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China can't cut HK off from the internet. Almost all Chinese internet traffic is routed through Hong Kong, not the other way around.
by throwaway1997 7y ago
China can't cut HK off from the internet. Almost all Chinese internet traffic is routed through Hong Kong, not the other way around.
- rolph 7y agoso then HK could do...to china Hmm I think someone is in jeopardy but neither side has realized exactly who yet.
- a012 7y agoThey still can cut off the consumers ISP and leave commercial untouched.
- klingonopera 7y agoLet's take it a step further, and imagine a complete Internet blackout in HK, both consumer and commercial, even if just for a day or a week. I'm thinking up scenarios of how China can do a modern Tianamen and get away with it. I'd be happy to conclude that it isn't possible, but I'm not sure if I might be forgetting something...
- rolph 7y agoforcing someone to obey you rather than just destroying them for defiance suggest you need them around for something. Im wondering just what a tyrant would have left to occupy thier time when all of the tyrannized are deceased.
- anigbrowl 7y agoSatellite comms would still work. But you raise an important point, as it's a strategic issue in the region: https://www.asiasentinel.com/econ-business/taiwan-fears-china-cut-undersea-cables/ https://www.asiasentinel.com/econ-business/taiwan-fears-chin...
- fiblye 7y agoI don’t think China would care about cutting themselves off from the global internet.
- afterburner 7y agoMaybe the Chinese government wouldn't, but the people would care, a lot. The Chinese government is perpetually afraid of revolution and rebellion.
- klingonopera 7y agoDo mainland Chinese really use that much of the global Internet?
- throwaway1997 7y agoYes, an enormous amount of data crosses the border from HK into China
- anigbrowl 7y agoForeign trade is ~37% of China's GDP so probably at least 1/3 of the country depends on it directly or indirectly. For context that's equivalent to the entire population of the US even if only a small fraction of those people are conducting the actual communications, negotiations, and transactions of international commerce.
- klingonopera 7y agoWait, so if I in Europe send an email to a Chinese server, it gets routed across the Atlantic, Pacific and via HK into China? There's no direct land link?
- throwaway1997 7y agoDepends on your ISP. There are cables from Europe and the Americas to China but they are very expensive and congested. HK is also congested but there is much more bandwidth and it's a lot cheaper.