Ibo Fung and Ke Jin
The British referendum on whether to stay or leave the European Union resulted in a victory for the “Leave” camp, announced on Friday morning with a margin of 52% to 48%. The details of how the Brexit will be enacted by the British government is yet to be determined, but it is no doubt a decision with ramifications for much of the wider world.
The completed referendum has become a hot topic among Chinese netizens, especially since UK is the European country with the most students of Chinese nationality–as many as 150,000. Others are discussing the possible direct and indirect consequences concerned.
AllChinaTech handpicked some strong comments from China’s largest social media platform, Sina Weibo.
The UK voted to leave the EU. The Japanese Yen, the safe-haven currency, is soaring. And the pound may depreciate! My dream was to travel around Japan. Now my dream is to travel around Britain!
— Aguixiansheng
A vote is not necessarily a good thing. Now that Britain is to leave the EU, it’s likely that there will be another Scottish independence referendum. The referendum may lead to currency devaluation, economic recession, and even a shattered country, and at the end of the day, those who voted for Brexit would be the ones falling on hard times.
— Daiwohuaxia
1. Finally, a major event happened in one of these years. 2. Now the UK has left the EU in the first half of 2016, Trump has to win the presidential election in the second half to make the atmosphere of the whole year consistent. 3. The white-collar democracy defeated by the blue one, democracy is in fact brutal. 4. With the UK leaving the EU, it’s Scotland’s turn to leave the UK. 5. Here comes the winter for the stock market in the height of summer
— Yang Yu (NDRC researcher)
For reference only, the recent situation implies an unprecedented trend of the two-decades of globalization since the end of the Cold War. Both the UK’s leaving and Trump’s rising are strong signals of “contra-globalization” which has taken place in major Western countries. Many people in other regions have been against globalization, and now anti-globalization in the form of ideology and political movements has become “contra-globalization” in concrete practice. Globalization is faced with a great impact, and the world is in a backswing to nation states.
— Zhang Yiwu (professor at PKU)
The UK has voted to leave the EU, and it symbolizes the failure of the left wing in Europe, which has been rising since last century. There is a profound reason related to religion why the UK is the leading country in Europe, since the UK’s conversion to Protestantism from Catholicism. And that is also the reason why even the Queen, who has never taken a stand when it comes to national decisions, has implicitly encouraged the UK to leave. This is about the return and cohesion of internal values, rather than the external binding of solidarity in European integration, which has been accelerated by the incessant terrorist attacks in Europe. So Trump is more likely to win the American election, since America is not as radical as Europe.
— Beicun (novelist)
Edited by Nathan Wakelin-King