Comment by rsync | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rsync | Hacker News Reader

"And there’s no obvious leader in the southeast, but it is between Shenzhen, the richest city in the region, and Guangzhou, the political capital ..."

An incredible statement - made even more so by possibly being true.

It was less than ten years ago that Hong Kong might have been considered the leading city in all of China and certainly the most dynamic on the axes that he is considering.

FWIW, I think the CCP has made a tactical error in their handling of Hong Kong:

As a business owner in Hong Kong I was, previously, only peripherally and philosophically concerned with the behavior of the party throughout the rest of the country - it was possible to compartmentalize the "two systems".

But if Hong Kong is just another Chinese city and if there is only one "system" then I am forced to very critically reconsider my business activities there - small as they are.

This makes me very sad - Hong Kong has for my entire adult life been my favorite city and the city I thought was the most interesting and exciting.

It has been at least 5 years, possibly 10, since going from Shenzhen to Hong Kong meant going back in time and not the other way around. I would liked to have seen a different development but I am not surprised by it.

I find the letter fascinating. I haven't followed China's economic progress closely, but one question I have that wasn't answered by the letter is:

Who shapes the CCP's ideology? It seems to be shifting all the time, Is it one person?

The clarity, conviction, speed, and alignment in which they execute the ideology is breathtaking. I can't imagine a group being able to do this over what seems to be a long period.

Xi Jinping.

A more complete answer is more complicated obviously. But he has been super effective in consolidating power from all angles.

> I am forced to very critically reconsider my business activities there - small as they are.

You can take as hard a negotiating stance as you like, in most/all situations the leverage resides with them. Even being Apple won't get them to leave you alone, that should tell you something.

In general you make a fair point but GPs business is cloud storage [1] and, as far as I know, they have one datacenter in SEA and it's in Hong Kong [2]. Presumably GP could open a datacenter in e.g. Singapore/Taipei/Tokyo instead and close the HK one—no negotiation with CCP authorities required.

[1]: https://rsync.net

[2]: I'm a customer based in SEA that previously used rsync.net's Hong Kong site but moved to one of the US sites following the events in 2019.

If you a "business owner in Hong Kong" then you should be able to see with your own eyes whether Hong Kong is "just another Chinese city" or not, rather than believing the anti-China propaganda that western media regurgitates repetitively and predictably, paying only the most basic level of lip-service to actual events.

You will know then that Apple Daily and Stand News were pushing "freedom of the press" into territory that no western media dares to push in their own countries, including actively calling for foreign military intervention in Hong Kong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfVGludKPWM SCMP - The insufferable hypocrisy of Western governments hell-bent on destroying Julian Assange

"the only solution to bad speech is more free speech"

"the only solution to a bad market is more free market"

"the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun"

edit: Hacker News that bastion of "free speech" where all opinions not conforming to the "western liberal" doctrine gets downvote-censored because the readers are too fragile to read different opinions

> US media personalities calling for military invasion of Australia

(1) That's not the same thing as calling for military invasion of the US. (2) No government cares about random small articles that only random internet commentators know about to make a "irrelevant counterexample fallacy"; what matters is large-scale media exhibiting a long-term pattern of behaviour and trying to organise large numbers of people (which they failed at in HK; most people stopped going to the protests after a small group started extreme violence).

> You will know then that Apple Daily and Stand News were pushing "freedom of the press" into territory that no western media dares to push in their own countries, including actively calling for foreign military intervention in Hong Kong.

I recall very recently some US media personalities calling for military invasion of Australia; doesn't seem very different.

Yes, the united states, where the state funded media arm amplifies a call for the us to be invaded (to be fair, by the us):

https://www.voanews.com/a/usa_world-leaders-offer-mixed-reac...

"If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States"

Very few Americans know about the VoA, especially compared to Britons and the BBC.

That's besides the point. They are allowed to criticize the hand that feeds them (as is the BBC)

If only that were true, Julian Assange and many others would be free.

> if only that were true

What is happening to assange is a travesty, but you are literally arguing against something that is demonstrably true. Try again.

Are you for real? The suffering of Assange, Manning, Peltier, and many others demonstrates that this is not true. Heck, you can even throw right-wing loons associated with Jan 6 in there. Washington simply does not tolerate challenges to its authority.

Evidence-free invocation of "demonstrably true" is an oxymoron.

Plus it's not a fair analogy in the first place.

It would be more like if Trump or Q crazies took over power on Jan 6, then the NyTimes called for Canada and Britain to come to our rescue and restore Democracy.

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