Western propaganda comes in two types, 1) we attack them for our benefit (realism), and 2) we save them for their benefit (liberalism), and when it comes to Hong Kong, both the Left and Right of the Anglo world tend towards the latter, actually thinking the political unrest is vaguely because China wants to impose laws on Hong Kong to extradite “human rights” and “democracy” campaigners.
The Greens have said they are “deeply concerned” because the “new extradition agreement…will expose people to China’s unjust system” where “fair trial is chronically denied”. The only reason many think this is about “activists” is because of two people, “Ray Wong, 25, and Alan Li, 27“, who are currently living in asylum in Germany, of whom, “Wong said he feared it could be used to suppress the pro-democracy movement“, however it’s never explained on what grounds they could be extradited to the mainland if they’re committing crimes in Hong Kong, given the two are “facing rioting charges at home“, meaning the extradition bill isn’t even needed to prosecute them.
The Hong Kong parliament wants to introduce the Fugitives Offenders Ordinance amendment bill, but three days ago announced they had shelved it. This would “allow case-by-case transfers of people to countries without extradition treaties, including China” but also to Taiwan and Macau. This is to fix “a “loophole” that they claim has allowed the city to become a haven for criminals from the mainland” and that’s because “there is no formal mechanism for the surrender of fugitives to mainland China“. This is why in early 2018 a Hong Kong resident Chan Tong-kai got away with killing his wife Poon Hiu-wing in Taiwan (not the mainland, but same problem) and stealing her money, because “the police were unable to charge him for murder or extradite him to Taiwan because no agreement is in place.”
The real background to this story, the economic elephant in the room, is that from 1980 to 2016, the third-world lost nearly $16.3 trillion USD in capital flight, of which the Chinese share represents around 28%, much of it exiting via Hong Kong. By 2016 it had been reported that the Chinese central bank had “burned through $800bn of foreign reserves since mid-2014, when they peaked at $4 trillion” because of capital flight. However, “if the bill becomes law, it will be possible for mainland Chinese courts to request Hong Kong courts to freeze and confiscate assets related to crimes committed on the mainland, beyond an existing provision covering the proceeds of drug offences“.
This is now why “Hong Kong’s business community has expressed concern over the inclusion of economic and financial crimes in the bill“, and why “some Hong Kong tycoons have started moving personal wealth offshore“, that is, they are fleeing with their money to the safe havens of the Anglo financial empire, to fuel debt, consumption and asset bubbles. Ever since the Opium wars in the 19th century, when Qing dynasty China was forced to cede control of Hong Kong to the British empire, it has been a conduit for draining China of capital (then silver) in exchange for opium. Given that HSBC which was founded by the British in Hong Kong is still helping Mexican drug cartels launder money, it seems much hasn’t changed.