Remember Tibet? It used to belong to the Tibetans. Not any more. China took over. The outrage lasted minutes while Chinese policemen kicked protesters to death in the streets.
How about Taiwan. It's a sovereign nation, right? Not to China it isn't and they never stop threatening to take it over. By force, of course.
China's Claims
To determine ownership of a territory, China it seems merely has to claim it. "It's ours by right, stay off!"
And that's all their is to it. Tibet...is China's. The South China Sea, well, it has the word China in it, see? Therefore it belongs to China. Nobody else gets to use it. It's China's.
Taiwan is China's. Why? Because China says so!
Taiwan may have something to say about that. "No they don't, it's ours!"
Hong Kong wasn't China's for a long time. China was very different then. Different government, different economy and Hong Kong too is different, like a different country.
But China claims Hong Kong just the same.
Where do China's claims stop?
There's a rumor going around this country that China wants to go to the Moon just to see if the American flag is really there. If it isn't, China will claim the Moon too.
How Will the World React?
Hong Kong is, in my opinion, the last frontier of true economic freedom left in the world. A place where you can rent a storefront, put up a sign and call yourself a business. Very little red tape involved in comparison to say, anywhere in the United States. It's a city just teaming with commerce and ambition. Ambition for success and for something few on mainland China enjoy, Freedom!
But don't worry, China will fix that. They'll eventually kick their way in and crush the local pro-democracy lunatics, killing the most resistant and sending the rest to be re-educated or harvested or both. They'll then look to their European enablers for signs of disapproval.
But they won't see any.
I mean, what nation cut ties with China over Tibet? None. Nobody did. If they do the same thing to Hong Kong, will it score a ripple on China's economic radar screen? Will they pay a price?
Well, perhaps the UK may have had enough and actually speak up about what China is doing given it's past ties to Hong Kong but don't expect France, Spain or Germany to make much of a fuss. They all need the low cost manufacturing they've grown dependent upon. They're tied too tight economically to China to open their cringy yaps and do anything beyond a grandstanding speech or some-such.
To them, Hong Kong is just another Tibet; "Pass the Bearnaise Sauce will you, my Filet Mignon is not as moist as it should be." "Send it back Angela, the cook will make you another!" "Good idea Annegret, I'll send it back."
"Oh, those unfortunate people of Hong Kong." they will say. And that will be the end of it. It will take people marching in the streets of those nations to get a bigger reaction. But since it's only people getting killed and a major global economic engine being silenced and not something REALLY important like "Global Climate Warming Change", will they get much of a turnout?
China Roads
China is good at taking over. They've bought their way into Africa although there are rumblings from South Africa about the deal they've made with the Devil, but they'll all regret taking the money China dangles in front of the impoverished nations of Africa.
Nobody really TRUSTS China. They're serious as a heart attack and as funny as a crutch. They have a chip on their shoulder so big the Iranians can only look on in envy and they are out to pay back ALL the slights of history they feel have been directed at them because they are Chinese.
China now says, "If the world will not love us, by _________, (*whatever Godless Idol Chairman Xi worships) they'll fear us!"
And surely, where ever China goes these days, they make everyone around them nervous.
And they should be.
Tienanmen Square Redux
But China is at it's best at oppressing it's own. From the untold millions who were purged in the days of Mao to the extension of that control to the long segregated Muslim population. The control and subjugation of them and Christians too, is all just by rote these days. Nobody escapes and everybody is subject to social controls. The Muslims just get it worse, of course.
It's all about control. China controls it's population. Telling them what they can see, what they can say, what they can do and where they can go. In this fashion, the government can feel secure that they will not be overthrown. With the country contained, they will feel much more secure as they expand and try to take over the weaker territories nearby and give them the same treatment. And then, they surmise, they will expand from there spreading the subjugation model they've perfected at home.
The Question
Can China's economic business model sustain it's ambitions?
Already being challenged on the economic battlefield, China's weakness is evident. The other major nations of the world must keep buying their cheaper products and feeding the Dragon. If they should decide to go elsewhere, the Chinese Juggernaut could hit the wall.
But that would also help out the United States and President Trump. What to do, what to do?
What will it take for the other nations of the world to decide to stop buying Chinese goods?
If China should decide to go into Hong Kong with guns a-blazing, the reactions or lack thereof of the European nations will tell us a lot.
