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  1. #101
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    Well, at least the whiney biatches have got something else to blather about than Crimea these days. Meanwhile, I'm told, life in HK has returned to normal.

  2. #102
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Well, at least the whiney biatches have got something else to blather about than Crimea these days. Meanwhile, I'm told, life in HK has returned to normal.
    There we go, expat gossip in Delaney's is now a news source.

  3. #103
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    China is so fucked...





    I mean... who they gonna sell to? Did they think about that?!

    Xi is a disaster for China... loan shark diplomacy and territorial expansionism will only lead to war.

  4. #104
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Meanwhile, I'm told, life in HK has returned to normal.
    Whoever has told you that is telling you porky pies. Perhaps you've been gone too long. It is far from 'normal'. More and more firms are planning to move to Singapore and other places nearby.

  5. #105
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    More and more firms are planning to move to Singapore and other places nearby.
    Any links to the "firms" official announcement to leave/have left HK?

  6. #106
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Japan in particular must be casting a keen eye with its serious lack of young blood.

    Countries Are Opening Their Doors for Hong Kong’s Exodus
    Britain, Taiwan, and many other countries are welcoming Hong Kongers as they scramble to leave before Beijing cracks down.
    BY SALVATORE BABONES | JULY 8, 2020, 4:40 AM

    You may see it as Hong Kong’s second return to China or the betrayal of the principles behind the city’s handover from the United Kingdom in 1997, a killing of the goose that laid the golden eggs or the end of Hong Kong altogether. Whatever expression you choose, after decades of holding Hong Kong gingerly in its palm, China finally closed its fist on July 1 with a new security law that threatens what little remains of Hong Kong’s raison d’être as an offshore financial center.China finally closed its fist with a new security law that threatens what little remains of Hong Kong’s raison d’être as an offshore financial center. The whole point of Hong Kong is to be a place where people can do business in China without being subject to Chinese law. The security law brings Hong Kong into the cold. That may make Beijing more confident in its ability to impose its will on the territory and its people, but it makes Hong Kongers themselves more vulnerable—and their city less viable.

    Thus it comes as no surprise that record numbers are heading for the door—or at least making preparations to do so. Even before the new security law was proposed, more than 40 percent of Hong Kong’s population was considering emigration. Highly skilled expatriates were also reportedly leaving Hong Kong in the wake of massive protests and the coronavirus epidemic. A June membership survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong revealed that the national security law was likely to drive even more foreign residents—and their companies—out of the jurisdiction. While some express a healthy skepticism that these intentions will ever be realized, the overall mood is certainly not bullish on Hong Kong.

    If Hong Kongers want to leave, those with the highest skills will find doors wide open for them all around the world. To begin with, all Hong Kong natives who are over 23 years old—and were thus British subjects on the day the former colony was handed over to China on June 30, 1997—are automatically eligible for British National (Overseas) passports. These have not historically conferred residency rights in Britain, but U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now offered these passport holders and their dependents the right to live, work, and study in the United Kingdom as well as a six-year pathway to citizenship. That offer alone could cover more than half of the current population of Hong Kong.

    Several hundred thousand Hong Kongers also hold Canadian or Australian citizenship or permanent residency rights. Both countries are considering measures to make it easier for more to make the move, with Canada cryptically reviewing options and Australia considering a special protection visa scheme. Closer to Hong Kong, Japan is actively pitching for financial firms to relocate to Tokyo while considering an expedited residency permit for high-skilled finance professionals. Taiwan has set up an entire government department, the Taiwan-Hong Kong Services and Exchange Office, to facilitate relocations from Hong Kong.Taiwan has set up an entire government department to facilitate relocations from Hong Kong. Meanwhile in the United States, the Hong Kong Safe Harbor Act—which would grant refugee status to Hong Kongers threatened by the new security law—has strong bipartisan support in Congress.

    Most of these countries officially emphasize the humanitarian character of their outreach efforts, but the reality is that they are also eying Hong Kong’s extraordinary concentration of human capital. After all, 1.4 billion people in mainland China are also subject to the tyranny of arbitrary laws under the Chinese party-state, but no one is scrambling to offer them a new home. Hong Kong is different: It is most famous as a financial hub, but it is also a major center for consulting, design, education, fashion, merchandising, publishing, and a range of other professional services. These are undertaken by both locals and expats, and nearly all of them are mobile. Most of them speak English.

    Many of today’s native Hong Kongers are descended from people who fled Communist Party rule in China at the end of the civil war in 1949. Others fled during the Cultural Revolution. More recent arrivals from mainland China include roughly 1 million immigrants who have been allowed into what’s now called the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (which maintains its own passports and immigration controls) through a program that approves up to 150 people a day to be reunited with relatives.

    And then there are the immigrants from around the globe, for whom Hong Kong is a magnet. As of the latest census in 2016, Hong Kong’s population of 7.3 million included 570,000 non-Chinese immigrants. The largest groups are from the Philippines (190,000) and Indonesia (160,000), many of them domestic workers. But that still leaves some 200,000 who are mostly footloose professionals, including 35,000 British, 15,000 Americans, 15,000 Australians, and 11,000 Japanese. Other figures based on immigration data put the numbers even higher.

    Both natives and foreign-born residents are equally subject to the new national security law, which creates new penalties for secession, subversion, terrorism, and “collusion with a foreign country or with external elements.” Other countries also outlaw secession, subversion, and terrorism, but China notoriously construes these crimes extraordinarily broadly. Even worse for Hong Kong, the new security law’s provisions on collusion are broader still: People who advocate international sanctions on China or “provoke hatred” toward China can now receive sentences ranging from three years to life imprisonment.

    What’s more, China claims global jurisdiction for these supposed crimes. That means, for example, that a human rights activist based in the United States or elsewhere who calls for sanctions against China for its internment of minority Uighurs in concentration camps could, in principle, be arrested and tried on arrival in Hong Kong. Similarly, a foreign university that held a Hong Kong democracy conference might be unable to recruit in the city. Forget about holding a democracy debate in Hong Kong itself. Foreign professors at Hong Kong universities will have to be especially wary.

    Of course, everything that now applies to Hong Kong has always applied on the mainland. But the prohibition on criticizing China was always tacit. In Hong Kong, it is now explicit. It seems unlikely that Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, or even Beijing’s new man in Hong Kong, Zheng Yanxiong (whose mouthful of a title is “director of the Office for Safeguarding National Security of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region”), will start having expats arrested for anti-China tweets anytime soon. But you never know. Hong Kong has always taken special pride in being governed by the rule of law, and now the law says that an errant tweet carries a minimum three-year prison sentence. Who will want to take that chance?
    Countries Are Opening Their Doors for Hong Kong’s Exodus After China Cracks Down With New Security Law
    Last edited by harrybarracuda; 18-07-2020 at 10:33 PM.

  7. #107
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Any links to the "firms" official announcement to leave/have left HK?
    Yes. Firms, no need for a 'quote' there, OhOh. Individuals . . .

  8. #108
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Yes. Firms,
    Care to post them here in this thread, the links to them? It being a news thread.

  9. #109
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    I could just obfuscate and post irrelevant crap like you do but your concern that this is a news forum is heart-warming so I'll post an article that shows you how basic and greedy your relatives in China are, good communists and all. . .

    Chinese professionals shocked by 45% China tax rate consider leaving Hong Kong, Economy News & Top Stories - The Straits Times

    HONG KONG (BLOOMBERG) - Fears of a Hong Kong brain drain are increasing after China moved to tax its citizens' global income, undermining the financial hub's appeal to thousands of bankers and other white-collar workers from the mainland.Faced with a tax rate as high as 45 per cent - up from about 15 per cent previously - Chinese professionals across Hong Kong are considering moving back home to avoid getting squeezed by both the new levy and sky-high living costs in the former British colony, according to interviews with workers and recruiters.
    The prospect of an exodus has upended expectations that mainland talent would help offset any outflow of locals and foreign expatriates from Hong Hong, many of whom are looking to escape the city's controversial new national security legislation.
    While it's too early to gauge how many people will ultimately move out, professionals of all stripes now have reasons to leave a city that not long ago was viewed as one of the world's most attractive places to build a career. That risks weighing on Hong Kong's battered economy and further undermining its status as a premier financial center.
    The focus on China's new tax regime has intensified in recent weeks after state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in Hong Kong told workers who transferred from the mainland to declare their 2019 income so they can start paying taxes at home. Chinese SOEs are also informing employees in other locations such as Singapore, Bloomberg News reported last week.
    While Chinese authorities revised the nation's tax rules in January 2019, they only recently disclosed detailed instructions on how to comply - a move that caught many workers off guard.


    Some companies may act to soften the blow by boosting salaries, particularly for high-ranking executives, but most employees will likely have to absorb the hit to their take-home pay, according to Feng Ao, president of Wosheng Law Quotient Academy, a consultancy that advises China's banks, insurers and trusts on tax laws."For the vast majority of employees, the chance of giving subsidies and raises depends on the company's profitability," Mr Feng said. "It's unlikely to happen given the global macro environment amid the pandemic."

    One senior executive at a Chinese state-owned bank said his tax bills will now probably wipe out the savings he amassed since moving his family to Hong Kong a few years ago. His colleagues have petitioned superiors in Beijing for relief, but have so far failed to gain much traction. Some are considering moving back to China or swapping into a Hong Kong passport if they've lived in the city long enough to qualify, said the banker, who like several people interviewed for this story asked not to be named discussing a sensitive subject.
    Hong Kong has granted more than 340,000 immigration visas to people from mainland China over the past five years, government figures show.
    Related Story
    China starts taxing its citizens' global income for the first time


    Related Story
    Trump ends Hong Kong's preferential status in response to ‘oppressive’ Chinese actions


    Related Story
    Majority of US firms in Hong Kong concerned about security law: Amcham survey


    Investment bankers in the city typically earn about 25 per cent to 30 per cent more than those in Shanghai, according to recruiters, though much of that extra pay gets whittled away by higher living costs. Hong Kong is the world's sixth-most expensive city for expatriates, compared with 19th for Shanghai and 24th for Beijing, a recent survey by ECA International found.
    Some Chinese workers may have little choice but to stick it out in Hong Kong, according to Lee Quane, regional director for Asia at ECA, an advisory firm for expats."There's often a reason why they're working in Hong Kong rather than in mainland China, because it's a better location for them to work in terms of the jobs that they do," Mr Quane said.
    Others are hoping they'll stay under the Chinese government's radar. An employee at a major China-backed telecommunications firm said some of her Chinese colleagues who were hired locally are taking a wait-and-see approach and won't declare income voluntarily. Those who relocated from the mainland will likely have their Chinese taxes directly deducted, she said.It's unclear how stringently Chinese authorities will apply the tax laws to citizens who were hired overseas or who don't work for state-owned companies.
    China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong and the State Taxation Administration didn't respond to faxes seeking comment.
    Donald, an executive at a state-owned Chinese lender in Hong Kong, said his firm is working on a plan to provide interest-free loans or cash payouts to impacted employees, but he doubts the compensation will last beyond a year. Moving back to mainland China has become one of his biggest priorities.
    "In a nutshell, my pay is now subject to the high tax rate on the mainland but I need to cover the high cost of living in Hong Kong," he said. "It's a double whammy."
    . . . but you'd feel more comfortable with this:

    I am pretty sure the Desmoulin's whorl snail is the tiniest creature I have filmed for TV, but it turns out I have some excellent snail-wrangling skills.It is the size of a pinhead or seed and that is usually all they look like. Luckily, one of the snails we collected was a bit of an explorer and decided to make a break for it on camera. To see one actually out of its shell and moving was just amazing. It really is a tiny, tiny snail. Perfect in every way, just miniature.
    Environmental Scientist Dr David Gasca who was helping us film the creatures was beside himself with excitement - he is pretty sure no one has filmed one moving before.
    Fungi scrapers

    Sadly, you need a microscope rather than a TV camera to get a good close up of its teeth which are pretty spectacular. They use them to scrape up the fungi on which they feed as they move along reedy plants at the edge of boggy water.
    Image captionReedy plants at the edge of Shropshire’s meres are the soggy spots where you find the snailsSo no teeth, but I am certainly one of a select few to even see the snail here in the Midlands. That is because until the team of which Dr Gasca is part came along, nobody even knew they lived outside the south of the country. Even better, the newly discovered sites in the Midlands, predominately in Shropshire's meres, contain relatively big snail populations.
    The species, though, is considered rare in Europe, with the best populations found in the UK. But even here it is on the endangered list. Famously, it is the snail that delayed the construction of Berkshire's Newbury bypass. After a lengthy mollusc-related legal battle, the snail was actually moved out of the way of the road. Entire chunks of the landscape were dug up and shifted to a new location.
    Declining populations

    Twenty years on and it is not clear what happened to the snails there. Some claim the population has crashed, others that there is a natural (and apparently very large) swing in numbers. But overall the known populations in the south appear to be declining.
    Image captionMagnifying goggles are useful to sort the snails from seeds, stones or dirtDiscovering new populations of endangered species, then, is always great news, but the Desmoulin's is so tiny, does it really matter?
    Well, yes. Their presence is a sign the meres of Shropshire are healthy, vibrant habitats. This snail sits at an interesting point in the ecosystem, tiny from our point of view, but large from the point of view of an iceberg of minute organisms we rarely think about, but essential to this environment.
    For me this discovery is as exciting as finding a new population of elephants, tigers or pandas. Also, like all the best endangered species, I think they are really, really cute.
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-40133929

  10. #110
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    Keep advertising- hongkies make good immigrants, if you don't mind people barging in front of you through doors, & lines. But-

    another indicator of people leaving Hong Kong for good – the number of tax clearance filings to the Inland Revenue – has not changed significantly.

    The tax authority processed 2,500 such filings a month in May and June this year, its spokesman said. There were on average 2,400 monthly cases in the financial years of 2019-20 and 2018-19.

    ‘Exodus’ from Hong Kong? Those who fear national security law mull best offers from welcoming countries | South China Morning Post

  11. #111
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    ^ So far Taiwan, Singapore and Oz are the three top destinations . . . and they'll assimilate like everyone else . . . heck, even the Brits learned how to use soap and water . . . well, some of them . . . sometimes

  12. #112
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    But there will be no mass exodus, mark my words. Taiwan seems to be the largest likely recipient, mainly of HK retirees looking for a cheaper lifestyle, in another 'chinese country'. If you don't believe me, well all I can add is wait and see for yourself.

    Hint- $$$$. How vulgar

    China’s world-beating stock bull run unleashed by economic recovery and liquidity sparks fears of another 2015 meltdown | South China Morning Post






  13. #113
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    It just can't stop nicking ideas off the seppos can it?


  14. #114
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    Well, the deed is done. HK will just become another major Chinese city like Shanghai or Guangzhou by decade's end. Whatever unique traits it expressed from it's British occupation will be lost for good. Resistance is futile, assimilation is unavoidable.


    Sure clears up any lingering doubts for the citizens of Taiwan for those entertaining a possible reconnect with the mainland.

  15. #115
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    Quote Originally Posted by Agent_Smith View Post
    Sure clears up any lingering doubts for the citizens of Taiwan for those entertaining a possible reconnect with the mainland.
    Yup, public support for political parties or politicians that lean towards being pro-Beijing is waning. Imagine being confronted daily with a vile, controlling and murderous 'relative' with 1.3 BILLION people and massive armed forces whose stated aim is to grab you and make you theirs.

    Tough people, the Taiwanese

  16. #116
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    H'rrrmph. HK will still be unique, for some time yet. No place quite like it, but ye'hh, one day I suppose it will be like southern Shanghai. Glad I was there when I was there.

  17. #117
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    ^ New and more travel and business restrictions, businesses moving out . . . I'm afraid it won't take long at all . . . but yes. Glad I lived there when I did . . . kind of like a loud and brash and more 'Asian' Singapore

  18. #118
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    Tough people, the Taiwanese
    Reliant on a, here today gone tomorrow, foreign politician's whim.

    Today's Headline:

    ameristan annuls another international agreement and backtracks smartly, got to keep the plastic flowing. It's an excellent plan and my daughter is making 1,000,000,000 of green paper rectangles. 3, 2, 1....

    They do have previous.

    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  19. #119
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Agent_Smith View Post
    Well, the deed is done. HK will just become another major Chinese city like Shanghai or Guangzhou by decade's end.
    I'd be surprised if it takes that long.

  20. #120
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    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    Reliant on a, here today gone tomorrow, foreign politician's whim.
    Go on, share with us your brilliant thesis on Taiwan's existence . . . they have thrived well before Trump and will do so after

  21. #121
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    China says UK will ‘bear the consequences’ after Hong Kong extradition treaty suspended

    China will resolutely respond to acts of interference in its internal affairs, a spokesman for the country’s embassy to the United Kingdom said on Tuesday, after Britain announced it would suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.


    The spokesman said the UK has repeatedly violated international law and the basic norms of international relations, and will “bear the consequences if it insists on going down the wrong road”.

    China says UK will ‘bear the consequences’ after Hong Kong extradition treaty suspended – Thai PBS World

  22. #122
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by misskit View Post
    China says UK will ‘bear the consequences’ after Hong Kong extradition treaty suspended

    China will resolutely respond to acts of interference in its internal affairs, a spokesman for the country’s embassy to the United Kingdom said on Tuesday, after Britain announced it would suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong.


    The spokesman said the UK has repeatedly violated international law and the basic norms of international relations, and will “bear the consequences if it insists on going down the wrong road”.

    China says UK will ‘bear the consequences’ after Hong Kong extradition treaty suspended – Thai PBS World

    I see some made-up charges and jail time coming for some random British citizen (or citizens) in Chinastan.

  23. #123
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    they have thrived well before Trump and will do so after
    They thrived as an ameristani vassal. Once the UN decided that they no longer represented China and ameristan and others recognised the PRC government as the sole representative things backfired. ameristan shitting on another country,. Nothing new there.

    Now rumblings about selling arms and opening "Embassies" .... aren't considered kosher by the Chinese government.

    I would suggest no sovereign country would.

    Whether they continue to "thrive", we shall see.

  24. #124
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    Quote Originally Posted by panama hat View Post
    share with us your brilliant thesis on Taiwan's existence
    OK

    As long as Mainland China is stabile, without too much domestics and keeping the population 'positive', they won't need to change the current relations to Taiwan.

  25. #125
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    ^ True, yet they constantly threaten to. When things are stable, the people are happy the the state needs to occupy the populations' minds and focus them on a common enemy. Whether it is Japan and the trashing of Japanese factories or directing constant invective towards the US and UK, the totalitarian state needs to show it is strong - Taiwan is being bullied daily by the PRC, marginalised politically and pressured militarily.

    Let's also not forget the constant Chinese maxim of 'face' . . . and they are losing it daily with Taiwan

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