Once a model city, Hong Kong is in trouble
Fight over political future has led to city’s decline
HONG KONG — When Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule two decades ago, the city was seen as a model of what China might one day become: prosperous, modern, international, with the broad protections of the rule of law.
There was anxiety about how such a place could survive in authoritarian China. But even after Beijing began encroaching on this former British colony’s freedoms, its reputation as one of the best-managed cities in Asia endured.
The trains ran on time. Crime and taxes were low. The skyline dazzled with ever taller buildings.
Those are still true. Yet as the 20th anniversary of the handover approaches Saturday, that perception of Hong Kong as something special — a vibrant crossroads of East and West that China might want to emulate — is fading fast.
Never-ending disputes between the city’s Beijingbacked leadership and the prodemocracy opposition have crippled the government’s ability to make difficult decisions and complete important construction projects.
Caught between rival modes of rule — Beijing’s dictates and the demands of local residents — the authorities have allowed problems to fester, including an affordable housing crisis, a troubled education system and a delayed high-speed rail line.
Many say the fight over Hong Kong’s political future has paralyzed it, and perhaps doomed it to decline. As a result, the city is increasingly held up not as a model of China’s future but as a cautionary tale — for Beijing and its allies, of the perils of democracy, and for the opposition, of the perils of authoritarianism.
“More and more, there is a sense of futility,” said Anson Chan, the second-highest official in the Hong Kong government in the years before and after the handover to Chinese rule. She blames Beijing’s interference for the city’s woes. “We have this enormous giant at our doorstep,” she said, “and the rest of the world does not seem to question whatever the enormous giant does.”
Others spread the blame more broadly. They point to the opposition’s reluctance to compromise and policies that weaken political parties, including multiseat legislative districts that allow radical candidates to win with a minority of votes.
“This kind of a political atmosphere will disrupt many of the initiatives that may come along,” said Anna Wu, a member of the territory’s executive council, or Cabinet.
Hong Kong was once known for the speed and efficiency with which it built huge planned communities with ample public housing every several years. But it has not managed to do so since Britain returned it to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997.
The airport was built by the British before they left. So were the institutions that really distinguish the city: the independent courts, the civil service, the freewheeling press. Those were preserved under the “one country, two systems” formula that promised Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy when Britain returned it to China. But they have been weakened as the Communist Party increasingly meddles in the city’s affairs, intimidating and even abducting people seen as challenging its interests.
The Umbrella Movement demanding free elections that seized control of downtown streets for 11 weeks in late 2014 is just a distant memory. But sullen resentment of mainland China has spread as Hong Kong’s democratic evolution has stalled.
Beijing’s allies have a majority in the legislature because half the 70 seats are selected by interest groups mostly loyal to the mainland government. But the other half is elected, and lawmakers who favor greater democracy have won a majority of those seats. The result is gridlock. Both sides agree that the city will become ungovernable without some kind of political change. But they cannot agree on what to do.
The democrats want a clear road map to universal suffrage — which Beijing promised in 2007 “may be implemented” in 2017 — starting with direct elections for the chief executive. Only when the government is accountable to the public will it have a mandate to tackle the challenges facing the city, they say. But supporters of Beijing say the problem is too much democracy, not too little.