(21)
be we have gone this far, some mi recent events can be viewed in a new light. Firstly, big expatriate British capital has been quietly getting out of Hong Kong in a big way. Jardines was once a fundamentally Hong Kong-based company, now it holds less than 40% of its assets there and has diversified all over Asia. The Hong Kong and Shanghaits Bank's takeover of Midland Marine of New York will mean, in effect, that the HK & S'Hai Bank will become a (very large) American bank with a HongKong sub-office. The criminal state of Hongkong company law does not allow nosey outsiders much chance to penetrate thei secrets of the main hongs, but I can suggest one very simple and instructive
to
exercise for disbelievers of my theory. Go xxxk any big Hongkong company that has fixed assets (buildings, a head office, say) in Central ( where some leases still have 900 years to run). Ask them what date those fixed assets are being'written down' to in the company accounts. When they refuse, ask yourself why they have refused. Ponder the possibility that they are writing those assets down to a date they do not want you to know.
Consider the recent policies of the Hong Kong Government. By any rational calculation, they are self-destructive of the long-term interests of itself. The crazy policy on housing is now alienating even the middle class, the use of 'illegal assembly' to stifle the mildest forms of legitimate protest or peaceful petitioning is a policy of madness in the long-term, all societies must have safety-valves to express discontent and grievances, even Peking has a democracy wall. It is almost as though the Government and big business had sat down with all the reports and textbooks and looked at what they needed to do to create the conditions ɓr the next Hongkong riot. Jack-up land prices, jump on any protest, jail anyone who gets in the way, let the police run roughshod over whomsoever they please and give them back their license to squeeze, let the Indochinese refugees lower factory wages for Hongkong's own workers, etc.,etc. A Government with a sensible eye to the long term future of Hong Kong would be doing none of these things. They would be bringing in Corners rent control, organising Hyde Parks to vent anger, I introduce direct adult sufferage election to Legco, bring the police back under control, introduce accountability into government,xxxxxxxx encourage the growth of neutral trade unions and accept the principle of matter free collective bargaining, and so on. But they are not doing any of these things. As the crisis looms, they are bringing out more troops and buying bigger guns for the cops. Can it be that they know there is no long-term future for Hong Kong and that the only thing to do is to screw the last drops of loot out of the place as they watch the count-down clock tick away? Look at the architecture of any new police station
and consider its significance. Count the machine-gun turrets, measure the height of the outer walls and count the outward curving steel spikes set in their tops.
What is all this for?
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.