It’s not Beijing that’s turning Hong Kong into just another Chinese city
Over the past two years, there have been more signs that Hong Kong’s political elite are driving an increasing mainlandisation, chipping away at the city’s distinctive status and advantages
Has Hong Kong become just another Chinese city or will it very soon, having lost its “unique advantages”? The signs hardly augur well.
Late last year, a married couple – eminent thought leaders in Hong Kong – embarked on a month-long trip to Canada and the United States, where they visited relatives and friends with extensive knowledge of this part of the world or who have lived in Hong Kong or on the mainland. The universal reaction was that Hong Kong has become just another Chinese city, or will be very soon.
“The rhetoric hastens the demise of our high degree of autonomy in real and perceptual terms,” one of the pair told me recently. What they experienced was not unique. Overseas perceptions of Hong Kong’s future are very pessimistic.
Perhaps more ominously, more mainlanders believe Hong Kong is fading fast, with a recent acid comment gaining traction on social media, calling Central’s Exchange Square, which houses the stock bourse, a relic of history.
The response from Hong Kong officials has been weak, blaming outsiders for spreading misconceptions while doing a poor job of explaining how different Hong Kong is under “one country, two systems”.
Beijing’s forceful imposition of a national security law in June 2020 hardened the perception that it had intended to make Hong Kong just another Chinese city all along.
But that is where the biggest misconception about Hong Kong lies. While Beijing has very good reasons to keep Hong Kong separate as a capitalist city, it is Hong Kong’s political elite who are, consciously or subconsciously, hastening its mainlandisation.
The Chinese leadership’s guideline for Hong Kong has remained unchanged: “long-term planning and full utilisation”. Under that policy, the People’s Liberation Army was ordered to stop advancing at the Lo Wu border in 1949 and radical leftists in Hong Kong were discouraged from fanning Cultural-Revolution-style riots in 1967. The distinctively capitalist city has proven invaluable to the mainland, from the Korean war in the 1950s to China’s opening up in the 1980s.
Even as Beijing asserts its “comprehensive jurisdiction” over Hong Kong, President Xi Jinping has vowed that it “must maintain Hong Kong’s unique status and strengths”, including its common law system.
From Beijing’s point of view, keeping Hong Kong’s role as a “superconnector” should be the most optimal arrangement.
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China’s Xi Jinping praises Hong Kong leader’s work on national security, district councils
China’s Xi Jinping praises Hong Kong leader’s work on national security, district councils
Over the past two years, however, there have been more signs that Hong Kong’s political elite are driving an increasing mainlandisation of the city, chipping away at its distinctive status and advantages.
One of the most jarring and blatant examples is that they are embracing mainland-style practices of formality for formality’s sake, bureaucracy and extravagance – even as the central government cracks down on those practices on the mainland.
Ironically, Chinese officials, who are strictly regulated over wining and dining as well as attending public events on the mainland, don’t appear to be bound by any rule when in Hong Kong. Such activities of extravagance, even hedonism, have poisoned Hong Kong’s long-cherished system of clean governance and rule of law.
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‘Perceptions are important’: new Hong Kong justice secretary defends city’s rule of law
‘Perceptions are important’: new Hong Kong justice secretary defends city’s rule of law
Eager to be politically correct, the city’s elite and politicians have wasted no time copying mainland-style high-profile ceremonies and seminars to study the remarks of top Chinese leaders and pledge allegiance.
In another worrying example of what former chief executive Leung Chun-ying denounced as “ostentatious and extravagant” practices by pro-Beijing establishment figures, a district councillor attended an August bash celebrating his departure to Beijing for a study tour. More than 500 people, including senior officials, lawmakers and other pro-Beijing figures, showed up.
Senior Hong Kong officials are believed to attend four or five public functions every day in peak season, lawmakers even more, making one wonder how much time is left for their real jobs.
The pro-establishment camp held a large banquet last August for Wong Tai Sin district officer Steve Wong Chi-wah ahead of his move to Beijing for a year of further studies. Photo: Handout
With the national security law and electoral overhaul, legislators and district councillors should be showing how they are carrying out their duties to provide checks and balances and keep government officials on their toes. Instead, they are seen wining and dining together.
Over the past few years, both mainland and Hong Kong officials have urged the city to better integrate into China’s overall development, the Greater Bay Area in particular, and dovetail with national development strategies. There’s nothing wrong with this rhetoric, but it creates the perception that the city is being passively led.
As Beijing vows to assert its comprehensive jurisdiction over Hong Kong, another perception is that Hong Kong’s civil servants are awaiting instructions on how to move forward, as they send multiple study tours to Beijing.
Secretary for the Civil Service Ingrid Yeung speaks to study tour participants at the Civil Service College on May 30 last year before they leave for Beijing, expressing the bureau’s expectations of them. Photo: Handout from Hong Kong’s Information Services Department
Both perceptions are ominous for Hong Kong. Since China’s opening up in the late 1970s, Beijing has intended for Hong Kong to provide not only investments but also technical know-how, from legal services to urban management, so “more Hong Kongs” could be created on the mainland, in Deng Xiaoping’s words.
Moreover, the mainland mandarins have zero idea about how to run a capitalist city. Turning to them for clues is the worst option.
What Hong Kong should have done is use its superconnector role to influence Beijing’s policymaking so its decisions are more conducive to foreign investment and trade. Unfortunately, there is little sign of that.
Ironically, after Hong Kong decided to expand its talent attraction schemes to stem an outflow of professionals, tens of thousands of mainlanders have applied to settle, precisely because of its capitalist system.
The perception that Hong Kong is becoming just another Chinese city has made them uneasy. As several recently lamented to me: what is the point of coming if Hong Kong is turning itself into just another mainland city?
In many ways and for many people, perception is reality.
Wang Xiangwei is a former editor-in-chief of the South China Morning Post. He now teaches journalism at Baptist University
