Meanwhile in Hong Kong....

Associate
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In my own family wise - my dad and his 2 brothers came over in the late 80's.

All 3 now own their businesses, one uncle has made enough to retire in his 40's (15 years ago), and became a landlord. All of them came over pretty much broke, never lived in council provided housing, never been on benefits. I got my degree, job and my own business, my sister qualified as a Solicitor.

Out of interest what are your own families thoughts and feelings regarding the situation in China/HK?
 
Soldato
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In my own family wise - my dad and his 2 brothers came over in the late 80's.

All 3 now own their businesses, one uncle has made enough to retire in his 40's (15 years ago), and became a landlord. All of them came over pretty much broke, never lived in council provided housing, never been on benefits. I got my degree, job and my own business, my sister qualified as a Solicitor.

Erm...congratulations?

What your willy-waving got to do with my point?
 
Associate
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The only problem I see with the idea with HK people coming over with their wealth and making new jobs here, is that unless if you're talking about the select few (those with more than 6 digits in their bank), when they get over here, they won't exactly be making new jobs.

1. They will need to pay rent, and other costs in getting settled over here.
2. They will need to do business and the tax stuff here, which they may or may not do, because our taxes are much higher than what HK people are used to.
3. With that amount of digits in their banks available, they can choose anywhere and not need to necessarily here in the UK to create new jobs, not when they can just grab more housing and just rent with extra on top as housing becomes more scarce.

The others with less will not be making new jobs that easily. And instead will compete with those here for the very same jobs those here are looking at.

:: edit ::

And those thinking about how hard working they are, that might be true of the older lot, but not the younger lot, who don't want to work as hard, and want the same money and recognition as those who came before.

:: /edit ::

So it's not quite as simple as it sounds.
 
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Associate
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Do Hong Kong ese really want to come and live there UK?

Depends on which generation of people you speak to.

Those of the older generation (born 1960s or earlier roughly) and who are original HK people (the farmers, etc), see the UK, and the Queen as sort of the a kind of distant relative (and figurehead to look towards), but certainly very kindred and will gladly want to come over here. It's sort of a Holy Grail type thing for that generation to be able to come over. Then there's some of this generation who are purists and absolutely hate the UK, etc, but those are typically not the native HK people. But there's not as many of this lot now from age and won't tend to offer skilled work force due to the age range. But certainly the most hardy and hard working.

Then there's the generation from the 70s and 80s who don't mind coming over to the UK, but have no special feeling towards the UK or the Queen in particular. It's just business for that lot. But this generational lot is still hard working and very welcome. Although most of these would have already made it over to the UK already or emigrated elsewhere already from the '97 handover if they could have. Those that didn't have toughed it out in HK and so it's hard to tell what their thoughts are as it'll be quite diverse, as the next generation I'm about to go over. This lot will be skilled workers and likely who we want, but some of them will also feel cheated out from not being able to get to the UK from the pre-97 deal, so unsure on how they'll view the UK after that. But this lot is still hard working, just more ambivalent towards the UK than the generation before.

Those born in the 90s and early 00s. This lot, don't see the UK in any real good light (it's just another place to visit and it's colder and wetter), they have no special connection to the UK feel. Incidentally, this lot is also the type I spoke of earlier, who is social media mad, heavily herd minded, wants a lot, but not really work for it and most self righteous and self entitled lot (ie, not really worth it bunch, not all, but there's a bloomin' lot of them like this). They're also the most vocal lot (due to social media use and the herd mentality and giving in to it and thinking that by going as a group they can force what they want, even if it's outrageous; think the BLM UK stuff) and prefers the locations closer to them; Singapore, Australia, etc. And actually don't want to move, certainly not to the UK, until there is no other choice. In short, this lot likely doesn't want to head on over and is the least hard working of the HK people; skills will vary depending on if they took a mickey mouse course or not. But expect a lot of protesting about all sorts of stuff from this lot as well.

Again, not all in each grouping is exactly like that, but a lot tend to be.
 
Man of Honour
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There is a group that left the UK for a "better life" especially around the late 80s/early 90s it seemed to be a thing for some reason though I doubt they make up a significant percentage of the population and probably not that inclined to come back to the UK - but I imagine they won't be happy with the direction things are going either - I can see them also preferring locations closer to them like Australia, Thailand, etc.
 
Caporegime
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Well look at this way, Germany's population in 1933 was ~65 million and in 1939 it was almost 80 million.

I guess the situation is somewhat different, but honestly unless Beijing starts rolling in with tanks I don't see why anyone other than the most affluent or the most hard-line democrats would bother with the immense hassle of leaving everything they know, even if it's in their best interests. It was confusing enough to me why they thought this wasn't going to happen, whether it was on 2047 or not, Beijing wasn't suddenly going to delegitimise it's own policies and credibility by letting Hong Kong continue in it's current state.

I'm not sure how harsh Beijing is going to be, it doesn't make sense for them to do so as it would risk giving the democrats too much of a platform for the less enthusiastic Hongkongers who would probably prefer to just move on. I think Beijing's focus will be on setting up their social control system in the city before things escalate, might be a naive view though.
 
Don
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I think it was more to do with the thought that, back in the late 90s and early 2000s with trade opening up with China that they would start to liberalise and start to head towards democracy and that the 50 year thing would see Hong Kong through till the point China was no longer a one party state/dictatorship. Obviously 20 years later, nothings changed, if anything China is now going backwards so all that's gone out the window and the west are now basically going to pull the plug on Hong Kong and any hope of democracy coming anytime soon to China.
 
Soldato
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I think it was more to do with the thought that, back in the late 90s and early 2000s with trade opening up with China that they would start to liberalise and start to head towards democracy and that the 50 year thing would see Hong Kong through till the point China was no longer a one party state/dictatorship. Obviously 20 years later, nothings changed, if anything China is now going backwards so all that's gone out the window and the west are now basically going to pull the plug on Hong Kong and any hope of democracy coming anytime soon to China.

It was a stark contrast from when i went in 2012 and again in 2018. Saw a load more propaganda on the streets including hammer and sickle statues and old fashioned propaganda posters. And the mood of the people i spoke to was much more worried and depressed. Normal people in the ground weren't liking what was happening but they tried to carry on the same as usual but have this odd feeling of something wasn't right beneath the surface. I felt it too when i was there, especially in Beijing, still a beautiful country but being a westerner there can be problematic if you bump into the wrong people having a bad day.

I don't think i'll be going back anytime soon until there's another change at the top but that could be several years away.
 
Soldato
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It was a stark contrast from when i went in 2012 and again in 2018. Saw a load more propaganda on the streets including hammer and sickle statues and old fashioned propaganda posters. And the mood of the people i spoke to was much more worried and depressed. Normal people in the ground weren't liking what was happening but they tried to carry on the same as usual but have this odd feeling of something wasn't right beneath the surface. I felt it too when i was there, especially in Beijing, still a beautiful country but being a westerner there can be problematic if you bump into the wrong people having a bad day.

I don't think i'll be going back anytime soon until there's another change at the top but that could be several years away.
Hasn't Winnie the Pooh got a lifetime premiership? It could be a long time until change occurs. These damn dictators just keep hanging on. Putin I see you.
 
Soldato
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Hasn't Winnie the Pooh got a lifetime premiership? It could be a long time until change occurs. These damn dictators just keep hanging on. Putin I see you.

It's supposed to be "lifetime" until those around him start having a power struggle or he's discredited beyond recovery.
 
Soldato
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It's supposed to be "lifetime" until those around him start having a power struggle or he's discredited beyond recovery.


Depends on whether he can do purges like NK and Russia ,can't have a power struggle of they are all in jail or dead.

What are the chances of his power been transferred to a child of his ( assuming he has kids) and we have a super NK
 
Associate
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Depends on whether he can do purges like NK and Russia ,can't have a power struggle of they are all in jail or dead.

What are the chances of his power been transferred to a child of his ( assuming he has kids) and we have a super NK

I think the CCP pick a new villain every decade or so, plus Winnie removed term limits back in 2018 I think.

Doesn't look the healthiest of blokes though
 
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