Walmart subsidiary Sam’s Club will expand its Mainland business into Hong Kong, with free delivery for orders above 599 yuan. Leaving aside the possibility of more delivery trucks on the streets, most people will surely welcome the prospect of more competition, wider choices and lower prices. But the SCMP manages to find an economist who foresees doom…
…Simon Lee Siu-po, an honorary fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Asia-Pacific Institute of Business, said the US retailer’s plans would deal a severe blow to Hong Kong’s supermarket chains and online shopping platform HKTVmall.
“Sam’s Club’s offering is bulk purchase with cheap deals. With online shopping and delivery for Hongkongers, they no longer need to stock up food or necessities in local stores,” he said.
“Supermarkets and online platform HKTVmall will be hard hit. Coupled with internal troubles, this will be an aggression from abroad. I am afraid this will cause a retail crisis in Hong Kong.”
It gets weirder. He has a surprising proposal…
Wong said the only way to safeguard the retail industry was to introduce sales tax.
“With the sales tax, the government can increase its revenue and protect the local industry,” he said.
Obviously, this guy is a member of Hong Kong’s treasure-cartels-screw-consumers school of economics. But I still don’t see how a sales tax can help even the all-important supermarket duopoly. The SCMP reporter naturally questioned him on this but ha ha, only kidding, of course she didn’t.
Also in the SCMP – Justice Secretary calls on Google to declare whether it will now help ban Glory to Hong Kong…
Secretary for Justice Paul Lam Ting-kwok on Sunday called on Google to “keep its word” from past discussions with authorities and remove links to “Glory to Hong Kong” – considered the unofficial anthem of the 2019 anti-government protests – from search results.
Authorities last year said Google had declined to take down the links unless it saw a court order that deemed the song’s distribution breached the city’s laws.
“All business corporations have to walk the talk. We are eagerly expecting their response,” Lam said on a radio show.
“I believe all of us are quite impatient and hope to see it take action as quickly as possible.”
He added the company was required to ensure content on its platform aligned with the city’s laws.
More in the Standard (along with apologies from the weighlifting association boss for calling Hong Kong and Taiwan countries).
The Jamestown Foundation on how Article 23…
…violates the laws of other sovereign jurisdictions by claiming global jurisdiction. This is something the HKSAR has used increasingly for its transnational repression…
….it exceeds previous legislation in terms of extraterritorial impact. Extraterritoriality is baked into the SNSO’s legal framework. Sections of the law pertaining to Treason (Section 14), Insurrection (Section 16), Incitement, Sedition (Section 28), Offenses in connection with State Secrets (Section 40), Espionage (Section 48), Sabotage (Section 51), and External Interference (Section 57) all make clear that offenses committed by HKSAR citizens or bodies outside of the HKSAR violate the SNSO.
The vague and ambiguous application of the SNSO, alongside the deteriorating rule of law, can increase risks for foreign businesses in the HKSAR. Many businesses are still debating how to interpret the SNSO. Anticipated additional costs for liability and compliance evaluation are resulting in consultancies avoiding HKSAR government projects altogether due to the legislation’s vague definition of “state secrets”…
HKFP takes a trip to Sha Tau Kok.
Ah!! Nefarious foreign forces colluding to strip Hong Kong of its food security by offering convenience and an alternative! And since when did HK$ get replaced either in wording or currency by “Yuan” ?? (yes, despite Sam’s being safely based in the mainland. Did I just say “safely”? Wow!)
And sales taxes? ALWAYS a popular way to tamp down discontent, winning hearts and minds everywhere.
I struggle to think of any downsides if Goolies decided to retreat from HK over a point of principle.
On other matters, here’s a little blob of Nuttytela to set us all up for the week ahead:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvaIuUlCmSY&ab_channel=Fridayeveryday
HKFP has a time machine
https://i.postimg.cc/90PfYL12/HKFP.jpg
I for one am one of the many impatient people just gagging to know what else I need to believe in order for my opinions to be correct. Waiting with bated, or is it baited, breath…. ooooo errrrrr intriguing.
No fucking way will the cartel allow the Sam’s Club thing to happen.
I’d put Carrie Lam’s salary on it
The iron triangle of government, banks & property developers will sail on regardless. In economic terms, everything else is a footnote.
“an aggression from abroad” ??
Someone should tell Mr Lee that invoking the “foreign forces” boogie-man with regard to a China-operated business is going to land him in some trouble sooner or later.
The pressure on the lady at weightlifters is repugnant. While rejoicing at the gathering of participants from around Asia she referred to countries instead of ????? At most all this should have generated was a gentle reminder that in future the authorities expect HK and Taiwan to be referred to as ?????
Disproportionate outrage that exerts extreme negative pressure on sports organizations generates resentment and will ultimately deter external participation in events here to avoid unwittingly hurting the over sensitive local sentiments of some.
“I struggle to think of any downsides if Goolies decided to retreat from HK over a point of principle.”
@Reactor # 4
You’re an idiot drunk never was so no surprise there. The rest of us use google services regularly.
I would be very surprised to see Sam’s Club opening here. Look at what happened to Carrefour. I bet Big John is on the blower right now arguing that it will bring social disharmony, an opportunity for black forces, it’s American so basically that means CIA yada yada.
I love the film noire style posting @reductio
Can’t wait to see how the HKSARGCCP responds to this:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13411197/amp/Three-men-charged-spying-Hong-Kong-National-Security-Act.html
I for one welcome our new Chinese/American retail overlords.
Seriously, though, Hong Kong should introduce a VAT. Not to fight Sam’s Club, but to shift the government’s tax base away from land premiums.
Rectum #4 has outdone himself today – arguing that a service most of us rely on daily would not be missed, and citing the notoriously unreliable Nury (a man who has an entire Twitter account dedicated to making fun of his errors) as a reliable source of information.
As for reductio’s suggestion that Sam’s Club is “too American” to open here, it – and its parent Walmart – already operate scores of outlets across the mainland, not to mention sourcing numerous products from China for its US stores.And by selling online, they can sidestep Hong Kong;’s inflated rents. Many of my neighbours are already buying essentials online from taobao.com at a fraction of Hong Kong prices, so I predict great success for this new service.
Load Toad: No fucking way will the cartel allow the Sam’s Club thing to happen.
I’d put Carrie Lam’s salary on it.
And you can take that to the bank!
_____________________________
So if Google refuses, does that mean that HK will have no choice but to enact the “Great Firewall” that is now in place on the Mainland? “Those ‘foreign forces’ gave us no choice. It is their fault.”
@cyd: of course there should be a VAT.
Did you know that Li Ka-ching!!, who sits on a US$ 34,000,000,000 fortune, pays, like, zero tax every year, because his income comes from share dividends? Me too!!
I think it’s only fair that the cardboard grannies and the plebs that lives in housing estates, pay their fair share of taxes through the inflated price list of their Wellcome grocery shopping.
Maybe the Rectum4 just “struggles to think” in general?
I’m sure Baidu is more his speed anyway as he’s surely fluent in Pinyin and simplified Chicom.
Re: reductio: “I would be very surprised to see Sam’s Club opening here …………. it’s American”. On the contrary,
Carrefour is French.
Judging by the ‘see no, hear no’ response on the part of the police and Transport Dept to decades old complaints that US companies like UPS and Fedex have been abusing parking regulations via arrangements with ‘valet parking services’ managing parking meters and hogging the same prime drop off/pick up only spaces for, at most, a single parking ticket that is proudly displayed all day, US operators are a protected species here.
Even relocating the Asia HQ to Singapore has not dented what appears to be an exceptional concession that allows US logistic firms to operate what is essentially road side mobile offices on prime streets while local firms have to fork out for high street rents and related charges.
@Mary Melville: The perks of AmCham membership in action!
“Load Toad: No fucking way will the cartel allow the Sam’s Club thing to happen.”
Sam’s Club is owned by Walmart which I think can easily steamroll any local cartel in HK as they are a global powerhouse with extensive mainland links and can’t be pushed around like Carrefour. Also Taobao already does this.
There is no reason for the HK government to protect these cartels anymore. They are blue ribbon ornaments from the previous era not red blooded patriots.
“Did you know that Li Ka-ching!!, who sits on a US$ 34,000,000,000 fortune, pays, like, zero tax every year, because his income comes from share dividends? Me too!!
I think it’s only fair that the cardboard grannies and the plebs that lives in housing estates, pay their fair share of taxes through the inflated price list of their Wellcome grocery shopping.”
Cardboard grannies and plebs pay no taxes in HK. Li Ka Shing may not personally pay taxes due to a lack of dividend tax, and his company’s offshore income is tax free, but the largest tax payers in HK are the local property developers through their local HK operations though you can argue everyone pays an indirect tax on land.
The last thing this govt needs is more tax revenue as they have already demonstrated their ability to squander money on white elephant projects instead of into the hospital authority or housing authority.