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Comment by Terr_ | Hacker News Reader

I think it's a telling statistic that since the handover, Hong Kong has gone from 18% of China's GDP to 3%. Granted, some of that may be the mainland playing games with GDP numbers, but HK isn't quite the same indispensable a golden-goose anymore.

[0] https://www.vox.com/2014/9/28/6857567/hong-kong-used-to-be-1...

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I think Beijing cares about how the people of Taiwan perceive Hong Kong’s autonomy within China. If Taiwan views Beijing as a repressive regime then the independence movement would gain popularity.

> If Taiwan views Beijing as a repressive regime then the independence movement would gain popularity.

Is this even a question anymore? It seems like a given that Taiwan views Beijing as repressive, and the political differences in Taiwan are over how to deal with that reality: fight it or don't rock the boat.

What I wonder is what happens when China realizes it has nothing to gain by feigning acceptance of one country with two systems.

10% of Chinese exports are to HK.

HK is tiny. The importance of HK for China is in international trade and finance.

I would guess that is just the untapped potential of China's large population starting to be realized as the country developed in recent decades. Hong Kong only has 8 million people.

But yeah, it seems reasonable that this change in relative economic strength would affect the political dynamics.

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