The Hong Kong Security Law

                                                 "The times, they are a changin"   

                                                                                         --- Bob Dylan
               
Recently, China passed a security law as related to Hong Kong. Basically,  China asserts the right to prosecute under the following crimes "treason, secession, sedition, subversion against the central government, theft of state secrets, the hosting of political activities by foreign political organisations or bodies, and the establishment of ties between local and foreign political organisations."

Hong Kong has always had elements that are staunchly anti-CCP. The founder of Apple Magazine, Jimmy Lai, for example was very vocal against the Chinese government. As in the previous post of my blog here, the Chinese government tolerated this for more favorable trading and financial conditions in Hong Kong. The Chinese did not act more swiftly against the riots in Hong Kong for the same reason. They wanted to keep the special privilege for Hong Kong as long as possible.

Since they have not acted thus far against the rioters, one wonders why the timing of the move. Recently, with the new restrictions enacted to forbid TSMC selling to Huawei and the additional twenty four Chinese companies added to the entity list, it seems the U.S. China rivalry has reached a new height. Since the U.S. China relationship has already deteriorated, there would be less to lose by the Chinese enacting this law.

Reportedly, Jimmy Lai, who had been caught intimidating reporters as well as organizing illegal assemby, is looking to get out of Dodge quick, but was denied by the courts.

It seems, Hong Kong will undergo a big titanic shift.

PS, the initial response from the Trump administration is interesting. Since Trump had been talking about decoupling from China, this would be a perfect opportunity for him to declare Hong Kong as no longer a special and distinct place apart from the rest of China and cut off the trade that way. Instead, we see calls to sanction individuals who carry out this law. This is less than a slap on the wrist. This will have no impact at all to the Chinese. If this is all that will transpire, it would seem that American interest in Hong Kong trumped the ideology. This will also have implication for Taiwan.