
How Hong Kong is turning into the West Berlin of the quasi-cold war - dtamhk
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/07/16/ich-bin-ein-hong-konger-protests-china-west-berlin/
======
underthebus
Hongkong is part of the PRC. Its situation has no similarity whatsoever with
West Berlin's.

~~~
hker
The analogy means that Hong Kong is an enclave in one of the frontiers in this
“new cold war”, not that Hong Kong is politically under PRC.

The major protests in Hong Kong (e.g., the anti-national-security-law protest
in 2003, the anti-restricted-democracy Umbrella protest in 2014, the anti-
extradition protest in 2019) show that Hong Kong aligns closer to the belief
of rule of law and democracy in the Western world (including Taiwan), than to
the authoritarian rule and Xi’s dictatorship in China.

~~~
underthebus
That's equally disingenuous.

HK is not a frontier of any 'cold war'.

What is happening is that some forces are trying to use HK to create problems
for the Chinese government because China is getting too powerful for the
established powers. And they try to create issues and frame them using
narratives such as this article.

This is the same as trying to pass the extradition bill off as an attack on
the rule of rule or on HK's status.

This is cynical but that's how the game has always been played.

In the end the victims will be the naive young Hongkongers who are used as
pawns.

~~~
hker
> HK is not a frontier of any 'cold war'.

It is the cold war between _free_ capitalism–supported by the United States,
most of Europe, and many others–and _state_ capitalism–as exemplified by
China.

For a discussion of this tension as the root cause behind the trade war, see
the speech by Gao Shanwen at Tsinghua (in Chinese [1]). The main thesis behind
the speech is that, China with its State-Owned Enterprises are competing with
an unfair advantage against foreign enterprises which do not have the same
state-level backing, which is a tension behind state-boundaries and
enterprise-boundaries.

> What is happening is that some forces are trying to use HK to create
> problems for the Chinese government because China is getting too powerful
> for the established powers.

On the other hand, some forces in China are trying to create problems for Hong
Kongers by introducing the extradition law, which would undermine Hong Kong’s
status as a financial hub, a concern many foreign businesses have voiced out.
They are doing this while Hong Kong is still influential to China, because
more than half of Chinese foreign capital inflow and outflow go through Hong
Kong [2].

> In the end the victims will be the naive young Hongkongers who are used as
> pawns.

Young (and older) Hong Kongers are fighting for their democratic and financial
future [3], by leveraging external pressure (from Britain, Europe [4], the
United States [5], and elsewhere). They work together with foreign pressure
when it is mutually beneficial. The bottom line is that Hong Kongers fight for
themselves, regardless of foreign motivations.

[1]: [https://www.xuehua.us/2018/08/15/高善文在清华大学的发言：中美贸易战的本质图/zh-
tw...](https://www.xuehua.us/2018/08/15/高善文在清华大学的发言：中美贸易战的本质图/zh-tw/)

[2]: Quoting “Economic and Trade Information on China” of HKTDC
([https://hkmb.hktdc.com/en/1X09PHBA/hktdc-
research/Economic-a...](https://hkmb.hktdc.com/en/1X09PHBA/hktdc-
research/Economic-and-Trade-Information-on-China)):

Hong Kong is the largest source of overseas direct investment in the Chinese
Mainland. By the end of 2018, among all the overseas-funded projects approved
in the Chinese Mainland, 46.3% were tied to Hong Kong interests. Cumulative
utilised capital inflow from Hong Kong amounted to US$1,098.1 billion,
accounting for 54.1% of the national total.

Hong Kong is also the leading destination for China’s FDI outflow. According
to Chinese statistics, by 2017, the stock of FDI going to Hong Kong
accumulated to US$981.3billion, or 54.2% of the total outflow of FDI.

[3]: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/24/hong-
kong...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/06/24/hong-kongs-future-
is-stake-pivotal-moment-china/)

[4]: [https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/07/18/european-parliament-
de...](https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/07/18/european-parliament-debate-
enacting-export-controls-tech-used-violate-basic-rights-hong-kong/)

[5]: [https://time.com/5607043/hong-kong-human-rights-democracy-
ac...](https://time.com/5607043/hong-kong-human-rights-democracy-act/)

