PC/WI Singapore merges totally with Hong Kong?

WILDGEESE

WILDGEESE

With a post 1979 pod, how could Singapore merge totally with Hong Kong?

What I'm thinking of is this.

Before economic reforms that transformed China were implemented, Singapore offers Hong Kong citizens, businesses etc, the chance to move to Singapore, lock, stock and barrel before the 1997 UK handover.

I'm guessing the area of Singapore would need to increase to cope with a doubling of it's population by land reclamation or buy purchasing land on Malaysia side itself i.e offering them the same value per sq feet as downtown Singapore.

Would this be possible?, especially as around 70% or so of the Singapore population is already of Chinese descent although following Islam.

Would the new Singapore be able to gain Hong Kong's former Forex market share?

Regards filers
 
ramones1986

ramones1986

One word: Impossible.

Although they were both under British rule as both HK and S'pore were crown colonies, the latter was multicultural and multiracial (while the majority of the Singaporean Chinese came from southern provinces of China like Fujian and Guangdong, the city-state's constitution acknowledged Malays and their cultural legacy/contribution e.g. language). Hong Kong, on the other hand, is a true-blue Cantonese-speaking territory.
 
Remitonov

Remitonov

Lee Kuan Yew would sooner sell HK to Deng's China for a tidy set of trade agreements than to accept a merger that insane.

And no, Islam is not the state religion, nor followed by the majority of Chinese. That'd be Buddhism, though by a pretty thin margin and sharing a plurality with Taoism and several Christian denominations.

EDIT: To put it into perspective:

First, Singapore's millions-strong population is crammed onto a small island that absolutely can't take a sudden jump like HK's annexation. Land planning would become hell, and the shock would be too much for the economy to take.

Second, the cultures of the two city states are just too divergent, as ramones1986 said. Singapore is a multicultural society that integrates and recognises significant non-Chinese minorities in the system, while Hong Kong is overwhelmingly Cantonese, and won't take kindly to having their language subverted by Mandarin as was the case with Singapore's Chinese population.

Third, it's just too far. Hong Kong is an entire sea away from Singapore. Even merger with Taiwan would have been more realistic than this.

Fourth, China. Enough said.

EDIT 2: Redacted the cancelled portion for irrelevance.
 
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zert

Is this something I do not think has a chance of success, unless there is a much earlier POD to allow it. Just too much distance, differences in culture and language, and lack of proper space fro the extra housing/industry in Singapore.
 
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