One Country, Two Systems? Hong Kong and China
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058231181287 |
| Author | Ka Po Ng |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
22POLITICAL INSIGHT•JUNE 2023
In February, the Hong Kong administration
launched a new public relations initiative.
Entitled ‘Hello, Hong Kong’, the campaign
aimed to resuscitate the city’s agging
tourism sector and lure back foreign businesses
with the hopeful message that three years
of severe COVID restrictions were now over.
Left unsaid was Hong Kong’s recovery from
another major rupture: the protest movement
of 2019 that ended with forceful suppression
and the tightening of political control. But the
aftermath of these protests still runs through
the city, shaping Hong Kong politics and
the increasingly tight relationship with the
Chinese government in Beijing.
‘Hello, Hong Kong’ is part of a larger plan to
bring the city ‘back to normalcy.’ But given the
double blow of protest and pandemic, there is
no ‘going back’. The extent of Beijing’s control
over the territory is ‘the new normal’. While a
few Hong Kongers relish the memory of the
‘good old days’, most people, regardless of
political persuasion, would agree that Hong
Kong is not the same as it was. Some lament
that the ‘old Hong Kong’ where the people
enjoyed a peculiar kind of freedom without
democratic governance is gone, while the
ocial story cheers that ‘Hong Kong has
One Country, Two
Systems? Hong Kong
and China
Ka Po Ng reports from Hong Kong, where the Chinese government
has strengthened its grip on power while still touting the city’s
unique position internationally.
moved from disorder to order and from order
to prosperity’.
When China’s leader, Xi Jinping, arrived in
Hong Kong in June 2022 to commemorate the
25th anniversary of its return from the United
Kingdom, he triumphantly declared that the
city had ‘risen from the ashes.’ Hong Kong
has indeed deed predictions of its death in
the past. So, where have the recent years of
turmoil and virtual seclusion left Hong Kong?
Will it rise again? The key lies in the developing
relationships between Hong Kong and China.
Hong Kong’s Chinese masters
For China’s Communist government, the
protest movement of 2019 was a plot
sponsored by foreign political forces to
promote Hong Kong independence. No
© South China Morning Post / Alamy Stock Photo
Political Insight June 2023.indd 22Political Insight June 2023.indd 2218/05/2023 14:5818/05/2023 14:58
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