Watching the battle between authorities and Hong Kong's excellent public transit system has been fascinating. They are now closing stations near the start of every planned protest an hour in advance. But there are *SO MANY* nearby stations that this profoundly disrupts service
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Again, Hong Kong in chaos is still 6-9 times more functional than your favorite American city on its best day. The MTR with half the lines closed still makes MUNI look like a disused mule trail by comparison. But people who rely on functioning services suffer when those fail.
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Western media interest in Hong Kong seems to be fading as protests become a regular weekend event. But their importance is growing, as the split between people and government widens. Two important dates are September 1 (return to school) and October 1 (National Day in the PRC)
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A few days ago, a Hong Kong legislator with strong ties to Beijing went on Bloomberg and gave what sounded like a ten-day deadline for government action, with the additional admonition that even large, peaceful protests would be unacceptable to China in the runup to National Day
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The weirdest thing about all of this is that China could win by not being so foolishly authoritarian. The China of 2008 would have won. It would only take mild concessions, and enough autonomy to allow the HK government do a good cop/bad cop routine with Beijing. They can't do it
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If the United States had a functioning President of either party, at some point they would have spoken to the American people about the events in Hong Kong, and framed it for what it is—a struggle for fundamental democratic values. But Fox and Friends hasn't covered Hong Kong yet
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A final weird thing protecting Hong Kong is the level of corruption in the PRC. I've twoten before that HK is China's Mt. Gox—the point of exchange between Chinese money and the financial system. High-level PRC officials need Hong Kong to launder their looted funds through.
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So in a twisted way, the corruption and state failure in China protect Hong Kong (so far). China's leaders don't want to just crush the protests, because they need the financial gateway. And they're too used to absolute power to make smart concessions to sabotage the protests.
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The astronomical levels of internal corruption were always the least-understood factor in the collapse of the Soviet Union, at least in the Western eye. That makes me suspect that corruption in China is much more of a driving force than we give it credit for.
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Yeah, that's the part I find the weirdest. CL: I resign. CCP: No you don't. CL: ... wat?
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