SCIO briefing: Views of experts and scholars on Hong Kong's current situation
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E-mail China.org.cn, August 16, 2019
Financial Times:
Last month, the Hong Kong chief executive admitted that the government's work on the amendments was a total failure. Many Hong Kong people can't understand why the central government is still supporting her. If she were a provincial governor or a city's mayor in the Chinese mainland, she would most surely be fired, right? Can you explain why she was not relieved of her duties by the central government? Thank you.
Zhao Kejin:
I'm a researcher on China-U.S. relations. Actually, I've been studying issues relating to Hong Kong for three years now. Why? Because while studying China-U.S. relations, I discovered that the U.S. has spent a lot of energy and resources in Hong Kong. According to U.S. comments, none of the Hong Kong chief executives have done their jobs well. The Americans have been criticizing Hong Kong and Hong Kong's chief executives since Mr. Tung Chee-hwa. But actually, Hong Kong has made many achievements in terms of socio-economic development since its return to China. Each summer, there are Hong Kong students coming to study in the Chinese mainland. We have communicated a lot with them and I found that the majority of them are supportive towards the governance of HKSAR.
On the surface, Hong Kong seems to have problems within, but in fact these issues have profound international origins. As you can see clearly, the focus is no longer about addressing HKSAR's internal problems, but the illegal and violent conduct that is challenging the bottom line of the "one country, two systems." Such conduct is strictly prohibited in Western developed countries. As a Chinese saying goes, "Xiang Zhuang performed the sword dance as a cover for his attempt on Liu Bang's life," which means that someone speaks and acts with a hidden motive. Therefore, without seeing the bigger picture of China-U.S. relations, one cannot uncover the root cause of the Hong Kong question.
While studying China-U.S. relations, I found that the U.S. policy towards Hong Kong is to take advantage of Hong Kong for its own purposes. From the beginning, the U.S. took Hong Kong as part of its Cold War Politics. Before Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the U.S. did a lot of work with the then British-ruled Hong Kong. According to the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993, which was passed in 1991, the U.S. wanted to promote "self-governing democracy" in Hong Kong. In 1992, the U.S. Congress passed the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act, treating Hong Kong as a British colony. Since the U.K. and the U.S. are allies, the U.S. government formed the policy on Hong Kong based on this privilege. However, after Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the U.S. did not change the policy. After its return, Hong Kong was no longer a British colony but a special administrative region in the People's Republic of China. According to international practice, the U.S. should have adjusted its Hong Kong Policy and terminated the United States-Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992, but it didn't. As we all know, as soon as a law is enacted, there will be corresponding institutions and budgets to support it. Therefore, after the 1992 act and since 1995, the U.S. has continued to support and develop opposition forces in Hong Kong through institutions such as the National Endowment for Democracy, in order to promote so-called "democratic development." I also found that every time there was a large-scale demonstration in Hong Kong, not only did Washington try to stir up trouble, but related U.S. organizations in Hong Kong would also pour tens of millions of dollars to support them. So this is the root cause of Hong Kong's current situation. The problems occurring in the HKSAR will naturally be solved through the relevant laws of the HKSAR government. There are relevant procedures to promote this.
As a scholar, I personally believe that at the historical moment when China-U.S. relations have changed, Hong Kong, as the freest economy in the world, has also become the most vulnerable place. Therefore, the most important thing to do to solve the Hong Kong question is to remove the colonial mentality and Cold War mindset that some countries have long held on the Hong Kong question. Do not let them exploit Hong Kong's status as the world's freest economy and make it a bridgehead to further hamper and contain China's development, and do not let them hijack Hong Kong's public opinion in order to achieve their own national interests.
The mainland and Hong Kong should work together to clean up this colonial mentality and the Cold War mindset. As for the economic and social problems encountered in the course of governance, they can sit down and resolve the problems through the relevant procedures and regulations within the system and within the framework of the rule of law, instead of resorting to street violence -- as such violence does not solve any problems. Therefore, as the mainland and Hong Kong are now more closely linked, we must now regard "de-colonization" as a core problem. Once this problem is solved, I believe that all the problems that have arisen in Hong Kong will be solved. Thank you all.
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