Opinion | Beijing should clarify what happens to Hong Kong after 2047, to ease the fear and uncertainty
- A simple statement that Hong Kong’s way of life can continue indefinitely after 2047 until otherwise agreed would sets minds at ease in Hong Kong and aid Beijing’s case for reunification with Taiwan
The best thing Beijing could do now for Hong Kong’s young people is to relieve them of the burden of thinking about 2047. For those of us in the community aged 60 or over, this date is of little or no concern: let’s face it, we probably won’t be around. And those in their 40s and 50s have mostly by now become used to life’s compromises.
The uncertainty about what happens next is preying on their minds. They see themselves as being in a classic existentialist situation where, like all creatures who detect danger, they must choose “fight or flight”. And they are still young enough to do either, or both.
I believe they are wrong in their analysis, but it is hard to blame them. Many people in Hong Kong – including politicians, journalists, political commentators, legal scholars – have concluded that the whole of the Basic Law expires in 2047.
It follows, at least in their line of thinking, that thereafter the mainland’s socialist economic system and all mainland laws will take over from the common law system. All of the freedoms we currently enjoy will be swept away.
