Opinion | Hong Kong isn’t dead (yet), but it has lost its edge

Fortune magazine was talking about “the Death of Hong Kong” back in 1995. Since then, many a political coroner has pronounced this city dead many a time. Most recently, the Hong Kong government’s refusal to renew the visa of British journalist Victor Mallet, who chaired a Foreign Correspondents’ Club talk by Hong Kong National Party founder Andy Chan Ho-tin, was another nail in the coffin.

I have always believed that Hongkongers were politically apathetic by choice. It was a way of surviving and not giving up – surviving colonial rule and not suffocating in the toxic atmosphere of doom and uncertainty that was the handover. That Lion Rock spirit made sure the horses would still be running and the dancers dancing.

In many ways, Hong Kong’s success can be attributed to an attitude that Deng Xiaoping’s son, Deng Pufang, spelt out in a speech when he was re-elected as honorary chair of the China Disabled Persons' Federation on September 16. He said, “We must seek truth from fact, keep a sober mind and know our own place. We should neither be overbearing nor belittle ourselves.” Deng wasn’t speaking about the people of Hong Kong but it still rang true – it spoke of the way Hong Kong was.