Bloomberg reports Hong Kong Cancels All Remaining Monday Flights as Protesters Swarm Airport.
Thousands of black-clad protesters on Monday packed the arrival area, where they had gathered for a three-day sit-in that was originally planned to end last night. The protests, initially sparked by opposition to a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China, have become increasingly violent in recent weeks, with demonstrators targeting public transportation in a bid to pressure the government.
China stepped up its rhetoric on Monday, saying protesters have committed serious crimes and showed signs of “terrorism.” Hong Kong has come to a “critical juncture” and all people who care about its future should say no to violence, Yang Guang, a spokesman for its Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, told reporters on Monday as protesters gathered at the airport.
Stoking those fears, the Communist Party-backed Global Times reported on Monday that the Chinese People’s Armed Police have been assembling across the border in Shenzhen ahead of “apparent large-scale exercises.”
Protests 10th Consecutive Weekend
Background
This all started when Hong Kong CEO, Carrie Lam, appointed by mainland China, passed a bill that would allow Hong Kong citizens to be extradited to mainland China for various charges.
Protests started immediately and never stopped.
Lam rescinded the order in a half-assed manner, not taking it off the books, just suspending the measure. This further infuriated the protesters who want Lam to stand down.
She refuses.
UK Caught in Fray
UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab was caught in the fray for calling Carrie Lam.
The Independent reports ‘Simply wrong’: China slams Raab after call to Hong Kong chief executive
Mr Raab called the chief executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam on Friday to stress the need for “meaningful political dialogue” and “a fully independent investigation” into the violence – but was immediately to stop interfering by Chinese authorities.
Hua Chunying, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, said the days when Britain ruled Hong Kong were “long gone” and asked to “stop making random and inflammatory accusations”.
“The Chinese side seriously urges the UK to stop its interference in China’s internal affairs and stop making random and inflammatory accusations on Hong Kong.”
Opinion: Carrie Lam No Longer in Charge
The South China Morning Post comments In Hong Kong, neither Beijing nor pro-establishment politicians are even pretending Carrie Lam is still in charge.
Beijing has spared no effort in making sure everyone knows it backs embattled Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. In fact, that’s one of the reasons for the high-powered, high-profile seminar last week, designed to quash dissent within the pro-establishment camp.
Never mind, of course, that Lam and her administration came out of their two-week absence with an utterly pointless press conference, where the only bit of news was Lam basically declaring herself a security risk and persona non grata. The 500 elites were ordered like rank and file to support Lam, a chief executive who has resorted to having her office release photos of her working and visiting places (à la North Korea), including a wet market, a park and police station.
Stranger yet is how Lam is being inadvertently undermined by loyalist veterans like Maria Tam Wai-chu. As deputy director of the Basic Law Committee under the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, Tam spoke to the press in Shenzhen, almost sounding like she, not Lam, is the chief executive.
That just reinforces the notion that the Lam administration is only a puppet. By speaking in Lam’s absence – while our chief executive chooses to venture out in public unannounced and then release photos to the press afterwards – Tam is doing the Hong Kong government no favours.
How Long Before a Major Crackdown?
China won’t put up with this much longer. I expect a major crackdown.
China will demand Lam stand down, gracefully.
But how?
That’s the dilemma for China as it will not want to be seen giving in to the protesters it now labels as “terrorists”.
Question of the Day
Meanwhile, here’s the question of the day: How long before Trump starts a Tweetstorm on Hong Kong?
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
China’s government MUST have 6.5% GDP growth in order to maintain “social harmony” as they call it (avoid Tienanmen square 2.0 in plain terms).
Almost all the growth in China is in coastal cities, and more specifically in special economic zones like Shang Hai and Hong Kong.
The Communist party wants to have its cake and eat it and mortgage it all at the same time. The freedoms for ordinary citizens and limits on government authority is what makes special economic zones work. Its also what makes the post Deng Xiaopeng “economic miracle” possible… Capitalism is what makes China’s economy grow so fast.
Sending the Chinese army into Hong Kong tells the world, and more importantly Chinese citizens, that the communist party is holding back growth. Its the communists admitting failure.
Presumably, the Chinese army would make short work of protesters, but doing so would make equally short work of China’s economic growth. Everyone knows this, even if they won’t say so out loud.
Well, everyone except western media outlets has figured it out. Western media somehow misses the plot of every movie.
Hong Kong protesters know China can’t practically act against them — not without jeopardizing China’s economic growth. Down goes Hong Kong and Shang Hai, down goes China’s economy.
Put the airport protesters on a Boeing 787 and them experience capitalism.
Let’s see.
China basically stopped buying American agriculture products to attack Trump’s base so he would lose in the upcoming election.
China now has riots in Hong Kong (freedom/democracy) and soon to have riots on the mainland (food prices).
And the best you think Trump will do is blast a few Tweets?
Here is 4D chess for you. Maximum leverage of pain on an adversary if they want a deal after trying to destroy you.
And now the deal will be so, so, so much better for America than the one China turned down.
“How long before Trump starts a Tweetstorm on Hong Kong?”
Consolidation of Chinese territory is entirely independent of trade issues. What better time for this to happen than this time where our President explicitly told the world in his UN speech that each country had the freedom to do whatever they thought best in their own interests and has regularly supported authoritarian governments and their actions.
Yeah – maybe Trump should do an Iraq, Syria or Libya on China – just like DJT’s predecessors
Those worked out so well for the United States and the local populations.
Given that, despite all bluster and bellicosity, the US has never really meaningfully countered another super-power for internal politics, I don’t think this is the time and President to do so. Trump is looking to share another slice of the most wonderful chocolate cake with Xi again. (the percapita chocolate consumption in China is 100g per year–1 bar)
I don’t know about that statement.
Grain embargo on the USSR?
Kicking the USSR out of the Olympics for the invasion of Afghanistan?
Oil embargo against Imperial Japan for the Invasion of Manchuria?
Not trading Helium and other products to WWI Imperial Germany pre-1917?
Enforcement of the trade embargo against Nazi German pre-Dec, 1941?
Trade embargo on China during the Korean War?
Support of the Nationalists in China? Creation of Taiwan?
Voice of America?
“never really meaningfully countered another super-power for internal politics,”
I have no idea if Trump will tweet or not, but Trump is irrelevant in the Hong Kong circus. Trump isn’t going to “win” the trade war, so much as China is going to defeat itself.
Communism can’t have the economic growth it needs from capitalism (all the special economic zones are really just capitalist enclaves within a communist disaster).
China’s government must choose between central planning — which will kill economic growth, or capitalism — which will kill the communist government.
The USA has its own problems. Socialist morons. MMT. Failure to control its own borders. And most of all: debt levels that rot the US economy from the inside. China is just a distraction
This is the time for China to take over HK instead of 2047.
Just as the anonymous little green-clothed army took over Ukraine, black-clad agitators (defined now as explosive-wielding terrorists) closing down the international airport will mobilize the wealthy and powerful (air-travelers) against the movement. These anonymous mobs can be tools of many players.
Most people want stability more than freedom. Linking airports, “terrorist groups” and explosives is galvanizing. But, even more, being stopped from flying somewhere is a big trigger point in people these days.
Who will protest the early take-over? The US? Russia? Europe?
“Just as the anonymous little green-clothed army took over Ukraine”
–) It was two proveniences (oblasts) in the far east of Ukraine. With heavy local population support.
“Most people want stability more than freedom.”@ss in front of the TV or smart phone. What really is important is the motivation and attitude of those that do.
–) Most people also won’t get off their
A high percentage of the student-aged cohort support independence for HK–but support weakens significantly in the older, non-student population.
What experience can the government draw on?
Tienamen?
A strong response by the government squashed the movement, China and the world moved on business as usual and that former youthful rebellious population is quiescent in the new China.
That argues for a quicker, stiff response from China, rather than letting the movement flow on.
No green men in the Ukraine or in the Donbas, only Crimea. By the way, those troops were already present, since Russia by treaty (Kharkiv pact) was allowed 25.000 troops in Crimea, a number that has never been reached.
HK is another example where citizens abroad put our citizens to shame, when it comes to standing up to govt. Unfortunately, they lack one thing that we have (for now) – guns. China has nothing to fear.
Trump has already given China the green light to do whatever it wants in Hong Kong. He said they were riots and not protesters last week and said it was part of China. To me Hong Kong is the litmus test on what China will do with Taiwan. It is possible Trump gives in on Taiwan if China throws support behind Trump in exchange for a trade deal next year. This will not sit well with anyone in tech world as 70% of semiconductors are fabbed in Taiwan.
And a Trump hotel in China and Hong Kong will be part of the deal after 2024.
And yet, Trump just authorized a massive arms sales to Taiwan over the objections of China.
And continues to sail US Navy warships in the Taiwan Straight.
Facts are sticky with TDS.
Too early bananabread. Everything hinges on whether Trump gets re-elected.
Signed,
A trump voter.
Black Swan not really the correct term – Many could see this coming
Hong Kong have, over the past several decades, served primarily ass a conduit between China and the West. China needed this much more earlier, than it does now. Hence will be less and less tolerant of major differences between Honk Kong and the rest of the country. These protests, and China’s crackdown, aren’t some random episode with limited duration, but rather just another step in China’s slow but unwavering normalization/annexation of once independent Hong Kong. The remaining Hongers, and expats, used to viewing themselves as special snowflakes, will simply have to live with being less and less so over time. Until they, one day, are either fully Chinese, or have left. The normalization is not some sort of reversible process. It only goes one way. With both direction and speed determined solely by Beijing. “Protesters” are no more relevant than former East Germans wanting their communism back.
Always pleasant to hear someone ringing The Bell of Repression.
China is a communist country. And rules just like any historical communist country has.
That currently has/will throw millions of people into “camps” or “jails” if they don’t think they have the correct attitudes (Uighurs, Christians and Falun Gong).
That has massacred tens of thousands of peaceful protesters to restore order (just like in Tiananmen Square).
That no country in world will do more than verbally protest (China ain’t no Syria or Libya).
How EXACTLY would you think this will end?
Steve Eisman (of “Big Short” fame) seems concerned that Hong Kong might be a flaring tinder in a fragile global market (my words, not his) – as such – a bigger danger than folks might realize. (He used the term “Black Swan” – somewhat incorrectly perhaps.) What do you think, Mish?