TL;DR: The Peter Ryan Report is a series on the CoinSpice Podcast Network. In episode 7, he breaks down the historic Hong Kong protests, tensions between a market economy oasis and its looming big brother, Communist mainland China. Capital flight is a real trigger for leaders, and cryptocurrency just might be another form of protest for Hong Kongers, tycoons and those with average wealth alike. Ryan is steeped in the space, having been a noted analyst at larger news outlets and, more recently, Executive Producer for a new documentary on Amazon Prime, Rizqi Presents: Blockchain, a six part series, exploring crypto in-depth. He’s also head of Ryan Research. This podcast episode is available embedded in the article below, and on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio Public, Breaker, PocketCasts, PodBean, and Overcast.

The Peter Ryan Report 7: Lessons From Hong Kong Protests Include Capital Flight and Bitcoin

Thirty years ago this month marked the ominous anniversary of Tiananmen Square protests in China. Buoyed by public rumblings of USSR-styled communism beginning to fail, young people in China took to their own version of a pro-democracy movement. A combination of burgeoning 24-hour cable television news coverage allowed the outside world to see and hear from a Chinese generation like never before.

It was soon crushed, and images such as Tank Man are a lasting reminder to the Chinese street: stay in line, or else. Around that time too, not quite a decade later, the United Kingdom returned its “lease” on Hong Kong back to Communist China. By then, it was an oasis of wealth, capital, speculation, and fantastic success by every measure. Party leaders seemingly made a pact. There would be one political China with two economies.

Tensions have flared here and there since, including briefly in 2014, but it took a new perfect storm to bring about recent protests. The ability for younger people to see and hear about Tank Man on the anniversary is like never before, even with notorious Chinese censorship. Internet access in Hong Kong is ubiquitous, as are VPNs, and its 7 million inhabitants are used to Western-style values. When a relatively rare salacious murder happened, and through a snafu of legal red tape meant trouble for extradition, Hong Kong’s chief executive (known to be close to Mainland leaders) seized the emotional moment for a benign power grab.

As word spread such an extradition bill would apply to all Hong Kongers and foreign residents, protests began. Organization soon spread through Telegram, as people poured into the skyscraper-dominated streets. The city’s chief executive up until recently refused to give-in, even as protests grew to one million people strong. It wasn’t until reports of tycoons moving their capital to market rival Singapore that she finally found religion: the extradition bill would be shelved. She even made a public apology. But it is seemingly too late, and the very next day there were renewed calls for her removal, with now two million Hong Kongers flooding to protests. Will bitcoin and cryptocurrencies play a role. Ryan thinks so, listen to why in this fascinating episode.

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