Stephen Roach, former boss of Morgan Stanley Asia, writes a piece updating and defending his belief that ‘Hong Kong is over’…
This dramatic transformation into Xianggang is the real story. Hong Kong’s defenders are in denial about this new chameleon-like identity, instead viewing it as another example of the city’s inherent resilience. Nice try.
…Hong Kong is less a thriving global IPO market than a major platform for Chinese issuers.
The rule of law, long regarded as one of Hong Kong’s greatest institutional advantages, has been severely compromised. In 2020, China bypassed the Hong Kong legislature and imposed a sweeping national security law… These changes have stifled open debate, resulted in new arrests and harsh sentences for previously imprisoned activists, led to closures of independent bookstores, and destroyed any semblance of a free press.
…Jonathan Sumption, one of England’s most brilliant jurists … warned in the Financial Times that a Mainland strain of “judicial ‘patriotism'” was poisoning the city’s legal system.
…The Hong Kong government seems to think that Chinese-style central planning offers new hope for its economy and recently launched its first five-year plan. But, as China is painfully learning, such plans can often over-promise and under-deliver.
Nothing very new. The Acting Financial Secretary delivers a fairly mild rebuttal. He could have issued a witty parody: Yes – Stephen Roach, one-time superstar of the fund management gurus, is now an 80-year-old has-been. But no.
Nor does the Acting Financial Secretary mention bookstores. HKFP reports that 50-year-old Greenfield Books is closing, after NatSec police arrested staff for allegedly selling volumes with ‘seditious intentions’…
Greenfield is the third bookstore this month to announce its closure. The raids came a day after Have a Nice Stay said it would shut down the following month, citing financial difficulties and “unclear red lines.”
Another independent bookstore, Elmbook, also announced a week before the raids that it will close its physical store. The announcement came after it and Luck Win Bookshop were reportedly banned from taking part in the annual Hong Kong Book Fair.
Closures of Hong Kong bookstores have received wide coverage in international media, such as the latest from the Japan Times….
Authorities have cracked down on bookshops over alleged “seditious” material under Hong Kong’s homegrown national security law passed in 2024, in addition to broader legislation imposed by Beijing after democracy protests seized the financial hub in 2019.
After this month’s raids, security chief Chris Tang said booksellers must ensure the items they sell “do not endanger national security.”
And when the NatSec police have eradicated the bookstore threat – what comes next? It doesn’t exactly help officials who want to push Hong Kong as a ‘free, open, efficient, secure international financial center’.
And when the NatSec police have eradicated the bookstore threat – what comes next?
Surely something will come next. Unfortunately, in the eyes of the people in charge here, there must always be another nail to be hammered in the name of safeguarding national security….
“And when the NatSec police have eradicated the bookstore threat – what comes next?”
Just ask Captain Red Legs from “The Outlaw Josey Wales”.
Red Legs: “Then we go after the others.”
Fletcher: “What others? Wales & the kid are the last ones.”
Red Legs: “Oh, no. Texas is full of rebels. Lots of work to do down in Texas.”
Fletcher: “We get Josey Wales and it ends!”
Red Legs: “Doing right ain’t got no end.”
PK Tang’s NatSec objective is dead simple: impress the boss in Beijing enough so that he will be appointed the next CEO.
@Slim: Perfect metaphor for the gang currently running things in what used to mostly be the United States…
Seems the next target is anyone who goes to study in the decadent West, especially if someone else is picking up the bill.
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/news/article/338488/Foreign-schemes-use-free-travel-to-recruit-elites-to-disrupt-Hong-Kong
Funnily enough one of the people I know who did one of the scholarships mentioned has been fingered in European media as a potential Chinese spy …
Re Standard article, an extremely longwinded and repetious piece for a paper with a focus on short space saving bulletins.
Holy crap – what happened to the Standard? Admittedly I haven’t read it for a while, but I assumed that was an op-ed by some wingnut, not in the News section!
Re. The Standard, it is a sponsored collaboration with the National Security Department, similar to yesterday’s Big Lychee post.
The question you need to ask is: are you going to pick HK as a “neutral” jurisdiction for a China-related contract? And the answer now is clearly “no”. The surname of the modern HK legal system is “party”.
And once you’re saying that, much else dries up in the end.
I’d guess that Standard piece is stright from the jaws of the Government Information Office or Beijing, although it does have the mark of the SS about it.
@Goatboy, I was about to say the same thing!