Hong Kong in the aftermath of the 2019 protests: What does it mean for Canada?
Photo Credit: (The Independent / Google Images)
Written by: William Ging Wee Dere
Canada and the West saw Hong Kong as the ideal colony. Dynamic laissez-faire capitalism allowed fortunes to be made in an ambiance of exotic Asian culture. It was where the taipans, tycoons, and compradors thrived unfettered as a British colony for 156 years. It was also an outpost for spying and subversion on mainland China that continues today.
China negotiated with the United Kingdom a peaceful return of Hong Kong in 1997. Then Hong Kongers, educated in the British colonial tradition migrated in the hundreds of thousands to Canada, Australia and other Commonwealth countries in expectation and fear of the Communist takeover.
The Chinese Canadian (CC) community felt the influx and influence of the Hong Kong immigrants. The Cantonese speaking Hong Kongers had a cultural affinity with their Toishanese country cousins who had settled in Canada since the 1850’s. Newcomers from Hong Kong, educated in the British colonial democratic system, easily meshed with Western values. This created political divisions within the Chinese Canadian community, starting with the community’s reaction to Tiananmen in 1989.
The Chinese Canadian National Council, the only national organization representing the CC community at the time, had a leadership composed mainly of people from Hong Kong who were influenced by the Western democratic system. Although it was supposed to be an organization to fight in the interest of Chinese Canadians against racism and for equality in Canada, it entered into the foray of home country politics and denounced the Chinese government for Tiananmen with funding from the Canadian government.
The CCNC’s position had more of an impact on the Chinese Canadian community than it ever had on Beijing, as it created a split within the organization and the community. A new organization was then formed, the National Congress of Chinese Canadians in the early 1990’s. This new organization was then and is now accused of being a China front and part of the nefarious international United Front.
Fast forward thirty years and those divisions persist. Today, the battleground is Hong Kong with many of the protesters rioting to regain the old colonial way of life. It is an epic battle between “Western democracy” and “godless Communism.” Some HK people here are even saying that they are not Chinese. Decolonization of Hong Kong mentality remains elusive. When the protests began in March, 2019, it was billed as the classic ideological confrontation between Western values and Chinese “authoritarianism.”
The “one country, two systems” basic law allows the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of the People’s Republic of China full autonomy in all social, economic, judicial, and cultural affairs for 50 years, until 2047. The central government in Beijing retains control over foreign relations and the military (national defense). Despite the freedom of its citizens to express their views, the so-called Occupy or Umbrella Movement protests started in 2014, ostensibly objecting to the central Beijing government’s role in selecting the new Chief Executive. This was the pre-cursor to the attempt at Colour Revolution in 2019.
Now, if we were to talk about Macau and Hong Kong, then that would really be a tale of two cities. We know what British colonialism has done to many countries and regions of the world, no different in HK. The Brits had a hands-on approach to divide and conquer, to exploit and milk the colonies dry. They did the same for HK and turned it into an advanced post for British and US colonial and imperialist intrigue. The rioters of HK today are the products of colonial and neocolonial systems of education and superstructure.
Whereas, the Portuguese have been in Macau and used it as a trading post since the 1550's. Portugal was a second-tier colonial power compared to Britain and they governed Macau with benign neglect. The economy and culture of Macau developed more independently than in HK and the Macau Chinese looked towards the mainland and maintained their Chinese identity and culture. That is why there are no riots in the streets of Macau clamouring for Western democracy.
Hong Kong is probably the defining struggle between the West and China at this time as the “Great Game” in Asia plays out. Tibet is on the back burner for now since the Dalai Lama is not willing to fight for the separation of Tibet. Things will be stirred up there once the Dalai Lama is no longer around. Xinjiang is another weak link that the West wants to exploit to divide China.
Of course, there are dissidents in China. The question is what are they dissenting about, abstract theories of democracy and human rights or the social issues of inequality, jobs and people's livelihood. For the latter, there is plenty of organizing and agitation to improve people's livelihood. Chinese society has to advance further in the issues of developing a more democratic system of governance. There is faith in the Chinese people that this will happen as society progresses. In the meantime, the West is using divisions in Chinese society to attack and divide China for their own global geo-politics.
Education
Never under-estimate the staying power and allure of the colonial and neocolonial education system, such as in Hong Kong. China accepted the "one country, two systems" arrangement for Hong Kong and they are adhering to these principles, so nothing has changed fundamentally in the superstructure for the last 23 years. The present rulers of Hong Kong came out of the British colonial system of Taipans, tycoons and compradors and it is not in their self-interests to make economic or social reforms, first and foremost in the educational system in Hong Kong. There is a class struggle in Hong Kong but the class enemy has been mystified and obscured by foreign imperialist and colonial meddling as part of the cold war against China.
That is why there are young people alienated to the extent that they will fight in the streets for a foreign ideology of "democracy" and under the flags of the US and Britain, while the inequalities in housing, jobs, pensions, healthcare and education remain unchallenged. They direct their fire abstractly against China and not against the system responsible for the inequalities. The high school students in the streets are taught by teachers who are passing on the same educational curriculum that they were taught.
They know the history of the British empire but very little about the history of China and the Chinese revolution, despite some attempts to impose “patriotic education” in 2015 which was met with much resistance. They have been inculcated with the British system of “democracy and fair play” that they want the students to emulate. A person’s world outlook is established at an early age through parents, education and media. It would take a significant emotional experience to change one’s ideological outlook.
Economic life, Rents and welfare
The People’s Daily, "mouthpiece" of the CCP finally came out to tackle some of the fundamental issues in Hong Kong society in a September, 2019 article. Although this will probably be interpreted as meddling in Hong Kong affairs, as opposed to the way that the CBC, BBC, CNN and other corporate-controlled mainstream media in the West offer “objective, unchallenged truths” in the support of the pro-democracy movement. The original article in the People's Daily is in Chinese. There's a report of that article in English from Asia Times. The People’s Daily attacked HK’s “extreme capitalist system” and called for a redistribution of land from private hands in order to ease the housing problem.
Over the past decade, property values in Hong Kong shot up by 243 per cent with the corresponding effect on rents. One positive effect from the riots is the decreasing values of property. However, working people in the HKSAR are still working long hours and paying high rents, with little medical coverage and pensions. These are some of the reforms that people need.
Foreign interference
The US consulate with the biggest staff in Hong Kong can naturally be assumed to be a spy listening post targeting China. Starting with 1,100 employees, at the height of the 2019 riots, the staff ballooned to about 1600 people. There were reports commonly believed by people in Hong Kong, that the protests were financed, led, and people trained and materially supported by outside forces, especially the US CIA through its front group, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The NED does the dirty work of the CIA as an NGO. It provided funding for the Umbrella Occupy Movement in 2014. It has been trying to de-stabilize China for a long time, being involved at Tiananmen back in 1989 providing funding and visas for the students to go to the US. According to the NED’s own website, it gave US$610,000 to Hong Kong protesters in 2019 and at the same time it gave $4.2M to various groups to subvert the Chinese government.
The shadowy US State Department and other Western countries have not disclosed the amount of their money feeding the Hong Kong protests but one can assume that millions have flowed in from outside and inside forces including Jimmy Lai (owner of Apple Daily). Given the length of the protests and the organization and resources of the rioters, one can conclude that financial, diplomatic and media support from Western powers encouraged the protesters to show up day after day, as if they were going to work. It is no accident that the protesters carried the US, UK and Hong Kong’s colonial flags along with pictures of Trump for all to see.
National Security Law
In one stroke of brilliance, the Chinese Congress passed the National Security Law for Hong Kong to quell the year-long “pro-democracy” protests. Article 23 of the 1997 Basic Law required Hong Kong to pass a national security law. An attempt was made in 2003, but the HK government could not overcome the neo-colonial atmosphere at the time. The security law is similar to legislation in other countries including Canada.
It prohibits: secession, subversion (undermining the authority of the government), terrorism (violence or intimidation against people), collusion with foreign or external forces. There were howls of protest from Western powers, like Canada. These countries decided to fast-track “refugees” and migration from Hong Kong into the UK, Australia and Canada, etc. However, 54 countries from the Global South supported the new Hong Kong security law.
Media coverage
The western mainstream media was fixated on Hong Kong. The protests fed their narrative of “oppressed peoples” fighting for democratic rights, although coverage of protests going on at the same time in France, Ecuador, Chile and Haiti received little notice. A study by Tom Fowdy, an Oxford graduate, found “the Hong Kong protests had been subject to over 737 articles by the respective outlets, whereas Chile had only been covered 36 times, Haiti 28 and Ecuador 12.” The repressive forces in these countries were responsible for 26 deaths in Chile and 42 in Haiti, whereas no one died at the hands of the security forces in Hong Kong. The study found that reports on Hong Kong described the protests as “pro-democracy” while labelling the protest in the other countries as “riots.” Western media slant their narratives in line with the foreign policy dictates of their governments without much independent research or opinion.
What is left?
There was no clear ideology to the protests other than “Communist China – bad, Western democracy – good.” The class element of the Hong Kong protests is obscured by the left and the right, where both sides come together to target China. The only semblance of a class analysis in HKSAR is that given by the People’s Daily article quoted above. There is no left to speak of in Hong Kong to do its own analysis. The Western left, with their superior attitude to Chinese socialism, are trying to cling to any scrap of leftwashing related to Hong Kong. Perhaps, any sign of protests reaching the Peak (Tycoon residences of HKSAR) would be a sign of class struggle, but the riots have only targeted working people with the destruction of the mass transit system and have not aimed their protests at the wealth of Hong Kong.
During the global BLM protests, the Hong Kong rioters remain silent at best, while others in the “pro-democracy” movement sided with the American right-wing to condemn the anti-racist revolt in the US.
The Chinese Canadian community reflects the attitudes of the dominant society on this issue. Although, some progressive elements are seeing through the smokescreen of anti-China rhetoric, but then are forced to retreat by accusations of being Chinese Communist flunkeys and ideological hacks.
Justin Trudeau is placing Canada on the side of Mike Pompeo and the US in its cold war with China. He recently stated that Canada stands up for human rights in Hong Kong and in Xinjiang, while calling China’s diplomacy “coercive.” Australia and the UK are voicing that they are eager to accept the affluent Hong Kong “refugees.”
There are 350,000 Hong Kong residents who hold the British National (overseas) passport, although people escaping through this channel are not guarantee British citizenship. There were reports in the Globe and Mail that Canada granted asylum to a couple from Hong Kong seeking refugee status. This couple claimed to be intimidated through the new Hong Kong security law, but lacked evidence to back up their claims. Canada accepted them as refugees while thousands of genuine refugees are languishing in squalid conditions in camps in Yemen, Libya, Haiti and other trouble spots hoping this country would offer them refuge.
William Ging Wee Dere is the author of the award-winning “Being Chinese in Canada, The Struggle for Identity, Redress and Belonging.” (Douglas & McIntyre, 2019). He was a political organizer and a leading activist in the 2-decade movement for redress of the Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion Act.
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