.

  13. I have sympathy for the HK-ers, but I see no positive outcome for them. Not a lot we can do to help either, outside of keeping pressure up on the Dollars side.

    I mean, yes, we can do the whole strategic nuclear exchange thing, but I don't see much Human life in HK on the other side of it.

    -Kle.

  14. Los Angeles County (Chicoms already own the port, I think)

    Not any more. The Bad Orange Man forced them to sell it last year following a review.

  16. This is a question rather than a comment but you seem to have the contacts that may answer it. Certain members of my family claim that Australian newse reports that we left behind 50 nucular weapons, airplanes and missles when we pulled back in Syria. I have not seen anything in the normal news feeds I look at and it seems that if it were true the Democrats would be all over it. Supposedly the Rushians now control this material. I am not trolling you, just would like some explaination.

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