By tightening its grip on Hong Kong, Beijing would only be repeating past mistakes that have led to today’s protests
At times of crisis, Beijing tends to exert more pressure on the city. This happened after mass protests in 2003 and 2014, but has only led to further public frustration, anger and opposition
This weekend marks five months of escalating civil unrest in Hong Kong. No one can tell how the crisis will end. But, however it is resolved, we can be certain the city will never be the same again.
A shift in Beijing’s approach to governing Hong Kong is about to start. We do not know precisely what form it will take. But it appears the central government is preparing to further tighten its grip on the city. There is a danger it will opt for measures which cause further discontent.
Beijing has reaffirmed its support for the “one country, two systems” concept under which Hong Kong has been governed since its return to China in 1997. That is welcome. But the concept can operate in different ways. The amount of autonomy Hong Kong enjoys depends on how much of a free rein the central government allows it.
The communique issued after the Communist Party’s plenum last week suggests Hong Kong is about to be reined in. The party said it would “establish a sound legal system and enforcement mechanism for the safeguarding of national security in the special administrative regions”, in a reference to Hong Kong and Macau.
Senior central government official Shen Chunyao said “specific tasks and arrangements” had been formulated. These involve strengthening the appointment system for the chief executive and principal officials to enable Beijing to “exercise its authority”.
Law enforcement is to be stepped up, as is national education, especially for civil servants and young people, to “boost their national consciousness and patriotic spirit”.
The plenum was followed by unexpected meetings for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. She met President Xi Jinping in Shanghai, who expressed his full support for her. This was probably intended to quell speculation that Lam was about to be sacked.
The call for more patriotic education is a familiar one. It was an attempt to introduce a national education curriculum in Hong Kong in 2012 which sparked student protests
But her fate will depend on how she performs in the months ahead. State leaders, including then president Hu Jintao, also lined up to support chief executive Tung Chee-hwa at his time of crisis in July 2003. Tung stepped down before completing his second term in 2005.
Lam also met Vice-Premier Han Zheng in Beijing. He was expected to give her directions on how to implement the tasks set for her at the plenum. She said they were not discussed in detail and that mainland officials would come to Hong Kong to explain them to her government. The future direction of “one country, two systems” is about to be revealed.
The concern is that Hong Kong’s high degree of autonomy is about to be further eroded in a way which will lead to further opposition from people in the city. Most worrying is the reference to strengthening the legal system to better protect national security. What will this mean in practice?
Tung’s plans to introduce new national security laws, required by Hong Kong’s de facto constitution, the Basic Law, were shelved after a mass protest in 2003. Hong Kong people feared such laws would curb their freedoms.
Similar concerns, over plans to allow the transfer of suspects from Hong Kong for trial on the mainland, sparked the current protests. It makes no sense to try to pass the national security laws – or impose them in some other form – in the current political climate.
New laws will not stop the violence. The recent introduction of a ban on wearing masks at protests has been spectacularly ineffective. Injunctions have also been obtained from the courts to prevent the incitement of violence online and to protect police officers from having their personal details disclosed. But these court orders mostly cover acts that are already unlawful and achieve little.
Strengthening law enforcement may seem a natural step amid the unrest. The crackdown on those involved in the Occupy protests of 2014, however, has failed to deter people from joining unlawful demonstrations.
The pledge to also strengthen the mechanism for interpretation of the Basic Law will set alarm bells ringing in Hong Kong. Beijing’s power to interpret the law has only been used five times. But it is always controversial. The interpretations are binding on Hong Kong’s courts and have widely been viewed as undermining the city’s judicial process.
Joshua Wong founded a student protest group, Scholarism, in 2012 to rally people against plans to introduce a national education curriculum. Photo: David Wong
The approach to interpretation adopted in Beijing is different from that used by local courts and can involve adding to or even changing the meaning of the words used in the Basic Law. This is a power which should be used with restraint.
The call for more patriotic education is a familiar one. It was an attempt to introduce a national education curriculum in Hong Kong in 2012 which sparked student protests and led to the emergence of activists such as Joshua Wong Chi-fung. Indeed, this might be seen as the beginning of the movement at the heart of today’s protests.
Strengthening the system for appointing the chief executive and principal officials may be welcome, if it leads to more democracy and effective leadership. But it is not likely that Beijing has democratic reform on its mind.
It already has the formal power to appoint the people holding these positions, but they are supposed to be chosen in Hong Kong. It is likely that any move to tighten the appointment process will further reduce the city’s high degree of autonomy.
Care must be taken to ensure the impact of any changes made to the way in which Hong Kong is governed does not undermine the city’s independent judiciary. The courts are already under pressure from both sides of the political divide as they embark on cases relating to the protests.
Chief Justice Geoffrey Ma Tao-li will be stepping down in 2021 after a decade at the helm. His successor must have the strength of character and confidence of the judiciary in ensuring it remains truly independent. The role of foreign judges must be protected. A call by a British parliamentary committee this week for a review of that country’s supply of judges to Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal is most unhelpful.
At times of crisis in Hong Kong, Beijing has tended to take tighter control. This happened after the rejection of national security laws by Hong Kong people in 2003 and the mass Occupy protests seeking greater democracy in 2014. But that has, over time, led to frustrations in the city which have erupted in the past five months.
A way needs to be found to end the violence and to give the city a fresh start. This will not be achieved by repeating the mistakes of the past.
Cliff Buddle is the Post’s editor of special projects
