Having seen better days when there was greater freedom under British control, people in Hong Kong are clamouring for a more liberal dispensation under Chinese rule. However, there is little effect on the totalitarian regime in Beijing that remote-controls Hong Kong. Twenty years have passed since China took over the country’s control but there is no let-up in tight control. Chinese president Xi Jinping made it clear recently that “any attempt to endanger China’s sovereignty and security challenge the power of the government…or to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses the red line and is absolutely impermissible.” In a strongly worded statement he said Hong Kong cannot afford to be torn by reckless moves or internal rifts. Two recent examples have bared the designs of the Chinese regime—abduction by mainland agents of some Hong Kong booksellers and Beijing’s efforts to disqualify two pro-independence lawmakers elected to the city legislature. Under the mini-constitution, the basic law, Hong Kong is guaranteed wide-ranging autonomy for at least 50 years after 1997 (the year of freedom from British control) under a “one country, two systems” formula which, the activists in Hong Kong feel is being violated. But the Chinese government is not prepared to listen. The formula had even favoured universal suffrage as an eventual goal.
While pro-democracy protests are raging in Hong Kong, the Chinese are facing the heat on another front too—from the US. Exasperated with China for not using its leverage with North Korea to tighten the economic screws on that country to scuttle its nuclear programme, the Donald Trump administration has approved a US$1.4 billion arms sale to Taiwan and blacklisted a small Chinese bank over its business ties with North Korea. While in Hong Kong the Chinese are on the front foot, on failure to rein in North Korea they are on the back foot.
