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What are you talking about?
HK and China are 2 seperate economies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pigeonhole
In 1997 (the year HK was handed back to China), HK's GDP represented 18% of the People's Republic GDP.
AS of now it represents 3% of China's GDP.
So they can demonstrate all they want, they have no leverage and Beijing can choose to crush them if it wants to.
I doubt the Western Powers would try to enforce sanctions there as they tried to do for Russia over Ukraine (and it backfired miserably).
The successful practice of multiparty democracy in Hong Kong is a threat to the CCP for obvious reasons.
It both stands as an example for all of China to study and aspire to and also undermines the narrative of many CCP propagandists who claim that democracy is a western thing that is not right for Chinese culture.
HK could have pushed for more democracy during the British era. If HK already had wide democracy in Chris Pattern's era, it would still have it after 1997. Blame the British HK government for not implementing democracy before 1997.
In 1989, many HK people supported the students in Beijing and cried when the Tiananmen Square was cracked down.
At that time, many poor countries saw communism as a solution to their problems, not just China.
Although communism failed, it had some advantages in some aspects compared to the old system of China. Capitalism also failed in most of Africa and most of Asia.
Communism failed everywhere it was implemented. Those nations that experienced successful and rapid growth, economically and technologically, adopted more capitalistic strategies. There is a reason why S. Korea is today a wealthy nation with a current per capita GDP of $33,000 while Vietnam is a developing one with a current per capita GDP of $4,000.
Communism failed everywhere it was implemented. Those nations that experienced successful and rapid growth, economically and technologically, adopted more capitalistic strategies. There is a reason why S. Korea is today a wealthy nation with a current per capita GDP of $33,000 while Vietnam is a developing one with a current per capita GDP of $4,000.
Or South Korea's neighbor, North Korea, that is even worse than Vietnam, per capita GDP of $1800
Communism failed everywhere it was implemented. Those nations that experienced successful and rapid growth, economically and technologically, adopted more capitalistic strategies. There is a reason why S. Korea is today a wealthy nation with a current per capita GDP of $33,000 while Vietnam is a developing one with a current per capita GDP of $4,000.
Things are not that simple.
Communism failed, yes. But the reason why there is a huge gap between S Korea and Vietnam is also because S Korea has been backed up by the US, by far the most powerful and affluent country in the world.
In terms of GDP per capita, India is no better than Vietnam either.
HK could have pushed for more democracy during the British era. If HK already had wide democracy in Chris Pattern's era, it would still have it after 1997. Blame the British HK government for not implementing democracy before 1997.
In 1989, many HK people supported the students in Beijing and cried when the Tiananmen Square was cracked down.
Hong Kong obtained a fully elected legislature in 1995, the Chinese were infuriated and argued that it violated the Sino-British Declaration. It was promptly dissolved it when they occupied Hong Kong.
I don't know about other countries, but communism was a disaster for China and Chinese civilization. Mao's Great Leap Forward, which aimed to increase industrial production at the expense of living standards and the goal to surpass the "UK and US in 15 years", resulted in the largest number of "unnatural deaths" in modern history - between 20 to 43 million in the years of 1959, 1960, and 1961 during a time when there was no foreign invasion and no civil war. Even the Communist Party never came out to dispute these numbers, because it could easily be verified by census data from the years before and after the Great Leap Forward.
I personally find any justification for China's communist system/communist Party to be repulsive and an assault on the most basic human decency.
Things are not that simple.
Communism failed, yes. But the reason why there is a huge gap between S Korea and Vietnam is also because S Korea has been backed up by the US, by far the most powerful and affluent country in the world.
In terms of GDP per capita, India is no better than Vietnam either.
Not true. Lots of other countries have been backed by the US, and they are still poor, namely in Latin America.
Not true. Lots of other countries have been backed by the US, and they are still poor, namely in Latin America.
I already said "things are complicated", so it is not the only reason. The culture of East Asia has some contribution too, for example.
The US also supports S Korea and Japan more than Latin America. After all, US troops are stationed in S Korea and Japan. In fact only western European countries are comparable.
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