IN 1995, Beijing official Li Ruihuan likened
Hong Kong to a 100-year-old clay teapot famous for the quality of the tea it
poured.
But its
owner, after selling the teapot, proceeded to scour it clean, removing the
patina within that had given the tea its deep flavour. Alas, the teapot is now
worthless, the dismayed buyer pronounced.
The
message by Li, then a member of China's powerful Standing Committee of the
Politburo, was clear: Beijing must take heed not to rub out Hong Kong's special
character that makes it valuable to China.
Almost
two decades on, it seems that Beijing is coming to a two-fold conclusion - that
Hong Kong's "special character" is becoming less special as the rest
of the country opens up and that even if the city retains a certain value, it
is hardly worth the trouble any more.
Whatever
kid gloves the central authorities had donned in the 1980s and 1990s to assure
Hong Kongers that despite returning to Chinese rule under the Communist Party,
their way of life would be retained under the "one country, two
systems" framework, these are now off.
This
was evident in the hard-line tone Beijing took in recent months to make it
clear to Hong Kong who is the boss.
An
unprecedented White Paper last month said that whatever autonomy that Hong Kong
enjoys is at Beijing's pleasure, infuriating the city's denizens.
It also
categorised judges as "administrators" who have to "love the
country", worrying many who believe that this will undermine Hong Kong's
famed judicial independence.
The
stridency continued thereafter, with Beijing indicating it would not budge an
inch, never mind the overwhelming turnouts for a mock democracy referendum that
it denounced as "illegal and a farce", the July 1 protest march or a
subsequent mini-Occupy Central exercise by students. Hong Kong, warned the
state-run Global Times, could "become a Thailand or Ukraine".
Well-placed
figures have also alternately evoked the spectre of the People's Liberation
Army moving in to clear the chaos - a viscerally powerful image in a city that
feels personally bound to the 1989 Tiananmen student movement - and the veiled
threat of withdrawing preferential policies for the city.
Beijing's
harshness may seem justified to its supporters.
In its
eyes, "radical Hong Kongers" are the ones who are playing a dangerous
game of brinkmanship by making the contentious constitutional reform process an
"all or nothing" deal and by lobbying for full-fledged rights to
nominate and elect their leader.
Beijing,
on the other hand, wants to reserve vetting power by pre-selecting only those
who "love China, love Hong Kong" - a byword for a Communist Party
supporter.
An
acquaintance who works for the Chinese government made this telling comment
when I observed that the White Paper had added fuel to the fire: "They
will find an excuse to be provoked, no matter what."
It is a
reflection of how certain segments in Beijing appear to view "the Hong
Kong problem" - that the city is behaving like a wayward child who does
not see reason and therefore needs to be chastised.
But
looking at the society through such lenses and deploying a sledgehammer
strategy will simply stiffen Hong Kongers' resistance and alienate the majority
who are otherwise moderate and pragmatic in viewing their fraught relationship
with the mainland.
Neither
the pro-democracy advocates, who threatened to hold an Occupy Central civil
disobedience movement to paralyse Hong Kong's financial district if the
government's proposal does not meet "international standards", nor
the radical groups, which led an attempted siege of the legislature over a
controversial government plan to develop New Territories towns, initially had
the broad support of Hong Kong society.
What
eventually propelled so many people to step out - nearly 800,000 voted in the
referendum and a reported 510,000 marched during the protest - was a sense of
emergency over a larger issue.
Hong
Kongers are proud of their city and their core values. Threatening their way of
life and browbeating them into submission are not the way to go. Instead,
Beijing is driving a broad swathe of the people out on the streets and into
opposition against it.
Now,
Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy party - the formerly moderate Democratic
Party - is saying that it is preparing for an Occupy Central movement which
could happen as early as this month, citing the huge public turnout as
something it cannot ignore.
Given
the party's six seats in the legislature and its traditional leadership role in
the pro-democracy movement, its support is critical for the successful passage
of any political reform.
To
observers, it is a dangerous and dispiriting cycle of action and over-reaction,
with both sides digging in and having no way to go but down.
How
will it end? Politics is unpredictable and, with some players still trying to
find a compromise, what has been termed Hong Kong's biggest political turmoil
since 1997 may well have an amicable ending.
But,
for a start, Beijing could perhaps take to heart again Li's advice.
Li
Xueying
The
Straits Times
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
in Singapore since 1994.
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