City Beat | Hong Kong needs stronger leadership more than ever, as Beijing exerts its ‘supervisory’ role over the city
- A fresh liaison office statement, this time on the May 1 return of protests, is another wake-up call to local government
- While inaccurate Opium War lesson at a Hong Kong secondary school only serves to anger and alienate mainland population
Is Beijing really tightening its grip on Hong Kong?
The writing is clearly on the wall and that poses more questions. Is Beijing losing its patience to the extent that it now has to step in and play its part? Why?
Beijing has been increasingly proactive over the past years in reminding Hongkongers of the need for a “comprehensive and accurate” implementation of “one country, two systems”, the governing formula for Hong Kong after its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997.
The opposition camp sees it as Beijing reneging on its promise to allow Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. Beijing’s rebuttal is that “high degree”, as stipulated under the Basic Law, was never meant to be “total”.
Amid the debate, the latest telling development came in the form of a strongly worded statement on Saturday from the central government’s liaison office in the city, condemning Labour Day anti-government protests as “unlawful gatherings” staged by “extreme radicals”.