[corimaith]

>the western intelligence hub into PRC

That's kind the point of 1C2S and embassies/consulates in general. Nor do they need or would find the NSC law effective to clamp down on the US Consulate if they wished, this just personal headcanon to justify clamping down on local figures you don't like.

>get shit done

Clearly they aren't lmao after 5 years of their candidate in control. Then again, looking at the job market or those useless bomb checks or mopeds in pedestrian streets, clearly they aren't getting much "shit done" in their "proper tier1 city" either.

[maxglute]

If by head-canon you mean political/legal reality under pre/post NSL. Anomalously large 1000+ employee consulate scale for city of 7m is you know... intelligence node. Of course the point is to clamp down on figures Beijing doesn't like, something they didn't get to hammer with full legal prejudice before and now can by explicitly using NSL instrument. How many bold compradors are shaking hands with State Department now vs pre NSL? How many libtard parties disbanded pre and post? Actual legal cannon > your head-canon.

> clearly

Well no, because Beijing still allows HK to stagnant on 2S, apart from half hearted directives to address absolute freemarket shithole dynamics like cage homes, PRC hands off with HK. Useless bombchecks (and XJ securitization) brought national terrorism to basically 0, how many school shootings have the very useful security checks in US prevented ¯\_(ツ)_/¯?. As for how much SZ gets done vs HK, tell that to the ~100m cross border trips from HKers to SZ. Revealed preference has a mainland bias. TLDR the play is letting HK system burn itself out, geoeconomically replacing HK libtards with PRC TTPS and eventually integrating desperate HKers into Northern Metropolis next SZ in next 30 years.

[corimaith]

>Of course the point is to clamp down on figures Beijing doesn't like

Tldr, its just full throated authoritarianism where I define local figures I don't like as "NSC" despite being no real threat to China while actual foreign intelligence just handshakes out of sight. What did I say about effectiveness?

>brought national terrorism to basically 0, how many school shootings have the very useful security checks in US

National Terrorism is 0 in Hong Kong and Asia in general. Let's not pretend that anybody actually believes those prevent attacks as they are political grifting, or it speaks more to unique CCP policies that they have a terrorism problem that other East Asians don't have.

>Revealed preference has a mainland bias.

You mean taking advantage of currency rates for cheaper lunch? That's not really "getting shit done" as it is a "big problem" for China as part of wider systemic involution.

>PRC hands off with HK.

So you agree then it's just full blown authoritarianism with no real benefit.