Share

cover art for Hong Kong - Is the Shine Coming Off The Pearl Of The Orient?

The Why? Curve

Hong Kong - Is the Shine Coming Off The Pearl Of The Orient?

Season 1, Ep. 39

Hong Kong is re-emerging from almost two years of COVID isolation, but can it resume its place an Asia’s leading financial hub? Or has Beijing’s imposition of strict security laws made it little different from China’s other economic dynamos like Shanghai or Shenzhen? It’s taken a massive hit over the last year- GDP down by 3.5% - and suffered a brain-drain as some of its brightest and best have left for freer environments in the UK or Taiwan. Dr Yan-ho Lai of the Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College London and a co-conveyor of the Hong Kong Studies Association gives Phil and Roger his view of the prospects of his home city 25 years after it was handed back to China.

More episodes

View all episodes

  • 122. Blue Funk

    35:26||Season 1, Ep. 122
    The Tory ship seems rudderless, and the vote for a new captain less than enthralling. After their underwhelming Birmingham conference, what hope is there for the Conservatives - hitherto the most successful political organisation in Europe? With the fewest MPs in its history, and missing many of the former big beasts of Toryism, does the party’s salvation lie in lurching further to the right to win back supporters from Reform? Or is the safe ground in the centre where the Lib Dems have drained their vote? Phil and Roger get the views of Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London, and Thor of “The Conservative Party After Brexit: Turmoil and Transformation”
  • 121. The Love Labour’s Lost

    39:41||Season 1, Ep. 121
    The Labour Party in government for the first time in 14 years, but this week’s party conference seemed an exercise in damage control rather than celebration - delegates voting against the cabinet on winter fuel payments, and cabinet ministers having to announce they won’t accept any more free clothes or glasses. How did the honeymoon end so soon? Or is the scale of the problems they have inherited so daunting it requires harsh medicine that will never make them popular? With such a huge parliamentary majority, do they, in any case, need to care? Matthew Flinders, Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield, tells Phil and Roger their biggest problem is the lack of an overall strategic vision.
  • 120. Just Grow Up - The Infantilisation Of Our World

    42:21||Season 1, Ep. 120
    Are we all failing to become adults? Does the world treat us as if we need to be told to carry a water bottle on a train, or hold onto a handrail, or that a bag of nuts may contain…. nuts? The way our politics and culture like simple messages and avoid challenge or risk or complexity suggests to some that we are becoming an infantile society, incapable of understanding nuance or facing the world of adults. Phil and Roger talk about all this with Keith Hayward, Professor of Criminology at the University of Copenhagen, and author of the book ”Infantilised: How Our Culture Killed Adulthood”.  
  • 119. Exit X? Curbing Social Media

    43:58||Season 1, Ep. 119
    X banned in Brazil. The boss of Telegram detained in France. Is state power finally moving to curb the big social media sites? There’s been a lot of talk about reining-in X, TikTok, Instagram, Snap and the rest, but have governments now decided make the sites accountable for the harm they cause - misinformation, child abuse and societal division? Or are the Elon Musks still beyond control and regulation? Robin Mansell, Professor of New Media and the Internet at the London School of Economics, tells Roger and Phil the economic pressure from advertisers will probably be a more effective curb.
  • 118. UK/EU - A Closer Disunion?

    39:37||Season 1, Ep. 118
    Keir Starmer is pushing for a reset of relations with the European Union, but has ruled out rejoining in his lifetime. So how close can or should the UK get? How welcome is Britain in Brussels after all the Brexit grief? And does the changing tone of public opinion here mean he can easily get past the toxicity of Brexit for both the Labour Party and the country? David Henig, Director of the UK Trade Project at the European Centre For International Political Economy, tells Phil and Roger how the path back to the EU might begin.
  • 117. Central Banks - Power Without Reponsibility?

    35:55||Season 1, Ep. 117
    Interest rates, inflation, monetary control. What is it that central bankers actually do - and are they the right people to be doing it? The last decades have seen huge turbulence in the global economy - the Great Recession, then post-Covid inflation, so is the system working? Is it right that a political decision - balancing price-rises against the cost of borrowing - should be in the hands of unelected bankers? Dominic Caddick of the New Economics Foundation takes Phil and Roger through what the central bankers can do, and how their job could be made more effective.
  • 116. Kamala’s Coronation

    39:20||Season 1, Ep. 116
    Happy days are here again for the Democrats, as their new candidates gear up for the US presidential election. But does the razzmatazz conceal a weakness on the ticket that will be exposed once Harris and Walz have to face hostile interviewers? Dr Thomas Gift, Associate Professor of Political Science at UCL and founding director of the Centre on US Politics tells Phil and Roger why he still thinks there could still be a Trump victory in November.
  • 115. Getting It Right On The Far Right

    39:03||Season 1, Ep. 115
    Riots and disorder on a scale Britain hadn’t seen in a decade, but then the streets re-taken by anti-racist crowds - what to make of what happened after the Southport stabbings? Keir Starmer said the white men throwing rocks and setting fire to hotels were “far right”. Was he correct? And what does “far right” mean? Is it a coherent political force in the UK, or just a bunch of drunken yobs? Phil and Roger look at the evidence with Aurelien Mondon of Bath University and the Reactionary Politics Research Network.
  • 114. Universities In Crisis

    38:14||Season 1, Ep. 114
    As students get ready to see if their A levels match up to their offers, how sure can they be the universities will still be there to award their eventual degrees? Higher education is in something of a financial crisis - not enough money from fees, not enough foreign students to make up the shortfall, and the best academics heading abroad for higher pay. Is the whole model of young people building up huge debts for sometimes questionable courses sustainable? Will some universities have to close or merge in order to survive? Chris Millward, Professor Practice In Education Policy at the University of Birmingham, gives Phil and Roger the prospects for Britain’s higher education.