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Hong Kong surprises itself with the exuberance of protests

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Strong Eagle
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Post by Strong Eagle » Fri, 03 Oct 2014 11:07 am

Sergei82 wrote:It doesn't look good. The leader says unconditional "no" to all protesters' demands. No compromise, nothing. Insulting a good 100 thousand people (add those who didn't go out to protest, but feel the same - it may be even millions) is very explosive thing. Even Putin didn't do it last year in Moscow.

Protesters need to be given something, otherwise it will look like they went out in vain, which is psychologically unbearable to most. Something may be at least promise, but not just "no, and that is all".
Or... maybe it looks great... the communist dictators in Beijing have a real problem... a serious case of cognitive dissonance.

On the one hand, they can't show any weakness in their policies, lest they restart the independence movements in many parts of the country, and on the other hand, truly f*cking over Hong Kong with military action or something similar just isn't a viable option.

Beijing is going to have to back down... or become even more of an international pariah... to refuse to compromise will seriously damage the reputation of Hong Kong... and maybe not today and maybe not in a decade, Hong Kong will become just another corrupt Chinese communist city... whilst the real entrepreneurs move elsewhere.

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Post by ScoobyDoes » Fri, 03 Oct 2014 11:23 am

Beijing should have let a complete democratic vote take place and simply say to the rest of the Mainland, "Look this is One Country, Two Systems and HK is a different territory with a different history."

Chances are much of the Mainland would have reluctantly accepted that.

But to take the promise given to HK in the 90's and now ignore it puts them in a very difficult position and, as I asked earlier, how could they NOT have imagined that something like this would have happened? Naivety? I think so, and a failure to understand HK. This failure in understanding just drives an even bigger wedge between HK and the Mainland, whilst at the same time erodes any tiny amount of trust the people had with the HK government.
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Post by PNGMK » Fri, 03 Oct 2014 11:31 am

Having lived in Shanghai for 3 years I think I can only safely say two things;

The absolute control and arrogance of the central government is unimaginable to a westerner. I still can't get my head around it and yet....

China is not "one country" at all... it's quite a mixture of groups....in a huge piece of land.

It's a conundrum.

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Post by ktw1990 » Mon, 06 Oct 2014 5:38 pm

Can't believe the protest has been going on till now and the gov still has done nothing to remedy it. So their strategy is to 'hold it out and let the eventual anti-protest group deal with the protest group'? Which resulted in some bloody incidents that the police didn't stop. Regardless, it is for the best of Hong Kong to resolve this as soon as possible, especially for the economic side.

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Post by Strong Eagle » Mon, 06 Oct 2014 9:22 pm

ktw1990 wrote:Can't believe the protest has been going on till now and the gov still has done nothing to remedy it. So their strategy is to 'hold it out and let the eventual anti-protest group deal with the protest group'? Which resulted in some bloody incidents that the police didn't stop. Regardless, it is for the best of Hong Kong to resolve this as soon as possible, especially for the economic side.
Much better for Hong Kong to do what it takes to remain democratic and not be placed under the thumb of communist dictators more than they already are.

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Post by earthfriendly » Tue, 07 Oct 2014 2:48 am

I do not think Hong Kong can afford to back down on this. Their very being, essence and way of life is being threatened.

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Post by ktw1990 » Tue, 07 Oct 2014 3:30 am

There are simply two different groups that have differing opinions on this matter. The student groups who wants freedom, and the older generation who wants to maintain what they already have. That's just generally speaking, but still there is definitely a generation gap that exist between the people of hong kong.

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Post by ScoobyDoes » Mon, 13 Oct 2014 2:58 pm

The irony of the last couple of days has been the "Blue Ribbon" brigade now complaining the government is not listening to their complaints and is not clearing the street.

Well.... if the government is not listening to you, perhaps JOIN the demonstrators and complain together how ineffectual the government actually is. It's got to the stage where the government has become so useless that even their own supporters are complaining....... thumbs up for management style on that one!

Proof, if it were needed, the official policy was just to stick ones head in the sand and wait for everybody to go away, or sort things out for themselves.
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Post by Barnsley » Wed, 15 Oct 2014 11:29 am

Just been reading that Police have started going in ...........
Life is short, paddle harder!!

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Post by Wd40 » Mon, 20 Oct 2014 12:12 pm

Nice article comparing SG & HK, for the financial sector:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b18372a6 ... z3GecM4ZSH

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Post by ecureilx » Mon, 20 Oct 2014 2:22 pm

Wd40 wrote:Nice article comparing SG & HK, for the financial sector:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/b18372a6 ... z3GecM4ZSH
nice to know .. though I don't intend to subscribe for it ;)

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Post by Wd40 » Mon, 20 Oct 2014 9:14 pm

I wish I could post the content here, but I think that would be illegal.

Try this:
Google for "Singapore jostles with Hong Kong for financial crown"

When you click the link from Google search, it doesn't force you to register.

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