Pro-democracy HK tycoon Jimmy Lai convicted in national security trial

Re:Pro-democracy HK tycoon Jimmy Lai convicted in national s... by spacebanana7 on Monday December 15, 2025 @12:09PM (#46277213)

Hong Kong is the only business friendly place in the world that’s genuinely independent of the US/EU transatlantic regulatory blob.

The mainland government want to keep it prosperous so will likely work to protect it from sanctions or international regulations.

If you’re a Russian oligarch it’s probably safer to keep your money in HK than Cayman or Switzerland these days. Even if you’re a petrostate sovereign wealth fund or non NATO central bank there’s some value in holding assets that can’t be frozen at will by the US treasury secretary.

You could argue that Signapaore and the UAE compete here but they have much more dependency on the west for security and diplomacy.

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Re:Pro-democracy HK tycoon Jimmy Lai convicted in national s... by realusername on Monday December 15, 2025 @12:46PM (#46277798)

Well now it's dependent on the Chinese regulatory blob which I would argue is worse.

The EU is still debating after 3 years of war in Ukraine and weekly nuclear threats what to do with the Russian funds, let's be real, with the same situation in HK, the funds would have been seized within a week.

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Re:Pro-democracy HK tycoon Jimmy Lai convicted in national s... by jskrn on Monday December 15, 2025 @05:55PM (#46282025)

Not doubting but genuinely curious - what type of situation are you alluding to in which China would freeze a foreign nations funds in HK?

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Re:Pro-democracy HK tycoon Jimmy Lai convicted in national s... by dh2022 on Tuesday December 16, 2025 @01:55AM (#46285584)

Well, recognizing Taiwan as an independent country for starters. The countries that recognize Taiwan are not recognized as independent states by China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_T...

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