
China to Allow State-Security Agents to Police Hong Kong - JumpCrisscross
https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-to-allow-state-security-agents-to-police-hong-kong-11590145427
======
billme
Prior recent thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23259455](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23259455)

------
ttul
I wonder if China is sneaking these changes in during COVID because the
pandemic has everyone else distracted. Either way, it’s terribly sad. I love
HK and China is killing what’s great about the place.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
I think causation flows the other way. Xi’s regime is facing its first
slowdown. Protesters in Hong Kong have morphed from a curiosity to an
existential threat to his regime’s power. That changes the relative weight of
its national-security threat versus economic value.

Given the world’s muted reaction to Beijing’s hard-handed tactics pre-COVID,
it’s difficult to imagine they played a significant role here.

~~~
mc32
Well the health related lockdown means they can enact unpopular legislation or
make unpopular moves and the opposition is cornered. They can’t protest and
risk health, giving authorities a proximate reason to crack down even harder
in the name of health... so nice opportune time .

~~~
3fe9a03ccd14ca5
Unfortunately I see a lot of parallels here, such as declassifying a lot of
embarrassing information knowing it will get covered up by covid news.

~~~
mc32
Declassifying government shenanigans isn’t in the same league as crushing a
dissent movement knowing they cannot protest.

------
cs702
First, health crises spreading everywhere.

Then, almost simultaneously, economic crises spreading everywhere... but
luckily for everyone, governments around the planet step in to keep it from
getting worse.

Then, an incipient financial shock everywhere... but luckily for everyone,
governments and organizations around the planet flood the financial system
with liquidity, to maintain financial stability.

Now, I read this, and all I can think it is, let's hope we will not see
geopolitical crises too.

~~~
toyg
Oh, we will have more geopolitical crisis too, for sure. Borders are easy to
close but hard to open, and closed borders increase geopolitical friction.
Even in mild-tempered Scandinavia tensions are currently rising, you can
imagine how things will get in other areas.

~~~
luckylion
What are the tensions in Scandinavia?

~~~
toyg
The locked-down countries (i.e. all except Sweden) are relaxing checks and
considering reopening borders with each other... except with Sweden, where
numbers are still worrying:
[https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&ar...](https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2054&artikel=7477594)

Not reopening their borders with Sweden would be a massive diplomatic snub.

------
pl0x
I lived in Hong Kong for many years in my early 30's. I may never be able to
go back there with these new changes.

------
ww520
This basically destroys the Basic Law constitution China had agreed and signed
when Hong Kong was handed over to China. This shows the current China has no
credibility in upholding treaties and laws.

------
troughway
So what's the verdict lads. Do people get the government they deserve?

------
m3kw9
Looks like China's hand is a bit forced here from the last protest. They got
scared from the last 2 major protests. Is just a chess move on their part and
they always have more pieces.

~~~
m3kw9
They could have made this move when ever they wanted, they choose now because
1. HK couldn't enact the laws they wanted, 2. Covid chaos makes it a bit
easier for them to do this.

------
billfruit
Don't American federal police/law enforcement have rights to operate in
Washington DC/NY city? Is not the MI5 allowed to operate in Glasgow/Belfast?
Is it abnormal for federal governments to have some powers in the
provinces/states?

~~~
joemazerino
Invalid comparison for two reasons. Hong Kong as per release in the 90s was to
be given autonomy over it's own territory. Secondly, while the US certainly
has it's share of skeletons they do not compare to modern day China. As I
recall, the last time the US hired organized crime to beat protestors in the
streets was in the early 20th century.

~~~
billfruit
Anyways New Territories was to revert to China at the end of British Lease in
1997. Only Kowloon and HK island was British territory, but PRC views the
treaties at the end of the Opium War that granted British the possession of
these areas to be "unfair and unequal". So PRC will continue to argue and
assert that none has locus standi on this matter except them, and that Hong
Kong is Chinese territory.

~~~
smacktoward
They will argue that, sure. But if their position is that any agreement they
have ever signed can retroactively be declared invalid whenever it suits them,
that’s bad news not just for Hong Kong but for the entire world. Signing
treaties and then tearing them up when they became inconvenient was the
behavior by Hitler that dragged the world into World War II.

~~~
mikem170
International agreements are routinely abrogated when they no longer suit one
or both parties. Every country is guilty of this.

Might makes right in geopolitics. There is no international court to take a
broken treaty to. Nation states pretty much always act in their self interest
when they can.

China thinks that it is in their self interest to do this. Someone can try to
change their mind, but it probably won't be easy.

