Hong Kong’s ‘umbrella movement’ casts shade on handover celebration
Iin Hong Kong
t was the smoothest of handovers. At 11.59pm on Monday June 30, 1997, a little after guests at Hong Kong’s Regent Hotel had enjoyed curry in the Raj room and rum punches in the Caribbean room, a military band struck up God Save the Queen. The Union flag – and the British Empire with which it had for so long been synonymous – fell in unison.
The last note had hardly faded when the band of the People’s Liberation Army struck up a rather different anthem.
Just as they did so, at the stroke of midnight, the red and yellow-starred flag of Communist China began to be raised. After 156 years, Britain was surrendering its last major colony – but, for a time, it seemed only the pomp was changing.
Twenty years on, Hong Kong is preparing for another act of street theatre. On July 1, Xi Jinping is expected to make his first visit as China’s president. He will commemorate the anniversary with a flag-raising ceremony to swear in the city’s new chief executive, Carrie Lam. Under the slogan “Together, Progress, Opportunity”, the government has organised more than 500 celebratory events, including concerts, competitions and exhibitions. Yet behind the hoopla, the transition from British to Chinese rule has been rather bumpier. Under the handover agreement, Beijing agreed to permit “one country, two systems” for 50 years. Hong Kong would become part of China, but it would be a “special administrative region”, with its capitalist system and freedoms such as an independent press and judiciary respected. A growing number of Hong Kongers believe China is honouring its commitment only in name, and has welched on its promise to deliver democracy. As many as a third of the city’s police force are expected on the streets to protect Mr Xi, but they will not be able to drown out the dissent.
That same afternoon, 100,000 Hong Kongers will attend a prodemocracy rally in Victoria Park, according to its organisers. “There will be some pomp,” said Cliff Buddle, a senior editor at the South China Morning Post. “And there will be some protests.”
Two days later, on July 3, one of the city’s youngest democrats, Joshua Wong, will direct renewed international attention to his cause when he appears in the High Court, charged with criminal contempt of court for violating an injunction in 2014, when, aged 17, he helped to lead the “umbrella movement” that occupied the city’s Central business district for 79 days. (It gained its name from the umbrellas the mainly youthful protesters used to guard against tear gas.) His struggle for universal suffrage has just been made into a Netflix documentary, under the title Teenager v Superpower.
Mr Wong, who was only nine months old at the time of the handover and is still a student, was briefly disillusioned when the umbrella protest ended without any concessions from Beijing. “I felt downhearted and depressed,” he said recently, in an interview beside the Victoria Harbour, overlooking the city’s famous skyscrapers. “We asked people to sacrifice their jobs, their family or their future careers, but we have not received any concrete results.”
Now the young activist is ready to join the fray again.
“After the umbrella movement, July 1 will be the largest rally,” he said. “I hope 100,000 people will come to the streets to ask for democracy. It is not a time for celebration.”
Unlike the city’s older generation, who critics say are content to ignore constitutional matters so long as the city’s economy continues to flourish, Mr Wong and many of his fellow students are ready to confront Beijing to demand democracy. Only half of the members of the city’s Legislative Council are elected by all Hong Kongers. Most power resides with the chief executive, a post which is not popularly elected; officeholders are often accused of doing Beijing’s bidding. A proposal to extend the tiny electorate for the office originally triggered the umbrella protest, since voters would only be able to choose from a few candidates picked by a nominating committee.
If Mr Wong is found guilty, he could face jail. “If you ask would I want or like to go to jail, I would say, ‘not at all’ – but being an activist who advocates civil disobedience, I expect to pay the price.”
Though the July 1 protest will last only a day, he hopes there will soon be a more permanent demonstration. “During the umbrella movement, we had 200,000 people on the streets. I believe if we have two million, we can achieve democracy. The question is how to increase the number.”
Such talk attracts detractors as well as admirers. Mr Wong is often stopped as he walks the city’s streets. Some tell him, “we rely on you”; others call him a traitor or a CIA agent.
Regina Ip, a pro-establishment lawmaker and former security secretary who talks happily of “our masters in Beijing”, is to the point.
When The Sunday Telegraph mentioned Mr Wong she claimed: “He did not do well as a student but somehow he has stood out as an advocate. When we tried to engage him in argument, he couldn’t sustain his arguments and left. That was my encounter with him.”
Although she claims to support universal suffrage, she says it should be introduced by a “step-by-step process”. She said: “As a very senior Chinese leader said to me; ‘You have to eat rice mouthful by mouthful and you have to walk step by step.’”
Pointing out that Britain did little to introduce democracy before the handover, she says that Beijing is now “regretting” promising universal suffrage and claims the current crop of politicians is not experienced enough for democracy. “I am practically the only one with government experience… The skillsets are very different from the skillsets of those who succeed in business and the professions. You need to know how to do sloganeering; you need to know how to attack and smear in campaigns.”
So, will Hong Kong ever have Western-style democracy?
“Dismiss from your mind such fallacious fancies, if I may quote Benjamin Disraeli. That would turn us into an independent political entity. Beijing is only prepared to make us a highly democratic special administrative region.”
Anson Chan, another grand dame of the city’s politics, who like Mrs Ip, has been called “Hong Kong’s Iron Lady”, views Mr Wong differently.
“I see him as our future political leader,” said the 77-year-old, who served as the final head of the civil service under London, then the first under Beijing. “He is a very courageous young man. What he is doing at this moment is at great personal sacrifice. When he graduates, I doubt there are many people who will offer him a job because Beijing will be portraying him as a traitor.”
Twenty years ago, Mrs Chan put her “whole heart” into selling the BeijingLondon deal to Hong Kong people. Now, she feels “betrayed” that neither side has stuck to it. “Two systems will exist only in name, but not in fact, way before 2047,” she said. “I don’t know about other people but I object to being told that somehow I’m not qualified to elect my chief executive. I consider myself eminently qualified.”
These days, rather than serving at the right hand of the chief executive, she joins pro-democracy marches.
Mrs Ip, meanwhile, will attend the flag-raising ceremony. She is keenly contemplating the Chinese arts festival laid on for the anniversary.
“Some famous actors will be here to perform and I’ve got a lot of tickets,” she said. “I’ll be watching a lot of Beijing opera.”
With Mr Xi in town, so will we all. Additional reporting by Eric Cheung
‘I hope 100,000 people will come to the streets to ask for democracy. It is not a time for celebration’
Comment: Page 16