Over the past several weeks, Hong Kong has been the site of some of the largest protests we’ve seen in history – by some accounts, over two million people took to the streets to protest Hong Kong’s proposed new extradition statutes. Following the protests, the current Chief Executive of Hong Kong temporarily suspended the bills but has not yet withdrawn them from consideration.

In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser, Senior Consultant Jennifer Otremba, and Consultant Bray Wheeler discuss the current situation in Hong Kong. What should companies do in response to the current situation? What might the future hold? How did we wind up in this situation, to begin with, anyway?

Topics discussed include crisis management, business continuity, alternate workspaces, geographical shifting of work, physical security, global intelligence, and preparedness measures organizations should continue that operate in Hong Kong.

 

Episode Transcript

Bryan Strawser:

Hello and welcome back to the Managing Uncertainty Podcast. This is Bryan Strawser, principal and CEO at Bryghtpath, and joining me for today’s episode about Hong Kong and what’s going on in the special administrative region of Hong Kong is…

 

Jenn Otremba:

Hi, this is Jenn Otremba, senior consultant at Bryghtpath.

 

Bray Wheeler:

Hi, this is Bray Wheeler, consultant at Bryghtpath.

 

Bryan Strawser:

So this is our deep dive episode where we’re going to get into a topic and talk about kind of its impact on business, and some processes and things that you should be thinking about. And we’re going to focus on the current situation in Hong Kong where if you’ve been paying attention, there have been protests like they have not seen protest before going on in Hong Kong.

 

Bryan Strawser:

These protests are targeted against a proposed bill which has now been suspended, but not withdrawn. This bill would have allowed the extradition of Hong Kong citizens to countries that Hong Kong does not have an extradition treaty with. That’s a really fancy way of saying that China would be able to charge Hong Kong citizens with a crime under Chinese law, and then have Hong Kong export Hong Kong citizens to mainland China for trial. Why is that a problem?

 

Bray Wheeler:

Well I think the big thing for Hong Kong is the fact that they enjoy some pretty good autonomy from China in terms of their control. And Hong Kong citizens are pretty passionate about that fact and-

 

Bryan Strawser:

They like their independence.

 

Bray Wheeler:

They like their independence. They like being different. And I think for them it’s a little bit of a easy backdoor for China to be able to get in there and grab protest leaders, political opponents, folks who speak ill of China. Citizens of Hong Kong, that’s their fear, is that it’s not just as simple as it’s made out to be, that it really gives China a lot of opportunity to go in and nab people and bring them out.