Pan-democrats must halt their war of words with the establishment
John Chan says the pan-democrats must stop their war of words with Beijing and the Hong Kong government, as it has got so out of hand it is now affecting our long-term interests
In his policy address, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying criticised the University of Hong Kong Student Union's magazine, for proposing independence as a political choice for Hong Kong, which raised the profile of a magazine that had previously been little known to the public.
In those few controversial issues of , the students did not use the term "Chinese government" or "Beijing government" when referring to the central government. Instead, they wrote about the "Chinese Communists" - a term also used by the Kuomintang to address the Chinese Communist Party at the peak of hostilities during the civil war on the mainland. And the KMT continued to use the term, often considered derogatory, after it retreated to Taiwan.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, pro-Taiwan government newspapers in Hong Kong did not use the term "Chinese government" in their reports or commentaries. Instead, they referred to the "Chinese Communists". At that time, the Nationalists did not recognise the legitimacy of the government in Beijing, viewing the Communist Party on the mainland as having usurped power.
Today in Hong Kong, the term "Chinese Communists" is seen most visibly on Falun Gong banners, found in almost every one of the 18 districts, which proclaim: "Let God annihilate the Chinese Communists."
Today's renegade students could be excused for being unaware of the historical background and implications of referring to the Beijing government in such a way. However, rather awkwardly, since the Occupy movement, the two pan-democratic party chiefs - Democrats chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing and the Civic Party's Alan Leong Kah-kit - have also been repeatedly using the hostile term in public to refer to the legitimate government of a sovereign state that also has sovereignty over Hong Kong, and the state to which they owe their allegiance.
Clearly, their hostility towards the central government has robbed them of wisdom and common sense.
