My Take | Hong Kong rebellion a big boost to Chinese nationalism
- Too much freedom allowed in Hong Kong is seen by many mainlanders to be undermining stability and prosperity, both of which are considered best guaranteed by the communist state
Let me first examine the impact of the protests on the mainland, leaving Hong Kong and Taiwan for later columns.
Actually, Hong Kong’s latest crisis is nothing like Tiananmen 30 years ago, though many people, both here and overseas, especially some politicians in the United States, have been baying for a Tiananmen-like crackdown. Beijing, wisely, has declined to oblige.
It can afford to play the long game because Hong Kong is almost 2,000km away whereas Tiananmen Square is, and has long been, the symbolic core of the capital, not just for the nation and the state, but for Chinese civilisation itself.
The danger has always been that rebellion in Hong Kong could spread northward to the rest of the country. But there is no chance of that: we Hongkongers openly fight against mainland incursion, not just political interference from Beijing, but against incoming mainlanders. The most visible sign is that many rioters pick on Mandarin-speaking people to beat up and have campaigned against “big mothers”, street performers from the mainland.