END OF HONG KONG
Hongkongers may share an ethnic heritage with people from “the mainland,” but Texans and New Yorkers are separated at birth by comparison. One recent poll showed that just 17% of people in Hong Kong identified themselves first and foremost as “Chinese citizens,” which was a post-2000 low. When I was in Hong Kong a few weeks ago, I visited Shenzhen in China. It’s just a 15-minute train ride away, but it feels like a different world. Hong Kong is Asia’s answer to New York. China is extraordinary and compelling but it’s also like Mars trying to take over Hong Kong.
Your children are learning the Martian language at school. And your country’s leaders answer to Martians – not to you. You and your fellow citizens are like frogs in a pot that’s sitting on a lit stove burner... And the water’s getting hotter. You – and every person in your country – have a lot of decisions to make, because 27 years isn’t that long. Where are you going to have a family? Build a career? Buy a place to live? Your home is changing every day by Martians intent on turning it into part of their country. IT’S NOT MARS, BUT... OK, Martians don’t exist... That was the “pretend” part. But China does. And for the past eight months, people in Hong Kong have been throwing Molotov cocktails, vandalizing malls, assaulting cops, and taking to the streets by the millions because they don’t want Hong Kong to become just another Chinese city in 27 years. To outsiders, the status of Hong Kong – the world’s No. 3 financial center – might seem like an exercise in splitting hairs. After all, Hong Kong is already a part of China, isn’t it? Yes, but mostly no. As a semi-autonomous Special Administrative Region (“SAR”), people in Hong Kong have a lot more freedom. Hong Kong follows the rule of law and has an independent judiciary. It’s ranked as the third-easiest place in the world to do business. Hong Kong is as corruption-free as Austria and Iceland... while China is as corrupt as Argentina and Benin.
Hong Kong is as corruption-free as Austria and Iceland... while China is as corrupt as Argentina and Benin.
KICKING THE CAN A LONGWAY DOWN THE ROAD Hong Kong used to be part of China. But from 1842 to 1997, it was a colony of the sprawling British empire. After World War II, colonies slowly peeled away from the empire – and in 1984, Great Britain and China decided that in 1997, Hong Kong would become a kind of close nephew of China, as a SAR. (Macau, which belonged to Portugal before, is the only other SAR.) Under the terms of the deal, Hong Kong would be allowed to maintain the capitalist
50
January 2020
Made with FlippingBook Learn more on our blog