More coverage of the dilemma/absurdity that requires Hong Kong’s economy to be wrecked so the CCP can save face and protect the motherland from Covid with a ‘Made in China’ vaccine.
Charles Mok writes in the Diplomat that ‘Zero COVID Is More Politics Than Science’…
Such is the awkward situation that Hong Kong has found itself in, being an international hub for finance and commerce, yet with no choice but to follow China’s zero COVID obsession. Over the past year, the Hong Kong administration along with the local pro-Beijing politicians – now unopposed after the purging of all opposition from Hong Kong’s political scene – has been adamantly pursuing harsher and harsher domestic measures, purportedly trying to meet Beijing’s requirements for re-opening the border with the mainland. While the re-opening is still denied by Beijing, Hong Kong has instead succeeded in isolating itself from the rest of the world.
According to Bloomberg, a European Chamber draft report foresees Hong Kong being cut off from the world until well into 2024 – with a major exodus of expats in the meantime.
The Standard puts its story on this next to one in which Beijing official Luo Huining says Hong Kong has ‘regained its luster’ oh yes.
Accidentally-found copy of the EuroCham paper here.
The CCP likes to see itself as pragmatic and effective (‘whole-process democracy’, etc). But its insistence on reinventing mRNA vaccines looks more like narcissism – or paranoia that foreign products will be laced with ingredients that promote alien unpatriotic subversive ideas.
Which brings us to Security Secretary Chris Tang, who wants to see tougher official-secrets laws to counter foreign espionage. Not only does he maintain that Hong Kong is currently awash with foreign spies – he seems to link theft of state secrets to the 2019 protests…
He told lawmakers that certain countries have been attempting to endanger national security or “foment a color revolution” in the SAR, with the 2019 social unrest being a “vivid example.”
Tang said that spies usually engage in activities such as “infiltrating state authorities, probing state secrets, inciting disaffection of public servants, paying and grooming agents with the view of stirring up trouble, intensifying social conflicts, advocating anti-government beliefs and even overthrowing state powers through violence and other means.”
He also said spies have a causal relationship with domestic terrorism as spies will attempt to seize power by violence.
The evidence for all this would be fascinating. Sadly, it seems to be a state secret.
So you have a plague policy that’ll likely ensure any career driven expat of real value based in HK will be motivated to move onto greener pastures (or at least Singapore) due to stagnation if he/she stays in HK all while a security secretary wants tougher, state-like level laws (for a soon-to-be provincial backwater) against as-yet-identified foreign spies who are not actually interested in intelligence gathering but rather have nothing better to do than get the local population worked up in rebellion against an already highly unpopular “leader” and her highly unpopular “government” with their highly unpopular “policies” and amazingly unpopular social “blunders” caught by whatever media are left? Riiiiiiight.
No less than 3 big luxury / fashion groups informed me in past 24 hrs they’re pulling out. Little HK rump office and splitting roles Shanghai / SG.
Chris Tang left “picking quarrels” off his list of foreign-instigated crimes.
https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3164703/realtors-pay-bigger-average-bonuses-after-12-months-record-sales-hong-kong
Ummmmm ….. so they will reimburse the government for all the millions they pocked through the Employment Support Scheme so the cash can be redistributed to those sectors that should have received the dosh in the first place.
Sounds like Luo is polishing a turd rather than a pearl. Also, pearl is such an awkward metaphor for Hong Kong, given that pearls are made because an irritant bothers the inner workings of the oyster and the oyster defends itself by shallacing the irritant with layer after layer of gut juice. Or maybe that is apt. Never mind.
With Luo, you have to understand that he is speaking to his Mainland boss audience, for whom yes, HK has regained its luster inasmuch as they’re currently surpressing the living daylights out of HK just like in the rest of (direct translation) Our Great Fatherland, if not moreso
HK: More Mainland than the Mainland