“It only took two years to transform Hong Kong into a post-totalitarian system”

Itwenty-five years ago today, Chris Patten, the last governor, left Hong Kong in the company of Prince Charles, putting an end to one hundred and fifty-six years of British colonization. The new Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa, took office on the morning of 1^er July 1997, in the presence of the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Jiang Zemin. At 1 p.m., he returned to China, giving way to a demonstration against the enthronement of a provisional legislative council (LegCo) appointed by Beijing, organized by the democratic forces.

What happened that day is an image of the formula “One country, two systems”, which had allowed the colony to return peacefully to the bosom of China: the morning to the officials, the afternoon to civil society. This pattern has repeated itself every year since 1^er July 1997. Until 2019.

Fifty years without change, had promised the former leader of communist China, Deng Xiaoping, to his British interlocutors, but also to the population of what was to become the special administrative region (SAR) of the People’s Republic. Hong Kong would retain its capitalist system and its freedoms, guaranteed by a Basic Law adopted by the National People’s Congress in Beijing. Halfway, we can say that the CCP has not kept its promise.

Muzzled press, independent unions dissolved

Twenty-five years after the handover, Labor Party leader Lee Cheuk-yan, former Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho and head of the independent daily Apple DailyJimmy Lai, who were all three at the head of the 1997 demonstration, are in prison awaiting trial under the state security law passed by Beijing’s “Parliament” in May 2020.

The abundant press, characteristic of the RAS since the beginning of the 20th century^e century, has been muzzled. The independent unions have dissolved. The Alliance for the support of the democratic patriotic movements of China, which, for thirty years, organized the commemorative vigils of the massacre of Tiananmen, June 4, scuttled.

It all started well though. From 1997 to 2019, Hong Kong retained its independent judiciary, the number of people elected by direct universal suffrage to the LegCo, after multi-party elections, continued to increase, and fundamental freedoms were maintained. Admittedly, despite having obtained 60% of the vote in all the legislative elections, the Democrats have never had a majority in LegCo. But they had a kind of right of veto on the fundamental texts.

You have 61.92% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.