Unfortunately, that's where Hong Kong will stay. Now that the bill in question has been passed, protesters are removing signage, and trying to erase the fact they ever supported the protests. Tragic stuff really.
It is violence which is perpetrated by China on the Taiwanese, the citizens of Hong Kong and the Uighers. It disgusts me that China is left to continue Mao's experiment while the West mutters "oh I say that's no good old chap" and continues its insatiable consumption of Chinese goods. There are nuances between international apathy and violence. But I suspect many of those nuances (eg extended embargo) will take a while to succeed due to China's massive economy. We put ourselves into this Catch-22.
I honestly think violence might be the answer.
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People are stupidly thinking that Hong Kong is far away so what does it matter. If you look around for 5 seconds you'll see that China is getting a stranglehold on many countries right now - America and Canada included.
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They're going to have to be confronted eventually.
Violence is always a question. People need to realize that sometimes the correct answer is "Yes" or in other cases "More, please".
In a world where might makes right, the righteous need to be mighty.
But people often don’t have the resolve. Famousone and I had this conversation already. People want to send the military to make them feel safe again- until the killin and the dying starts and the bill comes. Then they want the fastest exit possible- and not only does that hurt troops- but it projects a weakness and weakens forces to be called up and stood down like that. The Chinese government is very like us. It’s proud. Considers itself right, and doesn’t like or really listen to others telling them what to do with their country.
We could of course send less “official” force actors- but we didn’t much care for it the several times Russia did it- or was accused of doing it- to us. We certainly can’t fight Russia and China at the same time. Or.. it is strategically foolish to do so. Everyone knew what was going to happen when HK was handed back- but no one took a stand then either- because the whole point was to show the UK would keep its word on the bargain. If we wanted to run HK we should have kept it when the west had it.
But protests are not a civil war. If HK wants to start a civil war- they may have fiends to help- the end conclusion of protests against China is a forgone one. The party is going to back down this one time- in the international line light- and set a precedent that HK tells Beijing what to do?
I honestly don't care what the expectation for Hong Kong was. Even if we are honoring that, China is still wrong for violating the treaty early.
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But that aside, these are people. And, yes, there's always people in every conflict, and these ones don't matter more than any others. This is just one that matters more to ME, for no specific reason.
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And, again, the loss of HK's freedom aside is, as I said, simply a symptom of what's to come. People don't want to acknowledge that China has already launched multiple attacks on the western world -- and we're enabling them to continue. Companies in America and canada and other countries are letting China dictate what they produce, what we do, see, hear, and say. And it's getting steadily WORSE, not better.
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I don't want violence. I don't want war, I don't want any of this. I just am starting to question what other options there are when dealing with a country that refuses to take no for an answer
Corona virus isn’t really news. Nothing has changed really. There is no vaccine, it didn’t decide to go to sleep and leave us alone, and what experts are saying to do hasn’t changed. Quite to the contrary- certain personalities and conflicting news coverage has complicated things and confused or misled people on the virus.
But ultimately- I think that it is more to do with the things people can, or feel they can, actually DO something about and their efforts can actually help. Vivid is pretty low effort and most anyone who would do their part without being forced already is- stay home, wear a mask and limit your time around people when you must. Hong Kong- even if the bill wasn’t passed- what are people supposed to do? Fly to HK (kinda hard while also staying home..) and join in? Pressure congress to declare war on China (since sanctions and diplomatic pressure helped so much already- the only real mechanism left there would be war- especially when we currently lack a president or executive leader who can get other countries to cooperate with them..)
But people CAN do something or feel like they are about police brutality. People wearing masks and doing the right thing look at vivid news and despite everything they can do- numbers go up. People supporting the HK protests look at the news and... they lost. People fighting against police brutality have already seen legislative change and nation wide discussions of policy and major departments preparing to make huge changes
One can scoff all they want or question the priorities- but that is the one thing that IS getting results of the three. Moreover- it is a problem that people have been frustrated and acting against for decades- arguably longer- and while killer viruses are important- not a lot of development on that story- and killer viruses are kinda expected. Act of nature and all that. China trampling freedom is... sad, reprehensible. Also... expected. The world is full of brutal dictatorships. We don’t do much about any of them- and the public is quick to tell the government to do what is needed to end the sad pictures on the TV- until we do something and then the public says they don’t want us involved in it anymore because they’re seeing more sad pictures.
But watching our own police kill a man in cold blood in broad daylight in public... that’s something that certainly effects all Americans directly and certainly we SHOULD not expect. I suppose that you have to tend your own garden before you can feed the world, but really- we can’t even get the public to all agree that police murdering people is a problem let alone support doing anything about it. So if we can’t get people to say they don’t want public servants executing people on a whim- what are the odds that higher concept and more amorphous issues that DONT directly impact people will get the support they need to do anything except make a bigger mess?
"We can't get the public to agree that police murdering people is a problem" is the largest misrepresentation of what's going on right now that I've ever heard.
Personally I’d call it an oversimplification- and it was a bit of hyperbole- but it is accurate to say that there are plenty of people who are on record as saying that they do not see the actions of police- even those convicted of wrong doing- as a problem, and more who might say something like it is not as big a problem to worry about as say... the political situation in another country perhaps? It’s all relative of course. To most people, the size of a problem is related to how much they feel personally effected or connected to that problem.
But as a said- we tend to gauge problems based on their perceived distance from us. Most people would likely tend to their stollen credit card before they would help their friend deal with their stollen credit card. By that gauge- the logic is clear. If we use urgency- the logic is largely a wash. None of those issues can be immediately remedied. Taiwan is still protesting as is Tibet. So... experience shows us how that goes in China. As far as the ability to do something- police brutality is the clear winner. Well- Corona you can wear a mask and not go out- but after you spend 30 seconds and that’s done... police brutality.
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People are stupidly thinking that Hong Kong is far away so what does it matter. If you look around for 5 seconds you'll see that China is getting a stranglehold on many countries right now - America and Canada included.
.
They're going to have to be confronted eventually.
In a world where might makes right, the righteous need to be mighty.
.
But that aside, these are people. And, yes, there's always people in every conflict, and these ones don't matter more than any others. This is just one that matters more to ME, for no specific reason.
.
And, again, the loss of HK's freedom aside is, as I said, simply a symptom of what's to come. People don't want to acknowledge that China has already launched multiple attacks on the western world -- and we're enabling them to continue. Companies in America and canada and other countries are letting China dictate what they produce, what we do, see, hear, and say. And it's getting steadily WORSE, not better.
.
I don't want violence. I don't want war, I don't want any of this. I just am starting to question what other options there are when dealing with a country that refuses to take no for an answer