Current affairs perspective
Recently, I went to Hong Kong to observe the demonstration on the spot and talk to street protesters to experience their mentality and understand their demands.The general feeling is that Hong Kong society works as usual.The impression obtained from the news report outside is that the whole of Hong Kong is overwhelming, but it is not.
This is a typical middle -class society. For most people, it is the most important thing to make money to support their families.Neither the SAR nor the central government does not need to over -response, it makes things worse, because the problem in Hong Kong is deep -level, and only long -term efforts can be relieved.
Since Jianbu, Hong Kong and Mainland China have two cars running on the road, and it is not a way.During the strike of the Provincial and Hong Kong University in the 1920s, the Qi and pulse of the people of Hong Kong was also connected to the mainland. After 1949, it was basically two heavens and the gap in the understanding.However, the fate of the two places is to return to the same way, and after all, it will be one.
One of the problems to be solved in the middle is the problem of identity. In this regard, the challenge facing Hong Kong is how to overcome the superiority of the superiority and accept the reality of a country, while retaining its own system and lifestyleEssenceThe challenge facing Beijing is how to accommodate this international metropolis with a strong liberal color.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Hong Kong was the source of the South Wind Window of the mainland, leading the atmosphere of China's reform and opening up.At that time, Hou Hong Kong was fashionable MDASH; MDASH; mainland stars twisted and pinched the Hong Kong cavity to attract the audience. It was the pinnacle of Hong Kong and created the superiority of Hong Kong people.
However, the moon has a lot of yin and clear, and the times have changed. The total economic volume of Shenzhen, which was adjacent last year, has exceeded Hong Kong.But this sense of superiority is still there, and it has become an important source of frustration and suffocation of Hong Kong people today.In other words, after the rise of mainland China, the mentality of Hong Kong people has not been adjusted, just as the American mentality has not been adjusted.
The biggest obstacle to mental regulation is the conflict of values.The mainland has this problem with Hong Kong, Taiwan, the United States, Western countries, and even Japan, South Korea, and many developed third world countries.A distinctive impression I came to talk to youth is that they not only have no sense of recognition of mainland China, but also are full of resistance; they are not ashamed of the history of Hong Kong's colonies, but they are full of pride.
Among the protests in front of the Legislative Council in the evening, some people were holding the rice flags and star flags; there was such a graffiti on the granite of the Victoria Harbor Division: The U.S. military came to bring the way!The words and deeds of this kind of traitorous thief and Hong Kong independence are easy to anger 1.4 billion Chinese people, so that the central government has to take tough measures and even interrupt one country and two systems.
Many people in the mainland simply believe that the cause of an accident in Hong Kong is that one of the incidents in Hong Kong have not settled the colonial mentality in a timely manner and carried out patriotic education; the second is that Western countries are engaged in the color revolution.This is a misdiagnosis.Although these radical young people do not necessarily represent all Hong Kong people, their behaviors and words of fear and pessimism of the future are quite common. This is the root cause of the problem.
Let's talk about this fear first.The protest movement is called the counterfeit in Hong Kong, which is the concentration of the fear of words, and the fear of the fierce values behind the words is the conflict of fierce values.Due to the different values, many Hong Kong people feel that they are not proud of the rise of mainland China.
In their opinion, the cultural level, value concept, social system and personal cultivation of Hong Kong people are much higher than the mainlanders of the outbreak households.The approach of the mainland is a threat to Hong Kong's lifestyle. They are afraid that the influence of the mainland will gradually deprive Hong Kong people's rights, and increasingly regards the SAR government as a Beijing agent.
I asked the protesters why this time was so fierce?They mainly put forward two points, one is the police violence; the other is that the SAR government faces such a vast demand, and it has indifferent, which makes them feel incomprehensible and angry.The main conflict with the police was young students. They obviously suffered a loss, and the enemy was naturally natural.But this hatred will slowly alleviate over time, especially when they realize that the Hong Kong police are quite mild than the US police.It is worth a long time to worry about the distrust of the Hong Kong government.
Hong Kong people lack effective expression of public opinion
Hong Kong is completely a conflict: the Hong Kong Government is not a candidate, and it does not have a variety of channels and means of collecting and cope with the public opinion of the people in the mainland.In this case, the general election is more realistic for Hong Kong people, so the voices are very high.In contrast, in the mainland, it is generally lacking of democratization. For a long time, this has made the West feel puzzled. They take it for granted that the mainland government suppress the strong national machine, but also faces the Chinese Communist regime in the face of the Chinese Communist powerThe mystery of high support.They cannot understand that the mainland government has gathered public opinion and make effective reactions through non -election methods.
The people in Hong Kong lack effective expression channels, and public policies are controlled by the elite group; the opposition is a typical western model. The pursuit of a democratic election that the colonial authorities have refused to give.Essence
Under such circumstances, the only ordinary people can rely on to protect their own interests is the tradition of rule of law in Hong Kong.Once the rule of law is threatened (such as this revision), their reaction will be very strong; this is a matter of life and death.This is not well understood by the mainland. They often simply attribute this incident to the color revolutionary conspiracy of foreign and Hong Kong.
Talk about pessimistic despair.On the setting platform of the middle school students in Edinburgh Square in Central, the slogan of the black background has no future. Why should you take a class?Although it was claimed to be the strike day that day, most of the participants were wearing school uniforms, and many seemed to be gathered from all districts after school at 3 pm.When I am so young, I face doubts about the future, which is sad but more terrible.
The Nanhua Morning Post has a special report on the protest. They interviewed many universities or graduates involved in the sports. Most of them still live with their parents. For them, the middle -class dream of buying a house is expected to be inaccessible.; They have no future in Hong Kong, and they are not competitive in the mainland.
My observation is that both participants and the front line are young people, and some are even children, and the organizer, including the main adults on the road.For young students, the fugitive regulations cannot be hit by eight -shot, so this movement is essentially the middle class rebellion; the indispensable young people rush to the front, but behind it is a large number of struggling middle -class families.Their dilemma and demands are not unique to Hong Kong. They are the common fate of the middle class in developed countries. This is a world -class issue, and sooner or later China will face it.
The road problem facing Hong Kong is: Is there a future in the social system and lifestyle established under the concept of liberalism?With the unrealistic situation of Hong Kong independence, how can we be compatible with mainstream mainland China?The choice facing Beijing is: After 50 years of returning, do you want to assimiize Hong Kong?Under the fierce resistance of Hong Kong people, should one country, two systems be retained forever?If the car running on the two roads is to be raised, how can the national national identity issues be solved?
There is no doubt that there are many Western forces picking things in Hong Kong and engaging in color revolution.This is what they need to curb in China, but not the key to the problem.Without local factors, no foreign -colored revolution attempts are impossible to succeed.The power of the color revolution comes from the value concept.The danger of Hong Kong society is that the government and elite groups are gradually investing in the mainland system, and the entire society still believes in liberalism.
How to deal with the relationship with mainstream values is a big problem on China's rise.The contradictions with Hong Kong highlighted at the forefront, but there are many countries in the entire West and the Third World in the back. More importantly, Taiwan, including the values of the younger generation in China.Want to make ideas for them?This is just a Don Quixote -style fantasy.
Deng Xiaoping talked about one country, two systems, and 50 years, but his next sentence was even more unnecessary after 50 years.Obviously, he means that the economic level of the mainland after 50 years has caught up, and it is more democratic and free. Human rights have been better guaranteed. The level of legal system is greater.In short, it is not much different from Hong Kong, so there is no need to change.Now that time is faster, China's economic level has improved significantly, but other aspects are considered to have little progress and even retreat.
This may be a matter of opinion and wisdom, but the most fundamental testing stone is whether Hong Kong people are willing to accept the values and social systems of the mainland?This large -scale protest demonstration is the answer.This is not a question of overcoming colonial mentality, but the issue of the future of the vital interests of Hong Kong people and Hong Kong.
Hong Kong's status determines that the Hong Kong government needs a strong chief executive with innovative ability.He is neither as a slave to Beijing nor as a slave to capitalist, but is truly happy for the people of the Hong Kong people. It is a path that is suitable for the reality of Hong Kong in the gap and is compatible with the mainland's politics.Beijing must also give him sufficient autonomy, allowing him to solve the problem of Hong Kong with innovation.
The author is a senior researcher at the East Asia Institute of the National University of Singapore
