I can’t breathe. This is exactly my feeling these days when I see different sectors of the city crumbling: administrative, judiciary, financial, you name it. Nothing will be able to stop it, unless there is a miracle. My prayer for Hong Kong is not answered, but perhaps something big and miraculous will be revealed to me. Beijing’s decision to change everything that the old Hong Kong was once proud of means that the rights of the people will be blatantly denied, like the rest of China. There is no more room for negotiations with communist China. New rules have already been implemented, and refusal to follow these rules would mean severe consequences.

By now, those that still talk about “one country, two systems” are simple and naïve, grabbing onto purely wishful thinking. Time is up, and final days really mean final days, no ifs or buts. Everyone has to face reality. One of my blue-ribbon acquaintances from the financial industry, who is supposed to be “patriotic”, can’t wait and drag on in Hong Kong anymore. “Sooner or later, everyone will pull out,” he said. “Just liquidate as much as you could before all hell breaks loose,” added he. I don’t need to be convinced, as this is what I have been telling people to do as well since the rules of the game in Hong Kong were changed by Beijing completely.

Twenty-one years ago, I relocated back to Hong Kong from North America with great expectation and joy. I landed a job as the country head of one of the world’s biggest hedge funds, measured by assets under management. I felt like I was on top of the world, and I have been blessed by what Hong Kong has given me. Today, I weep and grieve with everyone in this city, who used to believe a free Hong Kong could exist until 2047, for Beijing has reneged on the promise of Hong Kong remaining unchanged for 50 years, without shying away from breaching the Joint Declaration signed between UK and China in 1984, which determined the fate of Hong Kong and how it should have been run. Beijing is paying a big price for not improving the electoral system of Hong Kong, and putting the city totally under its control in the most dishonorable and barbaric way.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is a brutal machine. Some of you might recollect my writings at Apple Daily English opinion column about my draft of the “Ten Requests to the Communist Party of China from the People in Hong Kong (Finance and Banking Sector)” addressed to President Xi Jinping, and copied to Zhang Xiaoming, who was then Director of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in Hong Kong, and also Carrie Lam, the former Chief Secretary of Hong Kong.

In old Hong Kong’s “final days”, I feel more like there is nothing more to defend, when Beijing won’t even want to listen to the wishes of Hong Kong people. Prove me wrong, if you could, by falsifying one of the financial and banking sector’s requests, which basically urges Beijing to uphold the rule of law and fair play in Hong Kong. The official wording is this: Allow Hong Kong to continue to operate under a fair, just, and open business environment; prevent monopoly by persons or organizations of special privilege in various industries.

And the elaboration goes as follows:

Hong Kong’s economic rise relied on the concerted efforts of entrepreneurs and small and medium-sized enterprises, who also made Hong Kong famous for being an international commercial metropolis. Small businesses and large enterprises were always able to coexist, thanks to the abundant opportunities, good commercial structure, and the rule of law that protected the free development of all industries against monopolization. Unfortunately, government policies over the last decade have been skewed increasingly in favor of big conglomerates. For instance, property developers are in control of not only the property market but also a great variety of industries concerning Hong Kong people’s daily lives, forcing closures of small shops which are unable to compete with big enterprises at rising costs. Gradually, Hong Kong has been becoming a city monopolized by big financial groups.

The above is just partial elaboration of what fair play in businesses mean to most people, I believe, and I can honestly tell you now that some of the once pro-Beijing developers have lost confidence in the system, when China wants a complete makeover of Hong Kong with “new rules” to be followed from the top down and bottom up, and it has nothing to do with “improving” the electoral system. Beijing wants the old Hong Kong to be replaced completely. One of my real estate developer acquaintances is worried that under the “new rules” imposed by communist China, he could be easily targeted and victimized with alleged commercial crimes. And with the NSL in place, he could be framed up and get arrested on baseless criminal charges, and have to undergo the fate of someone like Jimmy Lai, the founder of Apple Daily.

So, now that people in the world of high finance and real estate distrust the “new arrangement” for how Hong Kong will be run, communist Hong Kong and communist China have the most prominent pro-democracy leaders held in detention, and the apolitical business minded Hong Kongers have given up hope and finally awakened to the political reality, what is left for Hong Kong? The apolitical ones also sense that the independent judiciary is crumbling fast, with frequent overrulings by the National People’s Congress of China, so they will give in, and leave the city for good.

One business leader from the blue camp told me recently that the alleged charge against pro-democracy leader Martin Lee for participation in a demonstration and media tycoon Jimmy Lai being taken into custody on the pretext of the National Security Law (NSL) reminded him of the great Fall of Shanghai in 1949 when the Chinese Communist Party took over China. Capitalists in Shanghai fled China for a better future, so they could survive, and some were lucky enough to get out of China with most of their personal wealth and resources at that time. “History keeps on repeating itself, and 72 years later, it is a point of no return for Hong Kong.”

The crackdown on the pan-democratic camp after the imposition of the NSL means everything is changed now. The business sector has finally woken up. The so-called “new arrangement” affects everybody. The old Hong Kong system has been ultimately destroyed, and the city is dying fast. On a more tragic and personal level, with the nightmare of this extreme makeover started by the ruthless totalitarian regime, a new chapter of human suffering in Hong Kong is now being written every single day.

(Edward Chin (錢志健) runs a family office. Chin was formerly Country Head of a UK publicly listed hedge fund, the largest of its kind measured by asset under management. Outside the hedge funds space, Chin is Convenor of 2047 Hong Kong Monitor and a Senior Advisor of Reporters Without Borders (RSF, HK & Macau). Chin studied speech communication at the University of Minnesota, and received his MBA from the University of Toronto. Twitter: edwardckchin Youtube: Ed Chin Channel Facebook.com/edckchin Email: [email protected])

We invite you to join the conversation by submitting columns to our opinion section: [email protected]

Apple Daily reserves the right to refuse, abridge, alter or edit guest opinion columns for accuracy, length, clarity, and style, and the right to withdraw and withhold columns based on the discretion of our editorial page editors.

The opinions of the writers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board.

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play