Letters | Hong Kong’s ‘two systems’ will survive and prevail
- Readers discuss how Hong Kong is undoing the damage done by the last governor, and why the chief secretary’s tennis court is a metaphor for Hong Kong governance
This is nonsense. Rather, Hong Kong is now returning to basics.
Under the former colonial system, we lived under a different system of government from the sovereign state and it is irrelevant whether you consider that to be Britain or China during that era. We had an appointed governor, little or no Western-style democracy and an authoritarian government which flexed its muscles when challenged.
The governors, although enjoying a high degree of local autonomy, did as told when Britain occasionally intervened and instructed them to follow the party line.
Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping made a promise back in 1984: there would be a change of sovereignty but the city’s social, economic and legal system, and way of life, would be basically unchanged. However, the unwise and radical overnight democratic changes made by the last governor, Chris Patten, wrecked our immediate future stability.
Hong Kong thereafter drifted aimlessly post-1997 and the mainland government unfortunately took its eye off the ball and for too long, allowing the roots of anarchy to progressively start taking hold. We are now back on track. Hong Kong and the “two systems” will survive and prevail.