Australian dollar falls as Hong Kong protests intensify

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The Communist Party of China has a problem and it’s name is Hong Kong, via SCMP:

In a fresh display of defiance against the contentious extradition bill, protesters who had camped overnight at Tamar Park in Hong Kong began stopping traffic from accessing the legislature on Wednesday morning, as the government’s proposal returns to a full council meeting.

As tensions mount, police say protesters are gathering bricks from pavements. Meanwhile, the Legislative Council meeting due at 11am was delayed with no indication of when it would resume.

On Sunday, a historic march turned roads along Causeway Bay to Admiralty into a sea of people as organisers claimed 1.03 million took part. Police estimated attendance peaked at 240,000. The mass march ended in chaos as scuffles between police and radicals broke out, spilling over into the early hours of Monday.

Despite mounting pressure and death threats, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has stood firm, insisting that the bill will be passed as soon as possible, with a final vote expected as early as next Thursday. Lam has insisted that the legislation is needed to plug legal loopholes and prevent Hong Kong from becoming a haven for fugitives. Follow our live blog below for events as they unfold.

Beijing has backed down for now, at Bloomie:

Hong Kong’s legislative chief postponed to an unspecified time debate on legislation that would allow extraditions to China after thousands of protesters converged outside the chamber demanding the government to withdraw the bill.

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But this is a fight to the death for HK. For perhaps Beijing as well.

100k Aussies live there. Does ScoMo have a plan to manage the CPC?

Markets are relatively calm but the Aussie dollar has been falling for the past few hours:

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Maybe it can’t see a plan, either.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.