Chris writes for Capitalist exploits
This isn’t meant to be a history lesson on Hong Kong, so let’s make it as short as possible.
Hong Kong was an illegitimate child of the British Empire, and as their grip on global dominance ebbed, old Maggie “Iron Lady” Thatcher saw what was inevitable (losing the territory) and began speeding up preparations so as to ensure a more peaceful transition.
Hong Kongers then had no say as to who their parent would be, and today, 22 years after the official handover, they’ve no say either.
Sure, like a child that’s grown up a bit and felt the lure of independence they want it to be the case, but this is never going to happen, and here’s why.
What you have is an autonomous state that enjoys the some of the widest forms of self expression and democracy in the world sitting on the lap of one of the world’s most totalitarian regimes in existence.
The Chinese call it “one Nation, two systems.” I call it bonkers.
Old Maggie was a sharp cookie, and one of the most adept negotiators our tea drinking, sun starved friends have ever managed to birth (incidentally, the Brits could well do with that right now, because let’s face, it Boris ain’t half a Maggie).
Anyhow, Maggie knew that they had to let Hong Kong go. It was an expiring option, and with China was growing stronger each year while Britain was sinking, she knew the option still had value to them. But with each passing year the cost of the option began to outweigh the benefits.
It had to go… and so it did.
But when the old Iron bird negotiated the transfer of Hong Kong back to Mainland China she put a spanner into the spokes, namely a 50-year treaty essentially saying, “Here, it’s yours, but for half a century you can’t really touch it.”
The problem with this agreement is that no agreement is worth a jelly donut if it can’t be enforced. Look around you and tell me who’s going to enforce the democracy of Hong Kong?
The Brits can’t. They’re balls deep in the real life comedy that is Brexit, and to be fair, there’s enough knife crime on London’s streets now that Hong Kong looks positively peaceful. So no, that dog won’t hunt.
What about NATO? Pffft! I said once, actually twice before that NATO is coming to and end.
That leaves just one: America.
If America intervenes with military, then we’re screwed. Really screwed. If they don’t, well… Hong Kong is screwed.
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