Yeah, the worst part is that if the British hadn't left, HK would likely be its own sovereign nation by now, peacefully. The PRC isn't so willing to let territories go.

Five stars for these white people lamenting the end of colonialism.

I'm echoing what I hear from native Hong Kong people, including ethnically Chinese ones. Other than mainland transplants and the hyper-rich, most people from the SAR aren't enthusiastic about China being in charge.

Sure categorically "the end of colonialism" is a good thing, but in this specific instance the outcome for the humans who live there is not generally accepted as positive.

Also don't assume I'm 100% on one side...there is room for nuance here even within one person's perspective.

I'm by no means a political expert. But having been to Hong Kong and knowing people there: they fucking hate belonging to China.

Also, China agreed not to meddle with Hong Kong politically and grant them independence for a certain period of time (can't remember right now until what year), but of course that was bullshit and they've already meddled with their political realm and arrested dissenters.

That nuance being: All parties involved in this exchange are demonstrably horrible.

I was more referring to the irony of HK leaving the yoke of a colonial power only to be fitted with one of a communist dictatorship.

China agreed not to invade HK until 2047 at the earliest :p

HKexit.

Hazelnut, speaking up for natives, against natives.

colonialism vs totalitarianism who should i carry water for? find out on this episode of poeTV

Colonialism isn't always unwelcome. Look at France's history with pulling out of Morocco: the natives actually appreciated the benefits of being brought into the European cultural sphere, and when De Gaulle decolonized out of leftist ideal instead of the majority will of the colonized, this led to the middle class of Morocco en masse emigrating to France. France as a nation wasn't prepared for the sudden influx of non-white, non-Christians, and it led to a ghetto placement for the now suddenly denigrated middle class Moroccans that were suddenly poor minority Other. Then comes the radicalization and class/ethnic grudges a generation later.

This thread reminds me of my South African brother-in-law who's always going on about how Blacks liked it better under Apartheid and insists on calling Zimbabue 'Rhodesia'.

i don't think the average Moroccan misses the French, merely the ones who went through the procedure of Francophone culture indoctrination that the French did that the British and Dutch didn't on the same scale. It's also why Quebec just isn't like the rest of Canada, and why Louisiana is culturally apart from the rest of the American South. The relationship of France to its ex-colonies is like the Little Prince to his tamed fox.

And don't think I'm defending colonialism, dismantling the apparatus is itself a nuanced moral issue and this is heavy, heavy shit that people have to take into account. Generational sin is a real thing.

Culturally, PRC rule over HK has followed the same modus operandi as its rule over other borderland regions of the empire such as Tibet and Xinjiang, which include mass migration from the mainland with the aim of eventually outnumbering the local population, suppression and intimidation of local leaders and media, as well as attempts to wipe out the local language (Spoken Cantonese and written Traditional Chinese) by forcing Mandarin language and Simplified Chinese use in schools and other public settings.

It's just that Hong Kongers were generally slower to realize that they were in the same boat as Tibetans or Uighurs because they've always considered themselves part of the Han-majority pre-1997.

your parents are disappointed