Bloomberg Reports on Ruin in Hong Kong But Leaves Out the Larger Picture

To Save the Rich, China Ruins Hong Kong … When they meet on Sunday, legislators from China’s rubber-stamp National People’s Congress are expected to disregard even the most moderate proposals to open up Hong Kong’s political system. In all likelihood the decision will provoke street protests, drive moderates into the more radical pro-democracy camp and call into question the former British colony’s standing as a global financial center and bastion of free enterprise. And for what? The good of Hong Kong, of course. – Bloomberg
Dominant Social Theme: Capitalism creates prosperity, but the Chinese don’t understand.
Free-Market Analysis: What’s going on in China and Hong Kong is ironic because it seems to mimic much that has held the West back in modern times. In fact, much that China suffers from at its current level of development corresponds to a similar evolution in the West.
Bloomberg resolutely avoids making the comparison – though in our view, this article would have provided a perfect opportunity. Instead, Bloomberg tries to treat Chinese authoritarianism as an Asian problem.
Here’s more:
Wang Zhenmin, a Chinese law professor who sat on the committee overseeing Hong Kong’s constitution, laid out the case most blatantly on Thursday, when he told journalists that the interests of the city’s powerful tycoons had to be safeguarded from unchecked democracy.
“If we just ignore their interest, Hong Kong capitalism will stop,” he said. “Democracy is a political matter and it is also an economic matter.”

This post was published at The Daily Bell on September 02, 2014.