My Take | Beijing’s non-Tiananmen response: build up Shenzhen, forget Hong Kong
- In the near future, unless it changes course, Hong Kong will be more unsafe and unstable, while Shenzhen will be less unfree and more prosperous
Hong Kong was China’s prodigal son. Now, it’s fast becoming the family’s black sheep. It was supposed to take Shenzhen under its wing. But the younger brother has proved to be far more successful and reliable.
Meanwhile, the once-prized son periodically suffers from mental breakdown, leading to increasingly severe self-harm. It can’t decide whether it’s Eastern or Western, Chinese or Caucasian.
On some days, it even denies it’s Chinese and tries to disown its family. Such self-made problems ought to be obvious to outsiders with a modicum of objectivity and common sense. But, in the West, the parents always get the blame.
The parents, though, are starting to realise the prodigal son is actually a basket case, with grandiose dreams of his own self-worth and twisted identity. No wonder they have decided to pass the family’s wealth and legacy to the other siblings.
That’s how you should read a new directive released by the State Council, which has announced a new policy of raising Shenzhen’s status to a more autonomous special economic zone. It will carry out wide-ranging reforms in the legal, financial, medical and social sectors.