2047 may be a more fateful date than 1997
- If Beijing is trying to convince Taiwan of the viability of the ‘one country, two systems’ arrangement, we need to convince the central government it is worthwhile to keep it intact for Hong Kong
People of my generation fretted about 1997 incessantly during the two decades leading up to the return of Hong Kong to China. The current generation has an even more fateful date – 2047 – and it puzzles me why they don’t seem to worry more about a definite deadline to our whole way of life.
Back then, we could never make up our mind whether the communist leadership would leave us alone, roll in the tanks or do many other things in between. Many people left Hong Kong, most stayed, and still some came back later.
But we were practical. We feared the communists and we knew we needed to be careful. Whatever we thought would happen, we planned ahead accordingly – learning Mandarin and simplified written characters to keep our jobs under China; learning a foreign language or brushing up our English if we were emigrating; selling our flat to use the money to buy a house in Canada, Australia or the United States.
If you fear monsters, the last thing you want to do is provoke them. How different our millennials are! Their idealism is admirable; their fearlessness breathtaking. This is especially so because many say they are fighting for their future, not only the government’s ill-planned extradition bill or myriad other specific policies. No doubt many of the angry young people who laid siege to the police headquarters in Admiralty for 15 hours or were planning to do the same to public hospitals were fired by the same fierce idealism.
That is, perhaps, the generational difference between those of us who planned ahead and those who are fighting for their future. The former had a definite time horizon, such as 1997; the latter is driven by hopes for an ideal future. Or maybe it’s just cynicism vs idealism.
Still, young people may want to keep the date 2047 more firmly in mind. We are almost halfway there. “One country, two systems” doesn’t have to end after 50 years. If Beijing is trying vainly to convince Taiwan of the viability of this conceptual arrangement, we need to convince the central government it is worthwhile to keep it for Hong Kong after 2047. So far, we have shown the Chinese leadership the sooner it ends, the better for them.
Hong Kong people have achieved a great victory this month. Young people should make sure it doesn’t turn out to be pyrrhic.