TO on the eve of the handover of Hong Kong to China, the Far Eastern Economic Review headlined: “Will Hong Kong be shanghai?” It took twenty-three years for what this respected weekly dreaded in 1997 to come true.
Within a year, the territory, which enjoyed a semi-democratic system where fundamental freedoms were guaranteed by an independent judicial system, is losing those elements which differentiated its political system from that of the continent.
The announcement on August 15 of its self-dissolution by the Civil Human Rights Front, organizer of all the demonstrations that have mobilized millions of Hong Kong people since 2003, is a sign that never fails. This decision comes five days after the Professional Teachers Union, which has 100,000 members, the vast majority of teachers in Hong Kong, decided to scuttle itself.
Beijing’s stranglehold
Each time, it’s the same process. the People’s daily or the Xinhua agency, publishes an article denouncing an association as anti-government, and calls for its dissolution. Then, the targeted association announces that it dissolves itself. August 13, People’s daily, who accused the union of being a ” malignant tumor In society, published an article warning the Law Society, the association of lawyers, that it would be well advised to appoint “Patriots” (read supporters of the regime) during its next elections in September.
Moreover, the Wen Wei PoBeijing’s organ in the colony recently accused the Hong Kong Journalists Association of being a group hostile to the government. When we know that it was after an article published in this newspaper that the police arrested five leaders of theApple Daily, the only opposition newspaper, which had to close later, we can be worried.
What will be the next target? The Hong Kong Trade Union Confederation (CTU) which brings together non-communist unions? In a few days, the main civil society organizations disappeared, leaving the field open to Beijing supporters.
From June to December 2019, millions of citizens took to the streets to protest against the adoption of an article of law to extradite to China those wanted by the communist power. Under pressure from the streets, the government withdrew this project. In November, the local elections gave rise to a tidal wave of democratic forces (opposed to Beijing’s seizure of the territory), which won eighteen out of nineteen districts with an unprecedented voter turnout of 71%. The elections to the Legislative Council – where only half of the deputies are elected by direct universal suffrage – scheduled for September 2020, heralded a landslide victory for the Democrats, who had a chance of securing a majority of the seats.
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