Under red China, democracy is dead in Hong Kong

Michael Chugani says with our communist leaders in Beijing increasingly confident in exerting their control over the SAR, the city’s aspirations for genuine democracy will go unanswered

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A pro-democracy protester is surrounded by police officers outside the Legislative Council building in Hong Kong, on December 12. Photo: AP

Published: 1:41pm, 13 Dec 2017Updated: 6:49pm, 13 Dec 2017

Do you intend to still be in Hong Kong 10 years from now or are you already having second thoughts? It will be 2027, and a jittery 20-year countdown will begin towards the year “one country, two systems” expires.

I’ll most likely be dead by 2047. But Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and other localists will only be in their early 50s. If they have not already fled, will they still be nimble enough to scale security fences or daring enough to trigger uprisings?

Pro-democracy activists (from left) Lester Shum, Joshua Wong, Raphael Wong, Alex Chow and Nathan Law gather outside Hong Kong’s High Court before their sentencing on contempt of court charges in Hong Kong, on December 7. The activists were being tried for obstructing government bailiffs during the clearance of protesters during the final days of the Occupy protests in 2014. Photo: EPA-EFE

They have insisted that they will never give up their democracy fight.

But bear in mind those who riot or occupy streets will not only be dealing with pushover local police officers. After 2047, they will most likely also have to face off with loyalist People’s Liberation Army soldiers, the kind young mainland activists confronted during the 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising. We all know how that ended.

No one knows if Beijing will renew “one country, two systems”, make changes, or declare it dead. Whatever happens, I’m betting the PLA will no longer be confined to barracks. After 50 years of reunification, Beijing will want to exert more visibility into its sovereignty over Hong Kong.

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