How Hong Kong became a police state

Re:How Hong Kong became a police state by HWR_14 on Friday July 01, 2022 @12:58PM (#31949343)

There were two main reasons they may have let Hong Kong be somewhat independent. One is a message to Taiwan that quasi reunification is in the cards, and they can totally trust China enough to become a semiautonomous district. The second is that it was handy to have a place with Western friendly rules to coordinate international trade.

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Re:How Hong Kong became a police state by philliphaydon on Friday July 01, 2022 @01:27PM (#31949757)

> reunification

Unification. You can’t reunify something that wasn’t once unified.

But in any case China screwed that up because the world and Taiwan have seen what China has done and is doing and Taiwan doesn’t want any part of it.

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Re:How Hong Kong became a police state by vanattab on Friday July 01, 2022 @02:51PM (#31950997)

I mean I am not saying china has a right to Taiwan, but Taiwan and parts of the mainland have been under unified rule for much of history.

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Re:How Hong Kong became a police state by philliphaydon on Friday July 01, 2022 @07:37PM (#31954440)

Taiwans history with China is like 7 years.

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Re:How Hong Kong became a police state by HWR_14 on Saturday July 02, 2022 @03:19AM (#31956946)

Whether the geographies used to be unified is kinda missing the point. The populations were unified until the communist takeover

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Re:How Hong Kong became a police state by philliphaydon on Saturday July 02, 2022 @05:12AM (#31957442)

Taiwans history with China spans ~400 years. The Ming Dynasty pushed out the dutch and had some settlements, but this was at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

After the Qing Dynasty took over they did nothing with Taiwan. The Qing Dynasty called Taiwan a ball of mud in the sea not worth the effort of China. There was some people who travelled and setup in Taiwan but ultimately the Qing Dynasty never controlled Taiwan and was in constant conflict with the locals.

In 1887 they decided to call Taiwan a Provience in order to defer Japan from attacking. During this time they tried a little bit to build Taiwan, but again, ultimately not controling the Island.

When Japan attacked, they threw their hands in the air and ceeded to Japan. Japan wasn't even convinced that China controlled Taiwan, and China convinced Japan they did by saying there are other countries where the governments cannot control the indigenous people.

Japan took over and ruled with an iron fist.

After the war the US handed Taiwan to KMT as temporary administer the Island until the fate of the Island had been decided. This part has never happened and is why the US is ambigious on the status of Taiwan.

So no. The populations were NEVER unified in any way.

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Re:How Hong Kong became a police state by throwaway2037 on Friday July 01, 2022 @01:18PM (#31949627)

Yes, it is a nice place to launder your money from Mainland China.

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Re:How Hong Kong became a police state by seanmcdirmid on Friday July 01, 2022 @01:22PM (#31949693)

The mainland originally let Hong Kong be because it was almost their only outlet for trade while China was closed in the 50s-early 80s. It lost that purpose as China opened up. Macau has always been the place to launder money away from Mainland China, the casinos were convenient for that until Xi cracked down.

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