No es del todo cierto que los ojos del mundo entero están puestos en Hong Kong. Lo estarían, desde luego, si se permitiera a la población de la China continental conocer lo que está pasando en la ciudad de mayor éxito de su país, pero el Gobierno de China ha intentado impedir que todas las noticias sobre las manifestaciones pro democracia de Hong Kong lleguen al resto del país, lo que no constituye precisamente una señal de confianza por parte de los gobernantes de China en su sistema de gobierno autoritario.
Antes de proponer a las torpes autoridades de Hong Kong una vía por la que avanzar, tres cosas deben quedar claras.… Seguir leyendo »
For the past week, at home in London, I have been living in the Hong Kong time zone. At night I watch live feeds of pro-democracy protesters waking at dawn in an occupied street of Admiralty; the next morning, I turn my computer back on and see the same street filled with a swollen river of humanity chanting their political demands in unison and holding up luminous mobile phones to the night sky. These riveting scenes have filled me with profound admiration for the courage of the protesters, and renewed hope for democracy in both Hong Kong and mainland China. Whatever the eventual outcome of this movement, it marks a historic turning point.… Seguir leyendo »
Freedom leads to prosperity — unless tyranny intervenes
Back in 1997 when control of Hong Kong was ceded from the British to the Chinese, the question was whether the Chinese governing system would take over Hong Kong, or Hong Kong capitalism would take over China.
Well, now we know the answer — or at least the answer that the repressive leaders of China are seeking.
The tragedy of Beijing blocking Hong Kong’s right of self-determination isn’t just a setback for the island, but perhaps more so for mainland China itself. It is a declaration to the world that Beijing still doesn’t get the freedom thing.… Seguir leyendo »
It is not wholly accurate to say that the eyes of the entire world are on Hong Kong. They would be, of course, if people in mainland China were allowed to know what is happening in their country’s most successful city. But China’s government has tried to block news about the Hong Kong democracy demonstrations from reaching the rest of the country — not exactly a sign of confidence on the part of China’s rulers in their system of authoritarian government.
Before suggesting a way forward for Hong Kong’s ham-fisted authorities, I would like to clarify three points. First, it is a slur on the integrity and principles of Hong Kong’s citizens to assert, as the Chinese government’s propaganda machine does, that they are being manipulated by outside forces.… Seguir leyendo »
Was it a grim defining moment when Leung Chun-ying, variously known, among more flattering titles, as the Chief Executive of Hong Kong and the Chief Puppet of Beijing, ruled out any prospect of China changing its mind or allowing concessions to the limited version of “democracy” it has promised for Hong Kong in 2017, when voters are to choose his successor?
He sternly warned demonstrators to give up their “illegal” protests that have taken over large areas of Hong Kong for several days. Just before the midnight deadline that students had set him, Leung agreed to dialogue but the concession was late in coming.… Seguir leyendo »
China frequently accuses the West, and the United States in particular, of stirring up trouble and fanning fears of China. From foreign-funded NGOs that spread ideas about human rights and constitutional government to Western journalistic exposes of the wealth of Chinese officials, the West seems bent on humiliating China, as it has since the early 19th century. Last week, the pro-Chinese Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po identified "a wide range of evidence" that purportedly shows that Joshua Wong, a 17-year-old organizer at the center of the current Hong Kong protests, is controlled by the "black hand of U.S. forces."
The young activists marching for democracy here face a serious risk from an unexpected source: Visa laws that could greatly complicate and, in some cases, bar students who are arrested from traveling to the United States or Britain. There is a simple way to correct this injustice, but it would require U.S. and British officials to challenge Beijing’s overly broad warnings against “foreign interference.”
The Hong Kong students massing in the streets as part the Occupy Central movement have been bitterly disappointed by what they perceive to be Beijing’s betrayal of a promise to allow genuine democratic elections. Hong Kong authorities made arrests over the weekend and have threatened more.… Seguir leyendo »
As Hong Kong's biggest protests in a generation raged around her, one 23-year-old Chinese student cut a calm but lonely figure.
Hong Kong students had poured out of her university to chant and sing for democracy on the streets but Ding Hui [not her real name], a graduate student from the Chinese mainland, decided to keep going to her classes.
"You cannot ignore the protests," she said. "There are always people at the subway station handing out fliers urging us to take part.
"But I personally do not think it is necessary to protest on the street. Mainlanders understand this better than Hong Kongers.… Seguir leyendo »
Will the tensions in Hong Kong be the straw that breaks the global economy’s back? That question is on many investors’ minds as they watch the Chinese government's response to one of the biggest sociopolitical challenges it has faced in recent years. The answer is far from straightforward.
It is already a tentative time for the world economy. Growth is faltering in Europe and Japan. The U.S. economy, while doing better, has yet to lift off. Emerging economies have slowed, and are unlikely to return to higher growth anytime soon. Meanwhile, pockets of excessive risk-taking have multiplied in financial markets, adding to concerns about future volatility.… Seguir leyendo »
Overnight, my childhood home became a battleground. The Hong Kong streets where I grew up morphed into an alarming political flash point with riot police in gas masks firing tear-gas canisters at pro-democracy protesters, many of them defending themselves from the noxious white clouds with little more than umbrellas and plastic wrap.
Having lived for years in Beijing researching the legacy of China’s suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, I should not have been shocked. After unleashing the army on their own people a quarter-century ago, China’s leaders were left with a brooding sense of their own vulnerability and a determination to ensure demonstrations would never again spiral out of control.… Seguir leyendo »
In the eyes of many elite observers, the pro-democracy protesters occupying streets and plazas in Hong Kong’s business and political core are hopelessly naive. Though the city is mostly self-governing, Beijing has power over its political development, and the mainland’s ruling Communist Party is unlikely to accede to popular demands for unfettered democracy. Changing course amid the dramatic popular protests of recent days could encourage subversive ideas among Chinese citizens elsewhere. Rather than encouraging change, disorder in Hong Kong could confirm Beijing’s worst fears about loosening up.
But Hong Kong residents — a majority of whom want authentic democracy, polls show — need not lose hope and quietly acquiesce to Beijing.… Seguir leyendo »
On Sunday the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress issued restrictive guidelines for the election of Hong Kong’s next chief executive in 2017. Shorn of its technical details, the proposal in effect gives Beijing the means to control who could run for the top office in Hong Kong: Voters would get to cast a ballot, but only for one of just a handful of candidates pre-selected by the Chinese government.
“By endorsing this framework,” Cheung Man-kwong, a veteran politician of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, told the media, “China has in truth and in substance reneged on her promise to give Hong Kong universal suffrage.”… Seguir leyendo »
Seventeen years after the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, the political future of the territory hangs in the balance. The city can continue down a path that will lead to a fully democratic political system, or Beijing can thwart its democratic development and eventually run Hong Kong like just another Chinese city.
All signs indicate that Beijing plans to tighten its grip. As increasingly restive Hong Kongers protest this summer against Beijing’s interference, the international community, particularly Britain, the former colonial power, has a moral and legal obligation to support their will for democracy and autonomy. London should demand that Beijing live up to its agreements and back off.… Seguir leyendo »
Pieces of paper have a poor reputation among political realists, and history is littered with the torn-up fragments of solemn treaties. Seventeen years after a tearful Chris Patten, the last colonial governor of Hong Kong, sailed away on the royal yacht Britannia in July 1997, two pieces of paper are in contention, and they're sparking an increasingly bitter confrontation over the right of Hong Kong's people to choose their own government.
More than 700,000 people voted for that right last week in an unofficial referendum organised by Occupy Central, a pro-democracy movement founded in 2013. And on 1 July tens of thousands took to the streets in Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy rally in more than a decade.… Seguir leyendo »
Since Hong Kong was handed over by the British to China in 1997, the territory’s seven million residents have been free to govern themselves with relatively little interference from Beijing. That freedom is now under threat, frustration with Beijing is mounting, and the possibility of violence is growing.
Although Beijing’s hand can be felt in many areas, its increasing meddling in local politics is most troubling. The central government had promised Hong Kongers they could directly elect their leader in 2017, but it has yet to approve a process for nominating candidates. Beijing appears to want candidates screened by a Beijing-friendly nomination committee, thus dashing hopes for real electoral choice.… Seguir leyendo »
For the nearly 17 years since Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997, we Hong Kongers have been dreaming of the genuine democracy that was promised by Beijing. But today our autonomy and the rule of law it buttresses are under threat from the mainland central government.
Infringement on the freedom of the Hong Kong press has been the most recent example of Beijing’s meddling in our affairs. But even more pernicious is an ongoing campaign by the mainland leadership and its local allies to deny Hong Kongers the right to a democratic future, a right that was guaranteed to us in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration and in our mini-constitution, the Basic Law, which was promulgated in 1990.… Seguir leyendo »
This month, for the third time in a row, the Asians kicked American butt — academically, that is. On reading, science and math, students in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore earned the top scores on the international PISA test. U.S. students scored below or near the worldwide average, prompting suggestions that American education as a whole is failing. As a Hong Kong educator, I’m confident that the last thing the United States needs to copy is Chinese education.
Here in this city of 2 million parents , there are 2 million school principals, all ordering after-school academic courses like appetizers in a restaurant.… Seguir leyendo »
Hong Kong, so often trapped under the shadow of a rising China, was suddenly thrown into the spotlight when Edward J. Snowden sought refuge from the U.S. government in our city. The speculation over the 30-year-old whistleblower’s fate, and Beijing’s role in the matter, stirred curiosity over how this territory of seven million has fared in the 16 years since it was returned to China by Britain.
Curious outsiders will have their answer on Monday. While the city’s pro-Beijing elite are celebrating the anniversary of the handover, thousands of people will take to the streets to protest their frustrations with the government, and its eroding autonomy from the mainland.… Seguir leyendo »
The other day I went into a family-run noodle shop and when I paid, I handed over a colonial-era one-dollar coin with the British queen’s head. I instantly felt a pang of regret.
“Sorry, could I swap it? I want to save the one with the queen’s head,” I explained, popping another dollar coin with a Bauhinia flower into the money pot and retrieving my old coin. The owner frowned and gave me a funny look.
I was puzzled by my own action. It’s not like I loved living under the colonial government. I vividly remember the sense of humiliation we endured: as a child in the 1970s, I remember kids from the nearby British school habitually jumping the public bus line.… Seguir leyendo »
My three-year-old daughter came home one day late last year, proudly waving a paper Chinese national flag that she had made at her kindergarten. The five yellow stars were neatly colored-in amid a sea of red on a piece of paper stuck onto a drinking straw.
“Look, mom, it’s got to have five stars!” she said excitedly. Then she paused.
“Mom, will you take me to see the flag-raising ceremony in Beijing?” she said with her little eyes twinkling expectedly. Then she started humming the Chinese national anthem.
I was taken aback. I murmured: “Yes darling, one day, when you’re older.”… Seguir leyendo »
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