Democracy to Communism: A Look to Hong-Kong China Relations
- Molly Saxby
- Jan 16, 2022
- 3 min read
'One Country, Two Systems’
Hong Kong has been a semi-autonomous state to China since its British lease was ended with the ‘one country, two systems’ agreement in 1997. This agreement gave Hong Kong control over areas such as legal systems and human rights whilst umbrellaed under China’s foreign and defence policies. The agreement was set to last until 2047 but many argue that steps have already been taken to bring Hong Kong under tighter Chinese control. Hong Kong and Chinese ways of rule and life are different in many ways, with Hong Kong promoting a generally more democratic position. Nonetheless, we must avoid the typical Western villainization of China alongside historical opposition to Communism and look to the real impact of these political changes and what they mean for the people of China and Hong Kong.
The first indication of Chinese involvement in Hong Kong affairs came in 2018 with the debate of Extradition Laws. In an attempt to fill Hong Kong’s extradition loop-holes, China implemented restrictions on HK’s potential as a criminal safe place. The legal change itself was sparsely opposed but the increased centralisation of Chinese power sparked protests throughout Hong Kong for many months.
Elections and Laws
Since the protests, Hong Kong-Chinese relations have been increasingly tumultuous. In March 2020, China passed a new resolution which significantly decreased the proportion of directly elected lawmakers and installed a screening process for all candidates, making it simpler to extract critics of Beijing from the political arena. These steps ensured tighter Chinese control on Hong Kong politics and the erosion of its democratic institutions. These changes came alongside the introduction of national security laws which have made it simpler to punish pro-democracy demonstrators. As a result, Hong Kong has seen the arrests of many journalists and demonstrators who have spoken out against Beijing. China argues that these laws are necessary to uphold national security and ensure the respect of rights and liberties whilst many in Hong Kong expressed fear surrounding the loss of freedom of expression.
The LegCo December 2020 elections saw the lowest ever voter turnout (30.2%) and a victory for pro-Beijing candidates who took 82 of the 90 seats. In response, China released a white paper stating that Hong Kong was now in a new stage of ‘restored order’. Arrests took place in the election’s aftermath against individuals who had encouraged the illegal promotion of blank ballots as a form of protest. China defended criticism of the elections at their embassy in Australia by accusing Western nations of meddling in Chinese affairs. It said that they ‘know best how to secure the prosperity and stability of Hong Kong’ and were resistant to outside criticism of what they called ‘China’s Hong Kong.’
The Media
One of the latest developments in HK-Chinese relations has surrounded the much debated massacre of Tiananmen Square. The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 saw students gather to oppose 1980s reforms which appeared to unproportionately disadvantage some groups. They also focused on common grievances such as inflation, corruption and limits on political freedom. The demonstrators were faced with fatal open fire after they attempted to block military advances into the Square. Public and media narratives of the Massacre have been controlled since the event up till now, with China defending its actions as a form of ‘necessary control’ and placing the numbers of deceased at 200 civilians and several dozen security personnel. Other accounts place the number to as many as 10,000. In 2020, Hong Kong authorities banned the Tiananmen Square vigil for the first time in 30 years due to COVID-19 restrictions. Thousands defied the ban and attended the vigil due to belief that it was actually rooted in pro-Beijing politics; as a result, in October 2020, nine pro-democracy activists were imprisoned for up to 10 months. In December 2021, The University of Hong Kong’s memorial to the massacre was removed, and since two similar statues at university campuses have been taken down. Pro-democracy speakers believe that these actions are a result of Chinese intervention.
Most recently, Hong Kong has seen the closure of multiple news sites. In December 2021, a raid at Stand News resulted in the arrest of a number of its journalists and triggered the closure of the site as well as others that support pro-democracy narratives due to fear of authority intervention. The arrests targeted ‘seditious publications’ and the Chief Secretary for Administration argued that media work that seeks a political purpose contravening the law acts as the ‘evil elements that damage press freedom.