Hong Kong is going through the five stages of grief, before acceptance of fate as a part of China

South China Morning Post ^ | 08/01/2019 | Richard Harris

[SeekAndFind]

The year 2019 has put Hong Kong into unknown territory, with a collapse of government decision-making, extrajudicial terror attacks on civilians, and radical police-baiters negatively impacting the economy.

No less a figure than Paul Chan Mo-po, the financial secretary, has admitted that it is difficult to be optimistic in the city’s short-term economic growth because of the impact of the protests. Bravo to him for being one of the few top government figures to come out of the bunker in recent weeks.

Economic growth has slid from 4.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2018 to 0.6 per cent this quarter, the worst performance in a decade. Visitor numbers are slowing, property sales volumes are down by half and the retail sector is weak.

It was always wishful thinking for the Basic Law to survive 50 years under a totalitarian sovereign – indeed we should be thankful that we had a good 15 years. A difficult transition period was always likely, as the autocratic People’s Republic found it increasingly unable to keep its hands off the freewheeling Hong Kong lifestyle. The only real surprise is that the first intense moves towards transition have come earlier and more quickly than expected.

Investors should look for a long-term model for the Hong Kong transition to the mainland.

One particular model is the five stages of grief, as defined by Elizabeth Kubler Ross. In a sense, losing one’s lifestyle is a form of grief where the path of emotions traverse denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.

The relationship with China before the hardline policies of President Xi Jinping was very good, as the self-satisfied chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was ineffectual but unthreatening.

[montag813]

It is quite silly for Hong Kong to resist. One way or another they will be absorbed.

[wildcard_redneck]

“Then there’s the South Africans setting up shop in Russia.”

I hope that Russia takes in all of the South Africans who have to flee the new black terror in SA. They will reinvent the empty spaces in Russia and the northern portions of Central Asia.

[wildcard_redneck]

“Sadly the Chi-coms will have no problem sending in tanks like they did in Tiananmen Square to crush any exit move by Hong Kong or calls for democracy. However, in these days of instant communication via the Internet, the brutalities of the Communist regime in China will not be so easily covered up. How the West will react is another question. Trump has had no problem with taking on China with trade sanctions and in reaction to a massacre of pro democracy protesters even Trump’s hardened critics would hard pressed to say anything negative.”

True. If the ChiComs start slaughtering the good people of Hing Kong they will reap the whirlwind.