Ten ways to turn around Hong Kong’s governance and relations with Beijing

Much has been said about how fractious and confrontational the newly elected Legislative Council is going to be. Young anti-establishment activists have pushed over the old guards. “Localists” with “self-determination” or “independence” leanings have taken centre stage. Simple pleas for closer cooperation with the government are unlikely to bear much fruit. If left to fester, the political ecology is bound to get worse. What is more, it has touched a raw nerve with Beijing. The prospects for good governance look depressing. The rest of the world is watching.

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People are unhappy with how Hong Kong is currently governed. They have lost confidence in the traditional pan-democrats’ ability to effect change. They want to take back Hong Kong’s future.

Clearly, if “one country, two systems” is to flourish, doing more of the same is not going to work. Nothing less than a paradigm shift in managing relations between Beijing and Hong Kong, and between Legco and the administration, is now in order.

A package of tentative ideas comes to mind.

First, Beijing still wants the Hong Kong model to succeed, even if its relative economic contribution to China has diminished. As happened during the first decade after the handover, Beijing is capable of bending over backwards in safeguarding Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy. But what it is unlikely to tolerate is allowing the Basic Law , the foundation of “one country, two systems”, to be watered down and, least of all, to see Hong Kong becoming a hotbed for separatism.

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However, for Hong Kong to excel as a success story, coercive tactics are unlikely to help. People’s strong aspirations for greater democracy must be met. Beijing should therefore be persuaded to offer a much more liberal electoral reform package during the next administration.