Opinion | The betrayal of Hong Kong
By Philip Yeung, university teacher
PKY480@gmail.com
To the west, the once swashbuckling Hong Kong is now a wounded city, living under Beijing's jackboot. Its fate is lumped together with Xinjiang's, as alleged victims of autocracy.
Nothing is further from the truth. By a leap of logic, the US and its allies have weaponized this falsehood.
What is at play is a swing of the pendulum---from extreme lawlessness to restored order.
The indisputable truth is that for 23 years following the handover, Hong Kong was granted full freedoms never allowed under British rule. Beijing faithfully honored the letter and spirit of "One Country Two Systems". Agitators had plenty of wriggle room to rampage and run amok, a la Trump insurrectionists. Except in Washington, it lasted only one day. But here, the sound and fury of rioting reverberated for over 9 months. No government, East or West, has ever tolerated a year-long street unrest.
The fight was purportedly over universal suffrage. But instead, they sold us a deadly populist democracy or mob rule. One person one vote is meaningless when democrats themselves offer no credible leaders to compete against establishment candidates. They are, one and all, grandstanders who play to the camera, with callous disregard for people's livelihood. Their moral authority rings hollow, the fight being over an abstract concept. They can talk the talk, but can't walk the talk.
From day one, activists played by their own rules, not even bothering to pay lip service to "One country, two systems", brazenly sloganeering for the downfall of the CCP and spewing anti-Beijing venom. It escalated into an insurgency, a messy civil war, with no one challenging the moral merits of their cause. These absolutists demanded absolute surrender. Compromise was not in their vocabulary. They adopted populist democracy as practiced by the bombastic Donald Trump and his British sidekick, Boris the buffoon. The more lies and more crimes the better, so long as they profit from the mess. Both left their respective society divided and devastated. Copycat Hong Kong, predictably, suffered the same fate. These political snake oil salespeople were too busy playing heroes and getting photo ops with the likes of Nancy Pelosi.
But for Hong Kong, the price was huge.
In their frontal assault on social order, they "threw the baby out with the bath water", plunging the city into anarchy. Hong Kong descended into a land of the lawless, thanks, ironically, to a misguided law professor and his equally misguided cabal of collaborators. Gone with the tear-gas was its legendary rule of law, the backbone of democracy.
The aftermath has rippled across the Taiwan Strait. With One-Country-Two-Systems discredited, the dream of a peaceful reunification died on the vine, breathing new life into the faltering fortunes of the separatist Taiwan leader. America turned Hong Kong into a pawn in its geopolitical game, pushing China to the brink of war over Taiwan. The unrest is in truth an act of subversion and treason.
People should ask: With amoral leaders like Trump and Boris, who needs one person one vote? Local activists were barking up the wrong tree. Despite being cheek-by-jowl with the mainland, they were woefully ignorant of their own country. Umbilically linked to their former colonial master, they blindly worshipped all things British, behaving like "bananas"-- yellow on the outside but white on the inside. They paralyzed the legislative chamber and politicized the serious business of government. To them it was all a show, played for the benefit of their offshore puppet masters in London and Washington. These headline hunters hallucinated about winning the Nobel Peace Prize, while fear stalked the city. Universities, no longer oases of peace and tolerance, became battlegrounds. At least two university presidents went into hiding after the security cameras covering the President's lodge had been tampered with. Mainland academics' offices were trashed, and mainland students had to scurry across the border to safety. An unarmed citizen was set on fire in front of TV cameras. The old decent Hong Kong was no more. Only Yellow or Blue camps exist, for pro-and anti-government camps respectively. Friendships are fractured; blood relationships are ruptured. Livelihoods are lost and the economy has gone south, with no dialogue across the political divide. Is this the Promised Land they have pledged to deliver?
Hong Kong has earned the dubious title of "protest capital of the world", proof of freedom galore. Compounding the chaos were local officials insulated from reality by their high pay and coveted perks. Outplayed and outmatched, they let troublemakers sell Hong Kong down the river.
Order is now restored. But local leaders should be wary of wielding the National Security Law as a blunt instrument, lest it inadvertently undermines One-Country-Two-Systems. With its special character, Hong Kong has a unique role in China's strategic development, a role no other mainland city can play. This time, be sure we give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Locals should stop poking their noses into Mainland affairs—that's not a restriction on freedom, that's honoring Two Systems. Focus instead on livelihood matters, most notably affordable housing and reviving indigenous culture like our road-side eateries. Forget populist democracy, a bankrupt idea to which we are culturally allergic. Time heals all wounds. Let Hong Kong do what it does best: capitalizing on opportunities, near and far. Above all, let this city hum again with harmony.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of DotDotNews.
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