Use Hong Kong’s example to argue against ‘China model’ of development, opposition politicians tell US audience
Civic Party chairman Alan Leong and leader Alvin Yeung discuss US-China trade war as well as threats to city’s autonomy at Asia Society seminar in New York
The head of a leading Hong Kong opposition party told an audience in New York on Monday to monitor developments in the city amid growing threats to the freedoms it had been promised by Beijing.
Civic Party chairman Alan Leong Kah-kit said the international community could use Hong Kong – where Western-style civil liberties have been adopted and practised – to help make a case against the so-called China model of development which, critics have claimed, is authoritarian dictatorship in disguise.
Leong and Civic Party leader and lawmaker Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu were in the United States for a week-long visit, during which they were expected to meet House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as foreign policy and trade officials from US President Donald Trump’s administration.
Leong told a seminar the international community should not ignore Hong Kong.
“President Xi [Jinping] wants the world to believe that the China model is superior. What better proof does the world have than Hong Kong for making the case that the same core values and institutions practised by liberal democracies not only work but they work for and among Chinese people,” he said.
Defenders of the China model hold that the country has made great progress toward developing a unique system that combines economic success with political stability because it does not adopt Western-style democracy.