Hong Kong is one of the world’s top financial centers with one of the highest GDP per capita in the world. How did it fall to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)? Why did so few people speak out until it was too late? NTD spoke with Hong Kong businessman Elmer Yuen to give us his take on the matter.
Yuen, the CEO of China-based Golden Bridge Technology, has been doing business in China and Hong Kong for decades. But earlier this year, he decided to stop doing business in China because he didn’t want to contribute to the Chinese regime anymore. He told NTD that he thinks people, including pro-democracy lawmakers, believed they could co-exist with the CCP.
“I had a lot of business with them, right? But then I was hoping naively like everybody else that the one country two systems—they live their way and we live our way. And if the Chinese in mainland are willing to subject themselves to such human rights abuse, then it’s their problem. Unfortunately, after the national security bureau went into effect on July 1st, when it was coming I knew they want Hong Kong to be the same as Mainland China—domination.”
China’s draconian law abolished Hong Kong’s freedoms, stifled the pro-democracy protests, and brought Hong Kong under Beijing’s full control.
Yuen says within two years Hong Kong will be the same as the mainland city Shanghai. And Yuen warned it’s not just Hong Kong that is succumbing to the CCP’s influence. He sees China’s growing influence over American society and mainstream media.
“So what I saw was really, it really shocked me how well the CCP have done in changing the world, in controlling the world.”
State-run China Daily is still paying millions of dollars each year to run propaganda in publications like the Wall Street Journal and The Los Angeles Times.
Yuen said he hopes the United States will continue to put pressure on China, adding that there’s no hope for Hong Kong while the CCP is there.
