Hong Kong

[Redneck]

Hong Kong is starting to be a worry!

What are the chances the chinks will invade as this unrest continues?

[Black Orchid]

It's pretty violent over there at present and I can't help but wonder if people will start disappearing. Deja vu re Tiananmen Square with massive tanks rolling over the top of unarmed students.

The Chinese have little regard for human life.

[brian ross]

The Chinese need Hong Kong. HK is the powerhouse of the PRC. Without it's free-wheeling, capitalist markets the PRC would be a great deal poorer. The PRC will not roll the tanks in. It will allow things to run their course and just ignore the protests.

[Neferti]

Honkers used to be a great place to visit and shop .... until 1997.

[Black Orchid]

I didn't mean that they would literally roll out the tanks. They wouldn't get away with that in HK. That doesn't mean that people won't just disappear though.

[cods]

the world is watching and Hong Kong depends very much on the rest of the world for its high quality living...

so far I havent seen where any westerners have been told to leave,,,thats when we need to take notice.....

I dont think I would be planning a holiday there any time soon...

[Valkie]

Honkers used to be a great place to visit and shop .... until 1997.

Cant say I'm really a fan of HK.

All I seem to remember about the place is stupidly high humidity, horrible heat and waiting around for many hours, sometimes days for a flight out of the place.
Unfortunately it was a regular stop over on many of my flights.
So frequent in fact that as I walked down that little walkway toward the Qantas club entrance, they knew me so well that they booked my shower and had my hot chocolate ready by the time I arrived at the desk. For nearly 4 years I never once had to present my boarding pass.
That's how you know you are travelling to often.

I preferred Shanghai, Bejing, and some of the smaller locations to HK, further north where it was cooler, if not less humid.

[The4thEstate]

The Chinese need Hong Kong. HK is the powerhouse of the PRC. Without it's free-wheeling, capitalist markets the PRC would be a great deal poorer. The PRC will not roll the tanks in. It will allow things to run their course and just ignore the protests.

If that's the case, then Hong Kong can thank President Trump for squeezing the Chinese economy like no president before him ... thus making it even less likely that the Chinese will want to throw Hong Kong into chaos with an iron-fisted crackdown on their cash cow.

To wit, this NPR story today:

China's economy grew at the slowest pace in 27 years, as the trade war with the United States takes a toll.

https://www.npr.org/2019/07/15/74173579 ... -3-decades

[brian ross]

All depends if you can believe what the Chinese claim about their economy. All countries lie, even the US and Australia to some degree about their economic performances. Primarily because they simply cannot measure them sufficient well enough to produce the numbers that so many people seem (falsely) to rely upon. The PRC in particular has been lying about their GDP for over 30 years. They know it's gone gang busters, they now know it is slowing but how much? No one knows accurately.

GDP is pretty universally acknowledged as a poor measure of economic performance and a nation's well being. Personally, I much prefer the Economic Happines measure as used by Bhutan.

[Black Orchid]

Masked men armed with sticks have attacked anti-government protesters at a train station amid another night of protests in Hong Kong.

The attacks happened as hundreds of thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets again, clashing with police who fired rubber bullets and tear gas.

The opposition Democratic Party said it was investigating the train attack, which it said was carried out by suspected triad gangsters.

Among those attacked were pro-democracy protesters clad in their trademark black clothing and yellow hard hats.

The attackers, meanwhile, were dressed in white with black masks pulled over their faces. On Saturday, pro-government demonstrators had worn white at a counter-rally called to express support for the police.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-22/ ... s/11330066