PRC’s Desperate Hong Kong Bribes Visitors

Communist China’s Hong Kong is giving out half million “free” air fares to Hong Kong but with its overlords now empowered to quash “dissenters” is it a recipe for being free to check in but maybe not so easy to check out?

The WSJ op ed framed the potential dilemma of Hong Kong biz stays or vacas alike this way: “Last year Hong Kong recorded 604,564 visitor arrivals, down from more than 65 million in 2018 – the last year of normalcy for the city. Hong Kong recently lifted its Covid mandates, where among the most restrictive in the world & a deterrent to travel. But there’s no such respite from Communist Party repression. Millions of Hong Kongers marched for freedom in 2019 & a year later Beijing imposed a national-security aw that outlaws dissent. The maximum sentence is life in prison. Foreigners can be targeted, including for speech outside Hong Kong.” Since then, WSJ notes, “authorities have removed a famous sculpture, [closed] a museum, banned films that offend Beijing’s political sensibilities & arrested a pro=democracy pop star under the security law,” while shutting down pro-democracy pubs & arresting its journalists.

Given what happened to you know you in Russia, is there any WNBA star, pothead or not, who would risk the flight, even if Hong Kong PAID them to take the free plane ticket? City leaders insist visitors will find “innovative encounters at world-class museums & art venues.” Dunno about that either, given how artists, performers, theaters & museums have been self-censoring just to keep from getting creamed. Even an Angela Davis might get bored perusing Hong Kong’s once world-class but now sanitized proletarian class art fare.

Davd Soul