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China is Backing Off of Their Promise for a Democratic Hong Kong.

This is the big story in Asia at the moment. Could be big Monday am. Hong Kong is very important in the financial world.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-31/china-rules-hong-kong-leader-be-vetted-as-protests-start.html

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Comments

  • "The ruling angered pro-democracy campaigners because it gives the government in Beijing an effective veto over anyone not viewed as friendly to the Communist Party"

    “We are told Hong Kong people will have one man one vote, but Beijing will select all the candidates, of course puppets, for you”

    "China’s decision “dashed the hopes” of even the most moderate democracy advocates"

  • It's amazing that the stock market has held up in the face of all the geo-political events happening around the world today. Everything is uncertain......Russia...Ukraine.....Hong Kong.....Syria......Iraq........you name it
  • Yes, it is one more thing to worry about. If this is prolonged or becomes set in stone then Singapore would be the likely winner. They have been in a tug of war with HK to be Asia's financial center.
  • Quite right, I think, JC. Stinks about the direction things are going. HK was to be a special, distinct economic zone, too.
  • BTW, whatever happened, that MACSX dropped .13 cents/share on a single day, last Friday?
  • I don't know exactly. Maybe a follower of the fund may have some insights. This news just broke overnight so that had no effect on it. Looking it up on Matthews site, China and Hong Kong are placed together as stats go with 27.7% of the portfolio invested there.

    I wish they had broken that down into two separate countries.
  • Crash said:

    BTW, whatever happened, that MACSX dropped .13 cents/share on a single day, last Friday?

    Don't know what caused it, but it was only a -0.64% loss, so for a stock fund, not a big drop. It's category had a flat performance for that day. I went thru some of the top holdings to see if an obvious answer would present itself, but it didn't.

    Only 28% of the assets are in the top 10 stocks, so you have to go thru a lot of stocks to determine what made the fund drop -0.64%. Pretty par for the course for a stock fund, except the category was flat. 47 stocks in the fund, plus 12 "other" investments.

    Might have to go to the website or look at the annual/semi-annual report to figure out what the "other" investments are.

    I went to the fund website to see if it paid a distribution that could explain the very small drop on Friday.......no luck, no distribution.

    I can only say that the weighted average drop of the stocks in the portfolio must have dropped -0.64%, the only question mark being what those "other" investments are.
  • I was also looking to see if a distribution had been made. That was my first thought. A 0.64% drop in a stock fund is nothing nowadays.
  • The news doesn't seem to faze the markets over here. Most of the indices are green.
  • The news doesn't seem to faze the markets over here. Most of the indices are green.

    when you say 'over here', is that the Philippines?
  • edited September 2014
    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-28994123

    "China has warned foreign countries against "meddling" in Hong Kong's politics ahead of a crucial announcement on the territory's election process.

    Chinese state media said using Hong Kong as a "bridgehead to subvert the mainland" would not be tolerated."
    ==
    -China fearing that somehow a pro-foreign country puppet ruler could be installed in HK in order to gain footing in the area?

  • It was thought at the time of the handover that China would not mess with Hong Kong due to its success. Well that didn't last long. China could kill the proverbial goose here and it would serve them right.

  • "China fearing that somehow a pro-foreign country puppet ruler could be installed in HK in order to gain footing in the area?"

    I hadn't heard that one yet. Paranoia?
  • "China fearing that somehow a pro-foreign country puppet ruler could be installed in HK in order to gain footing in the area?"

    I hadn't heard that one yet. Paranoia?

    The bolded portions in my post above.
  • First word I'd heard about anything like that sort of interference in HK. Thank you for the MACSX replies. It's certainly not anything I lost sleep over. But it seemed like a big one-day drop for THAT particular fund. I know it's gonna happen from time to time. But about HK: JC may be right, it might be Singapore's gain, if restrictions are put in place by the Chinese Regime.
  • Just a thought, HK was controlled by UK for over one hundred years, the HK people never had the freedom to vote and their colony government was appointed, our western media never raised a question, double standard, I am not trying to defend what the Chinese gov is doing.
  • Good point.
  • @DavidMMP,

    I am guessing that as long as everything went smoothly there were no complaints on running the colony. The same might have been said for Singapore which was run by a dictator for 30 some odd years I think, albeit a benevolent one.
  • Replacement for Windows? I like the idea.
  • Accipiter said:
    Surprising. I wasn't expecting to hear much about Windows 9 until deep into next year.

    China developing its own operating system. Not a good development for Microsoft.
  • Well, MSFT is still pushing out Windows while everyone else is going mobile. The last version of Windows didn't go over very well. I read that the new version is code named Threshold.

    As for Chinese operating systems, they probably have many back doors so their govt can monitor usage. Even with privacy concerns lately I wouldn't trust them at all.
  • Our list of countries that we don't trust (with good reason) seems to be getting longer every day.
  • edited September 2014
    Old_Joe said:

    Our list of countries that we don't trust (with good reason) seems to be getting longer every day.

    The list of countries that appear to feel likewise about us also seems to be increasing. On a related note that I found interesting: "Home Depot spokeswoman Paula Drake said she could only "confirm that we're looking into some unusual activity, and we are working with our banking partners and law enforcement to investigate."

    The data put up for sale were labeled "American Sanctions."

    Krebs interpreted the name "as intended retribution for U.S. and European sanctions against Russia for its aggressive actions in Ukraine." (http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/09/02/home-depot-credit-cards-hack-russia-ukraine/14972179/)
  • edited September 2014
    Staying on Old_Joe's List......Venezuela !
    BY ALEXANDRA ULMER
    CARACAS Wed Sep 3, 2014 6:39pm EDT

    "After weeks of government officials talking of a major "shakeup," critics and some economists said the shuffle shows that Maduro, whose popularity has been slipping, is not willing to shoulder the political cost of undoing the Chavez-era model.

    Though popular social welfare projects from Chavez's 14-year rule are still in place, the economy is teetering on recession and annual inflation has risen to over 60 percent. A lack of U.S. dollars due to strict currency controls has led to shortages of basic goods ranging from powdered milk to soap.
    In a show of market disapproval of the reshuffle, Venezuelan bonds fell on Wednesday with the benchmark 2027 off 1.55 percent to bid at 75.44 in afternoon trade.

    "Politicizing even more key sectors of the economy is likely to lead to further deterioration which, despite the support of the Chavez family, will potentially undermine political stability in the medium term for Maduro," IHS Latin America analyst Diego Moya-Ocampos said in a note to clients."
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/03/us-venezuela-cabinet-idUSKBN0GY2GO20140903?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
  • edited September 2014
    By coincidence I had just read this article a few minutes ago:

    "For those of us living in Venezuela, you only need a short stroll to your local market to see the current state of our economy. However, there’s always the need to have some sort of statistical confirmation. Too bad the Central Bank (B C V) has stopped reporting on some of those important numbers in the last few months, at least publicly."

    Christian Science Monitor: Have you seen Venezuela's latest economic indicators?
  • I hope that writer is in a safe and secure location.
  • You can say that again!
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