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Hong Kong Basic Law
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Letters | What Hong Kong can agree on in divided times: the need to protect its uniqueness

  • There is consensus that Hong Kong’s uniqueness arises from its amalgamation of the Western system, traditional Chinese society and Lingnan culture. Preserving this would benefit both the city and the nation

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A traditional junk boat, a Star Ferry vessel and skyscrapers housing Hong Kong’s financial and trading firms are seen across Victoria Harbour in September 2019. Photo: Edward Wong
Letters
Hong Kong is unique to China, as are Beijing, Shanghai and all major cities in the country. Before the Covid-19 outbreak, I visited Beijing and Shanghai a few times, witnessing how the state-led Zhongguancun initiative in the capital and the pilot free-trade zone in the mainland’s economically freest city shaped the future of innovation and business in China.
As a 21-year-old born and raised in post-handover Hong Kong, lately I have wondered if my hometown can maintain its special economic privileges and status, given that in recent years the gross domestic products of first-tier mainland cities have surpassed that of Hong Kong.

I used to work at a local youth think tank, where it was my role as a facilitator to attempt to resolve conflicts across generations and the social spectrum.

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While there was diversity in political belief, most people agreed that the uniqueness of Hong Kong arose from the intersection of the Western system, traditional Chinese society and Lingnan culture. Notably, another narrative shared by people from both elite and grass-root communities was that the key to maintaining Hong Kong’s prosperity and competitiveness was to preserve our fundamental system, nothing more, nothing less.

Undeniably, our society is now polarised. Some people have proposed structural reform to solve the question of Hong Kong’s future after 2047. However, Val Koromzay, as director of the country studies branch of the OECD’s Economic Department, once said that popular sentiment could not be often translated into a concrete solution due to the conservative nature of the ruling class. Hence, from the perspective of economics, sweeping change requires the blending of two factors that are not easy to combine.
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How would pushing for reform help reconciliation in Hong Kong? A dialogue between neoconservatism and neoliberalism, written by mainland scholar Yang Ji-kai, might offer a clue. He points out that reform is the result of incremental change and respect for the historical continuity of traditional values.

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