The Real Reason China Wants Hong Kong So Badly

You more than likely have heard about the Hong Kong protests by this point. If not, basically, they are citizens of Hong Kong pushing back against constant control from China.

However, no one in the mainstream media seems to be able to answer why China wants Hong Kong. At least, they can never tell us in more than one word. “Imperialism,” “Communism,” “One China Policy,” “War.” Okay, why do they want Hong Kong?

Hong Kong has no natural resources, a highly rebellious population, and is one of the smallest countries in the world. Even the most imperialist government should understand it’s not worth it. Vietnam is at least larger, as is Thailand. Yet they get almost no attacks compared to Hong Kong over the past couple of years.

A Reverse Truman Doctrine?

Let’s start with this: I believe Xi Jinping is really smart. No stupid person could ever not only craft the image of himself Xi has, but also use a combination of propaganda and globalization to nearly usher in a world order.

However, Xi Jinping is also a Marxist. That’s not some kind of insult, that’s something he admits to. He’s a member of the Communist Party of China, a party that mainly lists themselves as Stalinist — sorry, I mean Marxist Leninist — no, I was right the first time. He has also elevated his party to have 71% of the National People’s Congress and 69% of the NPC Standing Committee.

He has also added “Xi Jinping Thought,” to China’s constitution. Here are some examples of it:

Ensuring Communist Party of China leadership over all forms of work in China.

Following “socialism with Chinese characteristics” with “people as the masters of the country”.

“Practice socialist core values”, including Marxism, communism and socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The Communist Party of China should have “absolute leadership over” China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Improve party discipline in the Communist Party of China.

This is very different from Hong Kong. Hong Kong is listed as the most economically free country in the world according to the Index of Economic Freedom, with an overall score of 90.2%. China is listed at #100 with a score of 58.4%.

Allow me to break down the data a little more by going through category by category.

• Property Rights: Hong Kong 93.3 vs. China 49.8
• Government Integrity: Hong Kong 83.8 vs. China 49.1
• Judaical Effectiveness: Hong Kong 75.3 vs. China 75.2
• Government Spending: Hong Kong 90.3 vs. China 70.1
• Tax Burden: Hong Kong 93.1 vs. China 70.4
• Fiscal Health: Hong Kong 100 vs. China 76
• Business Freedom: Hong Kong 96.4 vs. China 56.2
• Labor Freedom: Hong Kong 89.2 vs. China 64.2
• Monetary Freedom: Hong Kong 86.4 vs. China 71.9
• Trade Freedom: Hong Kong 95 vs. China 73
• Investment Freedom: Hong Kong 90 vs. China 25
• Financial Freedom: Hong Kong 90 vs. China 20

In not a single category does China beat Hong Kong, yet, even with Hong Kong not having any natural resources, China is much less prosperous than Hong Kong.

After World War Two, President Harry Truman went to Congress and said we must do everything in our power to stop the spread of Communism across the world. This later became known as “containment,” (as we were containing Communism to where they already were) or, simply “The Truman Doctrine.” President Truman later went on to show his dedication to this idea when he sent the US military to Korea in order to keep the Communist North from taking over the Capitalist South.

Socialists commonly say that the reason the US did the Truman Doctrine was because the USSR showed the world there was another way forward. This is nonsense as the main reason we contained them was because they commonly threatened to wipe us off the face of the earth.

However, Hong Kong has never once threatened China. Nor do they have the weapons to do such a thing if they wanted to. However, they are showing both China and the world that there is another way forward. One of free markets and voluntary transactions; or as we call it, capitalism.