Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
Peter Robinson ·
July 6, 2012 at 11:16pm
From today's Wall Street Journal:
In the minds of many Hong Kong residents, the handover to Chinese rule happened not in 1997, but last Sunday. That's when Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao swore in Leung Chun-ying as the third chief executive of the special administrative region. The entire ceremony was conducted in Mandarin Chinese, including Mr. Leung's inaugural speech—symbolism not lost on the Cantonese-speaking population. Mr. Hu even staged a Beijing-style military parade.
Bill McGurn, you spent a decade in Hong Kong. Is this the beginning of the end?
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Comments:
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
But we're the imperialists, don't forget. : )
Dec '10
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
Poor bastards.
It was nice while it lasted.
Mar '11
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
I visited Hong Kong twice in the late 80's. I distinctly remember the ethnic Chinese there being excited about "returning to their people", and finally kicking the Brits out. Well, they got what they wanted. They shouldn't complain when the inevitable consequences come.
Mar '12
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
I live and work in Hong Kong, and the reaction to C.Y. Leung's speech has been somewhat more muted here than generally reported in the States.
The impression of my Hong Kong colleagues is that while the chief executive nearly always addresses the city in Cantonese, he chose to speak in Mandarin as a courtesy to the visiting head of state and also in light of the unique nature of the holiday. It's certainly ruffled some feathers---and the annual protest was independently quite large this year---but we should refrain from reading too much into the gesture. (The New York Times called it something akin to a nine-fold kowtow, which is probably taking matters too far.)
Further, on behalf of my Hong Kong colleagues, who pay a 15% flat tax and complete their annual returns in 10 minutes or less: How badly are things going in the United States? They hear that financiers in a certain other island financial capital pay over 50% of their income in a jurisdiction with over 10% unemployment? Mou lei tau gau a!
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
Your post is so well-informed and to the point, Superfluous, that I'm afraid it more or less entirely undermines your nom de Ricochet. Care to consider renaming yourself--say, "Indispensable?"
Apr '11
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
The oligarchy in China will do a better job protecting the free market in Hong Kong than the democracy in the State of California has done protecting the free markets of any of it's counties or municipalities.
Dec '10
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
Key word: democracy.
California has long suffered under the tyrannical thumb known as the "popular referendum".
As Ben Franklin was wont to say, "Democracy is two wolves and a sheep taking a vote to decide what to have for lunch."
California shows us the application of that principle, writ large.
Red China will eventually kill Hong Kong for the same reasons that they cannot ever seem to truly break into the same century as most of the rest of the world.
Top down edicts can never create a truly robust and thriving economy. The Red Chinese have simply had very good PR for the last several years, but there are cracks in the edifice, and more are showing every day.
Red China will eventually go the way of all other command economies. I just hope they don't take all of Hong Kong with them when they go.
Dec '11
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
A Superfluous Man:
Further, on behalf of my Hong Kong colleagues, who pay a 15% flat tax and complete their annual returns in 10 minutes or less: How badly are things going in the United States?
Bingo!
I had the great good fortune to do business in HK for many years; was quite envious of the truly 'free market' there (i.e. extraordinarily low tax rates).
I would be interested to hear your opinion as to why China has chosen to "let it be."
Aug '11
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
Well the party is over. Honger's police seized about 400kg of cocaine the other day. I guess the 80's theme night at Carnegie's is now off.
More seriously, Leung on the radio yesterday basically put "National Security Legislation" (the euphemism for censorship, surveillance, and closer cooperation with Beijing on "internal security") on the back-burner. I have my doubts about Leung, but if this happens I might change my mind. He might be as flawed-yet-wily as Tung and Tsang were in dealing with Beijing.
Personally, I think Hong Kong is doing too well, too stable, and too difficult for Beijing to crack currently. It still is a financial golden goose, and done without low wage manufacturing. The locals are too politically engaged to accept dictates from Beijing in the meek manner as on the mainland. The expats and foreign educated Chinese are no fan of Beijing either, and they hold great professional, institutional, and moral sway.
Of course this leads to China's favorite, the long game. By that time though, China might change, or they will have to pry the cold dead hands of Hong Kong from laissez-faire. (Knight Chris Patten will 'ya!)
Edited on July 7, 2012 at 10:43amDec '11
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
... they will have to pry the cold dead hands of Hong Kong from laissez-faire.
Most excellent comment!
Mar '12
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
It is important to understand that Hong Kong, like Macao, is a special enclave of free enterprise---a "Special Administrative Region"---within the PRC. To date, it's been very useful to both Hong Kong and the Mainland to leave Hong Kong pretty much alone as a free city state.
To give you one example, Mainland companies frequently use Hong Kong-incorporated entities as the vehicle for their debt or equity financings. Hong Kong IPOs are also popular for Mainland companies seeking to list their shares. One of the most important reasons is that Hong Kong, like London, Singapore or New York, is universally considered to be a reliable jurisdiction with transparent laws. If you are an aggrieved investor on the Mainland, you can try your chances with the local party boss... In Hong Kong, where "rule of law" has real meaning, international investors can take comfort that their rights are secure.
As the Mainland has gradually evolved toward a more standard economy and legal system, this relationship has benefited both HK and the Mainland.
Mar '12
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
Much has been written in conservative circles of late in praise of Hong Kong (see, e.g., Deroy Murdock's articles in National Review). While Hong Kong is very praiseworthy as a bright spot of free enterprise in protectionist Asia, keep in mind that the 15% flat tax exists because the HK government is able to hold auctions of scarce land resources on a semi-regular basis. Most of this land is sold to one of four or five family conglomerates of mixed reputations, with the result that most folks I know make out their monthly rent check to one of these four or five groups. Same goes for mobile phone bills, Internet, cable, etc., all of which I pay to the same people who ultimately own my flat.
Thus, "crony capitalism" is still quite rampant here---it's as though Donald Trump and T. Boone Pickens owned between the two of them all of Midtown Manhattan. It's a heck of a lot better than the, shall we say, tenuous property rights I would have if I lived in Beijing or Shanghai, but it's not a perfect capitalist wonderland. For that, try Dubai or Cayman...
Mar '12
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
One final point for Mr. Robinson: Bill McGurn is an American hero in the eyes of ex-pats living in Hong Kong.
As you may know, U.S. citizens are unique in the world in being subject to imperial taxation. Although I do not pay state or city tax in the States, I still cower under the long shadow of the IRS in addition to the local government of Hong Kong.
Mr. McGurn wrote an op-ed piece in the Wall St. Journal a few months ago that spoke for the sorry plight of Americans abroad, who are regularly threatened (by the President, especially, but even by Republicans in Congress) with various tinkerings with our foreign earned income exemption, without which we would be subject to extravagant dual-jurisdiction taxation.
Ex-pats are a diverse and dispersed group, spread out all over the world and hailing from many different States. Thus, our power as a voting block is marginal.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Woe betide the poor I-bankers and corporate lawyers suffering under the yoke of their lavish ex-pat packages. But three cheers for Mr. McGurn for standing up for the vanguard of American capitalism abroad!
Mar '12
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
For those interested, Richard McGregor's book is an excellent study of the inner workings of the CCP. The Amazon link is here:
The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers
And for those with a more prurient taste, may I suggest the following?
I'm as susceptible as any to some good old-fashioned Red-baiting, but let's all be genuinely glad that China has made a great deal of progress. It's a heartening thing to witness 1.3 billion people raising themselves from abject poverty and oppression. I'm no apologist for the very serious human rights abuses on the Mainland, but China's people deserve our sympathy and support.
Let's not forget that China gave us one of the greatest images of freedom of the 20th century, 23 years ago last month. Count your blessings, folks:
Oct '10
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
Peter - it was "reported" in the LSM. Therefor it must be fundamentally misconceived. Wean yourself from the dead hand of these dead trees, already!
Aug '11
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
I was reminded of an anecdote from my past that might be interesting here.
Back on the eve on the millennium twelve and a half years ago, I traveling in Japan and suffering from jet lag. Wide awake in a small, unfamiliar Japanese city past midnight, all I could to was flip between the channels. My ears perked up when I heard english, and saw a special New Year's eve program.
It was a series of 2-3min presentations from various international channels, e.g. BBC, CNN, CBC, RTE, TV5. The one for CCTV, Beijing, came on and it was unremarkable. Like all the others, a talking head at a news desk conveying best wishes and peace to the people of the world for the new millennium.
The RTHK presentation, Hong Kong's gov't channel, was chilling just two years from the handover. It was some talking man accompanied by cheap, cheesy gov't style computer animation. He went on longer than the others, and talked incessantly about the need of the world to "respect differences", the right to "internal governance", and how larger countries will "lead" the world to "prosperity". All buzzwords of Chinese propaganda.
Edited on July 7, 2012 at 9:48pmMar '12
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
You might be interested in the very real cultural tensions that exist between "Mainlanders" and "Hong Kong people" this year.
During Chinese New Year, there was a widely reported scuffle between a Hong Kong man and a Mainland man on the subway. The gist of the dispute was that the Hong Kong fellow found the Mainlander to be unruly. The Mainlander thought the Hong Kong fellow to be supercilious. So they had a little fight on closed circuit TV.
The incident became national news, and a professor at Beijing University---roughly the Harvard or Yale of the PRC---publicly described Hong Kong people as "English dogs" (yingguo de gou). This went over rather poorly in Hong Kong---an unfortunate situation all around.
Dec '11
Re: Calling Bill McGurn: How Bad Are Things in Hong Kong?
Asian diplomat and Heritage Foundation fellow- the late Harvey Feldman- made a similar observation during a lecture I attended in 2009. In fact, ASM, your post reflected, almost verbatim, his response to my question on the tax rates in HK.