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Protesters clash with riot police as they retreat to Connaught Road in Central after rallying outside the central government’s liaison office in Sai Ying Pun. Photo: Sam Tsang
Opinion
The View
by John Gong
The View
by John Gong

Protests won’t solve Hong Kong’s economic problems, as the 1967 Newark riots show

  • Black residents of the New Jersey city had reason to complain, but the violence of 1967 scared away all economic hope. Likewise, if frustrated Hongkongers continue on their current path, they will send more business fleeing to Singapore
John Gong
John Gong
Why you can trust SCMP

It’s likely that few of the Hong Kong protesters have heard of the 1967 Newark riots. The college students, young folks and all those men and women of Hong Kong who have taken to the streets in the past few weeks should learn about this part of the history in America, whose political system they purportedly demand.

The economic situation in Newark in 1967 was quite similar to Hong Kong’s today, and goals of the rioters were also quite similar. Amid the trend of relentless suburbanisation in the 1960s, Newark underwent a seismic economic change. The middle-class whites and World War II veterans were leaving Newark for more picturesque Northern Jersey suburbs, while low-income blacks moved in en masse in search of jobs and affordable housing. By 1967, Newark had become one of the first cities in the US with a majority black population.

But jobs were scarce, salaries were low, and political representation in the city council remained skewed towards whites. Many blacks, especially young blacks, felt a sense of injustice, disenfranchisement and hopelessness as a result of years of pent-up grievances, much like the young people rioting on the streets of Hong Kong in the last few days. On top of all this, there was the racially charged police brutality against the black community.

From July 12 to July 17 of that year, the city virtually burst into flames, following riots incited by the police beating of a black cab driver, wrecking neighbourhood after neighbourhood. The National Guard was called in to quell the riot. When the dust settled, 26 people had been killed and more than 700 were injured, most of them black.

Half a century later, Newark appears to have never fully recovered, having driven away businesses and middle-class residents. By the time I was taking after-work classes at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in downtown Newark in the late 1990s, every night trip was still a precarious venture. Even today there are still plots in the city that languish in decay.

Hong Kong’s economy is also currently going through a seismic change. The high-flying real estate prices and the city’s elapsed role as a mediating ground for trade between China and the West have partly contributed to its economy losing steam. Jobs are increasingly moving to mainland cities that neighbour it to the north. While Shenzhen and Guangzhou boom with thriving hi-tech industries, better-paying jobs in Hong Kong are becoming more and more difficult for the younger generation to find.

Hong Kong youngsters are mortgaging their future

Such is the economic reality the political leadership in Hong Kong needs to come to grips with. The old growth model built on finance, real estate and intermediary trade is not going to cut it in the digital economy age.

But the Newark experience shows that the pain of the less privileged is not going to be resolved by violence and vandalism – it is only going to make their lives even worse. If Hong Kong’s riots continue, my sad prediction is that there will be an exodus of businesses to Singapore while expatriates flee in droves. By then the “Pearl of the Orient” will forever lose its lustre.

Hong Kong’s future hinges on restoration of law and order

Those folks on the streets in Hong Kong may think they are in some kind of “revolution” for political empowerment, but riotous “revolutions” all around the world in recent years have invariably resulted in chaos, ruin and even worse misery for the poor. Just look at Libya, Egypt and Ukraine.

Leaders in Hong Kong have heard the young people’s pain. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has heard the pain. Beijing has heard the pain. It is about time for demonstrators to go home and give democracy a chance, and for that matter give “one country, two systems” a chance.

Give it some more time and things will change. This riotous path is definitely leading nowhere, other than the loser fate of the city of Newark.

Dr John Gong is a research fellow at Charhar Institute and professor at the University of International Business and Economics

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: A lesson from history
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