29 June 2021
The recent arrest of the journalist Fung Wai-kong, on the 28th of June, has been the latest case of Hong Kong’s government crackdown against freedom of speech and more particular against anti-Chinese and pro-independence views inside the area (Davidson, 2021). However, the police actions against the journalist, who was arrested alongside with the whole executive team of the now-closed pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, have triggered international outrage and accusations that authorities were using the national security law to stifle press freedom (Davidson, 2021). As the tightening of control and the blurring of freedoms continue to take place in Hong Kong, more and more people will clash with the local authorities against the looming authoritarianism imported from the mainland.
Changing Masters
After the end of the first Opium War in 1842, China ceded the city-port of Hong Kong to the British Empire (BBC, 2019). Throughout the 18th century the area developed rapidly due to its vital location for commodities and opium trade. The city briefly changed hands again during the Second World War when imperial Japan invaded the Chinese mainland but British re-established their presence in the area after the end of the war. During the first decades of the Cold War, Hong Kong experienced rapid economic development and established itself as an “Asian Tiger”, as an economic powerhouse basing its growth on commerce and high technologies industry (BBC, 2019). During the 1980’s, amid the era of decolonization, the United Kingdom decided to withdraw for the region and in 1984 “Britain and China signed the Joint Declaration on the conditions under which Hong Kong would revert to Chinese rule in 1997. Under the “one country, two systems” formula, Hong Kong would become part of one communist-led country but it would its capitalist economic system and partially democratic political system for 50 years after the handover” (BBC, 2019). The agreement was implemented and China formally ratified Hong Kong’s “Constitution”, the so-called Basic Law in 1990, with the U.K. officially ceding the area in 1997 after more than 150 years (BBC, 2019).
New Reality, Same Problems
Even though the first post-handover elections were regularly held in May 1998 and things seemed to showcase a smooth transition to the new regime, discontent among the local population rose quickly after the dawn of the new millennia. As Connors (2019) notes “Just six years after handover, half a million marchers questioned if ‘one country two systems’ was going to last the 50 years”. More precisely, thousands citizens of Hong Kong to the streets against the enactment of law Article 23 into the Basic Law which prohibited “any act of treason, secession, sedition, or subversion against the Central People’s Government, or theft of state secrets”, giving via this way immense power to local police forces to silence any voice that Beijing deemed as dangerous. The move was in fact part of Beijing’s “New Hong Kong Policy” in which “Beijing gradually abandoned the noninterventionist approach of the initial post-handover era and adopted state-building nationalism to incorporate and subject Hong Kong to greater central control on the political, socioeconomic, and ideological fronts” (Fong, 2017, p. 26). Nevertheless as Fong (2017, p. 18) highlights, this policy “which is by nature an assimilationist state-building nationalism designed to incorporate and subject Hongkongese to tighter central control, has threatened the pre-existing distinctiveness of Hong Kong and resulted in a rise of peripheral nationalism”. The sentiment of distinctiveness and uniqueness remained during the last two decades and has been demonstrated numerous times from the pro-democracy protests in 2012, to the protests against Beijing’s interference in the local elections in 2014 and to the struggle against the adoption of a new extradition law that could give the permission to mainland courts to rule on cases in Hong Kong in 2019 (Connors, 2019). In fact, during the summer of 2019, Hong Kong was shaken by prolonged protests that caused a grave political crisis and raised more doubts about the preservation of the regional autonomy from China. These protests completely paralysed the regional government of Hong Kong, who under Chief Executive Carrie Lam failed to adequately respond to the demands of the protesters who stormed the central building of the legislature as well as the airport of Hong Kong (Purbrick, 2019).
A Vicious Circle
It is clear that the closure of Apple Daily, the largest pro-democracy paper of the city will exacerbate the tension between the anti-Beijing citizens and the central government (BBC, 2021). This will be another “victory” for “Localists” who emerged in the 2000s as a reaction to what they see as a colonial approach by the PRC Government to Hong Kong advocating democracy, the separateness of Hong Kong from the PRC, and reject what they see as “Mainlandisation” of Hong Kong (Purbrick, 2019, p. 10). As Fong (2019, p. 1) describes: “instead of successfully assimilating Hongkongese into one Chinese nation, Beijing’s incorporation strategies are leading to a rise of peripheral nationalism in the city-state and waves of counter-mobilization”.
However, it is undoubtable that this wave of peripheral nationalism will manage to achieve any practical political gains. This is because of the cumulative effect of a decade of rapid cross border economic integration that caused Hong Kong’s economy to become heavily dependent on the mainland as major sectors of Hong Kong’s economy now rely on the mainland to survive, with mainland capital, trade, and visitors occupying the largest share of Hong Kong financial, trade, and tourism industries (Fong, 2017 pp, 14-15).
Henceforth, the situation requires not only action from Beijing per se, but also from the international community. On the one hand Beijing should adopt more flexible policies towards Hong Kong and to follow the values of the 1984 agreement. Via this way the opposition will lose its legitimization and the region would proceed to a smooth transition after 2047. Simultaneously on the other hand, the United Nations alongside with the U.K. who is still one of the parties of the 1984 agreement should also push Beijing to implement the latter and to guarantee that the autonomy of the region will stay intact throughout the implementation period. Finally, the regional government should open a wider debate and prepare the local population for the post 2047 era.
Even if the choices are limited for the pro-democracy citizens of Hong Kong, there is still time and space to progress a more viable and effective request for autonomy than exacerbating the situation by asking for independence.
References
Apple Daily: Hong Kong pro-democracy paper announces closure. 2021 June 25. BBC. Retrieved in 2021 June 28 from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-57578926
Connors, A. 2019 June 15. Hong Kong’s umbrella movement: A timeline of key events one year on. ABC News. Retrieved in 2021 June 28 from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-28/timeline-hong-kong-umbrella-movement-one-year-on/6802388?nw=0
Davidson, H. 2021 June 28. Hong Kong police arrest senior Apple Daily journalist at airport. The Guardian. Retrieved in 2021 June 28 from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/28/hong-kong-police-arrest-apple-daily-journalist-airport-fung-wai-kong
Fong, B. C. H. 2017. One Country, Two Nationalisms: Center-Periphery Relations between Mainland China and Hong Kong, 1997–2016. Modern China, 43(5), 523–556.
Hong Kong profile – Timeline. 2019 June 24. BBC. Retrieved in 2021 June 28 from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-16526765
Purbrick, M. (2019). A REPORT OF THE 2019 HONG KONG PROTESTS. Asian Affairs, 1–23.
By Georgios Mavrodimitrakis, The European Institute for International Law and International Relations.
