Hong Kong voters take a cue from Taiwan
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When Hong Kong was handed over to mainland China in 1997, Beijing wished the former British colony would one day become the showcase to the world of its "One Country, Two Systems" policy, especially to Taiwan.
In a no-doubt embarrassing turn of events for the communist Chinese government, it seems now that Hong Kong is taking its cue from the pro-independence spirit of Taiwan rather than the other way around.
Last week, Beijing’s former top official on Hong Kong and Macau affairs, Lu Ping, said in an e-mail exchange with Hong Kong newspaper the South China Morning Post that some people in the city had waved the British Union Jack and called for “Hong Kong independence” at anti-Hong Kong government protests. “They claimed the only way out for Hong Kong is to become an independent nation,” Lu was quoted as saying.
Lu called these people “sheer morons. ... Our country, which has a population of 1.3 billion,” can do without them.
“Those who do not recognise they are Chinese should look at what’s written on their passports or they should renounce their Chinese nationality,” the former official suggested.
While the Hong Kongers’ discontent with their government is running high, talk of the territory’s independence was more a way for protesters to vent their anger than a popular option.
Lu might have been defending the mainland government but his bullish rhetoric only attracted unnecessary attention to the protests that are embarrassing Beijing. On November 2, the day after Lu made his last comment on “Hong Kong independence”, Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying urged protesters not to fly the Hong Kong colonial flag at rallies.
The use of the Union Jack and the colonial flag at rallies reflects in part a rather common nostalgia for the “Pearl of the East’s” golden age among Hong Kongers. It is difficult to single out the inspiration of the “Hong Kong independence” rally cry but it is fair to say that Hong Kong politicians, especially the pro-democracy ones, have been observing Taiwan’s noisy political scene over the past decade. Since he came to power in 2008 to lead Taiwan into a new age of warming cross-strait relations, President Ma Ying-jeou has professed his belief that through increased interaction, people in China will be influenced by Taiwan’s democratic atmosphere.
In a way perhaps not imagined by Ma, that might be happening now.
