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This blog’s Christmas message reflects what has happened to Hong Kong in recent years. That topic fits well with my most recent blog post, China’s thrill is gone. In that post, I described how Xi Jinping’s rise to power coincided with growing pessimism on my part regarding the future of China, ultimately leading me to leave the mainland for Hong Kong. And then, as I said in the post, they came to Hong Kong.
For most of the time that I lived in Hong Kong (for three different periods of time), I led what can correctly be described as a cross-border life. Visits to Shenzhen and Guangzhou were as normal as walks to the Hong Kong Customs warehouse in Chai Wan or a client’s office in Quarry Bay. After all, from my Kowloon apartment, it took me roughly the same time to get to the border as it did to those places. RMB and HKD bills coexisted in my wallet and dual SIM cards were an important feature of cell phones. But as disillusionment with China grew, that cross-border life gave way to a more Hong Kong-centric, with mainland China being just one part of my rhythm (which shifted dramatically towards Southeast Asia starting in 2016).
With every calamity that has befallen the city, there have been those who have assured me that I was lucky. And yes, I’m glad I didn’t witness first-hand the 2019 war and the imposition of the National Security Act (NSL). But the reality is that my concerns about such developments that occurred sometime in the future played a large role in my departure from Hong Kong in late 2018. It is true that things happened faster than I imagined, and there could not have been. guessed. the details, like the extradition bill and the NSL. But the writing was on the wall that things would be somehow, sometime, change, and not for the better.
The Umbrella protests of 2014 were a heady time in Hong Kong. Although I generally sympathized with the protesters, I thought their traffic disruptions in places like Mong Kok (a few blocks from my apartment) were unjustified impositions on Hong Kong residents, many of whom were not in accordance with their agenda. In fact, in most areas of the city, protests seemed a world away and there wasn’t much visible support. One of my then colleagues, an expatriate, began to frequent protests and accumulate a collection of memories. I scoffed at his romantic vision of Hong Kong, which seemed to ignore majority sentiments regarding democratic reform and the city’s relationship with China.
More importantly, I thought the protests would ultimately backfire. During the countless conversations I had with Hong Kongers and foreigners alike, I encountered a lot of naivety about the CCP. An expatriate hailing from the former Eastern Bloc used his country’s experience as a rallying cry for Hong Kong residents, failing to see the crucial differences between the USSR in 1989 and China in 2014 (and between nations like Poland and Romania, and a city of 7 million).
In my opinion, the attention of Hong Kong people should have been focused on preserving and strengthening the “one country, two systems” agreement. Instead of lamenting that Hong Kong’s political system was not more like Canada’s or Australia’s, they should have appreciated the fact that it wasn’t like Wuhan’s or Xinjiang’s.
After the 2014 protests, it was clear to me that Beijing had learned its lessons. The signs of a harder line were there to see. For example, Hong Kong authorities quickly sought the disqualification of Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching after they turned their Legco oath into political theater. In general, the Hong Kong government began to look more and more like its counterparts on the mainland. He pushed for a proposal to build a branch of the Beijing National Palace Museum, despite vocal opposition (and without any vocal support) from citizens. Once again faced with local opposition, the government paid a significant portion of the bill for a white elephant bridge across the Pearl River Delta, hailed as a great achievement by the central government but of little practical value to the inhabitants From Hong Kong. The government also supported the parking of mainland Chinese law enforcement officers at the new high-speed train station.
The government’s 2019 proposal for a law that would allow extradition to mainland China, sparking a season of unrest that in turn led to the imposition by Beijing authorities of the repressive NSL, was a logical progression from the genuflection pattern to Beijing’s wishes. And this pattern was in evidence for all to see in previous years. Looking ahead, only two scenarios seemed plausible. The first was for Hong Kong to be the proverbial boiled frog, gradually becoming the likeness of the CCP. Alternatively, there would be a straw that broke the camel’s back for people to take to the streets again, setting the stage for a repressive response.
In the end, it was the last scenario, randomly set off by a Hong Kong idiot who allegedly murdered his pregnant girlfriend in Taiwan. The Hong Kong government sought to change its extradition law in order to legally send the alleged killer to Taiwan for trial. Perhaps Beijing thought this would be a good way to legalize extradition to the mainland (and thus avoid the inconvenience of having to abduct suspects on Hong Kong soil). Or maybe someone in Beijing or Hong Kong said, “Wow, extradition cannot be allowed to Taiwan but not to the mainland.” Does not matter. The Hong Kong people got tired and took to the streets.
If it hadn’t been the extradition bill, it could have been a lot of things. Perhaps an arrest by mainland Chinese immigration officers at the high-speed train station went awry, or an initiative to prioritize the use of Mandarin, or an increase in one-way permits granted to immigrants from mainland China. But by 2018, it was clear that Xi Jinping’s vision for Hong Kong was an increasing convergence with mainland China. Hong Kongers had to accept or else.
I didn’t want to be a part of it, and it seems like a million Hong Kong people don’t either.
The content of this article is intended to provide general guidance on the subject. The advice of specialists should be sought according to your specific circumstances.
