Mad Dog
V.I.P. Member
If I reme
If I remember correctly, I believe Britain's lease was up, thus the negotiations with China to turn it over under those conditions, which China is now reneging on. . Also, the UK was no longer in a position where they could militarily defend the area. I still remember the couple of years prior to the turnover. My cousin was a high powered corporate real estate attorney in Toronto. He would tell us stories of Hong Kong business people, nervous about China's future role in Hong Kong, showing up in his office with suitcases filled with cash that they were using to buy Canadian real estate as a safe refuge for their money. Many of the wealthy ended up immigrating to Canada also. When the Western powers allowed China into the World Bank, which enabled China's rapid business growth and expansion, they thought that would drive China towards a more democratic system. That worked for a while. But once Xi took over the govt., he has steered China back to the direction of a strong central party communist totalitarian government. Those protesters in Hong Kong will soon find themselves disappearing into re-education camps, or even worse, after a midnight knock on the door. This is going to be a story with a very sad ending.....China want's to do the same with Taiwan, thus the continual huge military presence across the sea. China does not recognize Taiwan as an independent country. They regard it as their possession.2046 is today...
This might belong in a different thread, but if anyone has any good recommendations, I'd love to hear about some books that deal specifically with Hong Kong's transfer back to China. I understand Britain had a finite lease on Hong Kong, but even so you would think Britain, previously the world's foremost colonial power, would understand A. the economic benefit of owning an Asian economic hub, and B. the fact that colonization, though an exploitative and destructive process, irrevocably changes the culture of a colony in ways that make a return to pre-colonial life impossible (or in this case, a return to a different kind of leadership and politics, from democracy to authoritarian). Unless Britain was strapped for cash or Britain foresaw China's rapid growth and wanted good diplomatic terms on which to participate in that growth, the decision makes no sense to me.
Sorry for the political digression.