LettersHong Kong’s identity crisis: could Chinese socialism in local colours be the solution?

From my point of view, as a member of the Socialist Party USA and descended from Hong Kong parents, the causes of the political conflicts Mr Wong cites are well-attributed. However, the solutions he proposes are far more sociocultural than political. A set of political conflicts must be answered by a set of solutions that are, at their base, political – because the causes must be addressed, rather than the symptoms.

Hong Kong has long been an international city, a seamless blend of East and West. Under Chinese sovereignty, the balance is tipping increasingly towards authoritarianism, and fear of that authoritarianism is fuelling opposition, long accustomed to “laissez-faire libertarianism”, as Mr Wong astutely notes.

It is, then, rather fortuitous that a viable counterbalance is to be found in the Near East. In other words, the Middle East. That the Kurds who launched, and sustained, the Rojava revolution to a point where the Democratic Federation of Northern Syria was one of the safest regions in that war-torn country is a testament to the potential of a new order, under a variation of libertarian socialism.

Whether such an ideological framework is something that would be put in place for a Hong Kong under Chinese sovereignty is more than what I can predict. In the end, the Chinese Communist Party appears intent on staying on the Marxist-Leninist horse. There is, also, that party’s desire to maintain social order domestically and merging with – or reasserting control over – Taiwan, while fending off liberal democratic critics.