The Showdown in Hong Kong: No Winners, Only Losers

The Showdown in Hong Kong: No Winners, Only Losers

10/02/14

Robert Keatley

Independence, Democracy, Domestic Politics, China

"There are no signs of compromise from either side and chances of a violent conclusion remain all too possible." 

The Chinese government and ruling Communist Party may not be managing its political problems with Hong Kong in the worst possible way—but they have come close. As a result, one of the world’s leading financial centers has its central business district overrun with angry protesters whose demonstration will almost certainly come to an unhappy end, perhaps a violent one.

And it was all avoidable.

However, preventing a sad outcome and continuing discontent would require China’s state and party leaders to display a degree of tolerance, flexibility and common sense that, for the time being at least, seems clearly beyond their capabilities. Instead, these leaders, who equate compromise with weakness, are determined to gain total victory over all who object to their policies or might pose an even remote threat to their one-party rule. The supine Hong Kong government, rather than act as a useful intermediary between demands of local people and desires of the central regime, has simply gone along with whatever Beijing wishes—an attitude that feeds popular resentment and makes peaceful resolution increasingly difficult.

The immediate issues fueling the protests concern how the Hong Kong people will choose their leaders and be governed in the years just ahead. Underlying that, however, is a rising discontent—especially among educated youth—about career prospects and economic fairness in the city where they live. Many believe (and statistics confirm) that the gap between rich and poor has become one of the world’s most extreme. They sense that social mobility has decreased sharply, with the best opportunities reserved for friends and families of the already affluent—plus a layer of talented mainlanders imported by companies who hope this will bring profitable connections to influential decision makers. Hong Kong residents also complain that the forty-one million (yearly) mainland visitors drive up overall housing prices by buying costly real estate, mob shopping malls and generally make life for ordinary people more expensive and less comfortable. This fosters a sense of common grievance about their fellow Chinese from across the border, perhaps more emotional than rational.

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