HK Eye | Diaoyus dispute encapsulates the Hong Kong identity crisis
The man dubbed by some as a “Chinese hero” is Zeng Jian-cheng, a founder of the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, who last year sailed from Hong Kong to plant a Chinese national flag on isles also claimed by Japan.
When asked about the Senkaku issue, most Hong Kong residents will give a somewhat uniform reply. This includes people usually critical of the Chinese government.
[The] “territorial issues can bring out the patriot in all of us”.
At least in Zeng, the two dichotomies are not reconciled, which may or may not reflect the larger population in Hong Kong.
“Japan never faced up to what it did during World War II, but the way the Chinese government is behaving is just the same,” he tells the Japanese newspaper, referring to Chinese censorship of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.
