Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the Trump administration’s move was intended to be tough on China but risked harming Hong Kong far more.
“My fear is that taking this step — which is almost the nuclear option — could ensure that Hong Kong within a period of time sees a flight of capital and expats and Hong Kongers who have the means to leave,†she said.
Extensive capital flight would also risk pressure on Hong Kong’s managed peg to the US dollar.
https://www.ft.com/content/3ae02552-6948-47ae-8e53-233bcded6bf5
It would appear that the Supreme Dada, and by extension his "online PLA", were caught a little unprepared. Usually the propadanda dept. has an acidic retort (carrying a retaliation) out within minutes...
(NOTE: I avoid actual PRC web links for obvious reasons)
This appears to be the first effort several hours after Pompeo:
https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/...95042846539778
It's almost as if they're blindly swinging at piñatas until new target coordinates arrive. Oh wait, that's their normal modus operandi.
https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/...77373581619202
https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/...74797868466181
https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/...69760861704192
Perhaps the simultaneous news that CCP's huawei cyber-princessling Meng didn't get acquitted as the Party had hoped threw a delicious endangered primate in the works:
https://twitter.com/globaltimesnews/...10125722923009
They did release the bingo cards...
From
https://twitter.com/DoctorTedros/sta...92518387118080
In my opinion, HK is a pawn in the little chess game that China and the US are playing and neither of them particularly cares what happens to the people of this city.
This is all moving very fast now... I suspect China will see the US challenge and double down on explicit control from Beijing on further matters.
An extradition treaty really doesn't look so bad now with 20:20 hindsight... Although I'm sure the independence of its application would only have survived a year or two before the inevitable case where China insisted on getting someone over the border.
If the trade status is lost, it will accelerate the demise of Hong Kong. As there will be no longer incentive to keep Hong Kong autonomous, HK'ers will suffer the most. Expats will leave, international businesses will relocate to more cost efficient places if they still want to trade. HK'ers will be treated like mainlanders and will have less jobs and prospects. HK'ers will suffer more than the mainland.
Emphasis on if the US uses the full nuclear option.
Missed this one ... headed to the Security Council, if China allows it. But they knew that...
https://usun.usmission.gov/call-for-...-on-hong-kong/As a result, the United States called today for a virtual meeting of the Security Council to discuss these acts and the PRC’s proposed national security law that would threaten Hong Kong’s democratic institutions and civil liberties. Such actions confirm the PRC’s contempt and complete disregard for its international obligations.
Unsurprisingly, the PRC has refused to allow this virtual meeting to proceed in the Security Council. This is another example of the Chinese Communist Party’s fear of transparency and international accountability for its actions, and belief that it can exploit the current global health pandemic to distract the world from its intended assault on Hong Kong and abrogation of its own commitments to the Hong Kong people.