The Wall Street Journal
July 4, 2012
Citizens demand ‘two systems’ as leaders veer toward ‘one country.’
In the minds of many Hong Kong residents, the handover to Chinese rule happened not in 1997, but last Sunday. That’s when Communist Party General Secretary Hu Jintao swore in Leung Chun-ying as the third chief executive of the special administrative region. The entire ceremony was conducted in Mandarin Chinese, including Mr. Leung’s inaugural speech—symbolism not lost on the Cantonese-speaking population. The police used tear gas on protesters and harassed journalists. Mr. Hu even staged a Beijing-style military parade.
Mr. Leung was selected in March by a committee of 1,200 of the territory’s elite, but average Hong Kongers mistrust this mysterious man dubbed “the wolf” by the media. Opposition politicians and even one former communist accuse him of being an underground member of the Communist Party, a charge he denies. Nevertheless, his history of serving on Beijing-appointed bodies from a relatively young age as well as his orthodox pro-China views leave no doubt that he is one of the Party’s most trusted allies.
However, many of Beijing’s other friends in Hong Kong also dislike Mr. Leung. The property tycoons worry that he will tinker with the land system in ways that will hurt their profits. Civil servants remember how Mr. Leung blamed them for government inaction, and refused to take responsibility for the failure of a housing policy he designed in 1997. He broke rules of confidentiality and collective responsibility when he criticized colleagues on the Executive Council, a body akin to the cabinet. Even local leftists resent his high-handed manner. Former Legislative Council President Rita Fan described him as unqualified to be chief executive because of his poor performance in other government posts.
So Mr. Leung must depend on his wits and his friends in the central government, especially those stationed in Hong Kong at the Central Government Liaison Office. They lobbied hard for him in Beijing and pushed pro-China organizations in the territory to rally support. One pro-Beijing newspaper even edited a column critical of Mr. Leung so that it praised him without the author’s consent.
Having a chief executive with the confidence of Beijing is not necessarily bad for Hong Kong—as long as communication flows both ways. Mr. Leung’s predecessor Tung Chee Hwa, who served as chief from 1997 to 2005, was equally trusted by the Party, but he was not interested in convincing his masters that the territory deserved and needed a faster pace of democratization. That led to rising public dissatisfaction that was on display Sunday, when as many as 400,000 demonstrators turned out on the streets to demand full democracy in 2017.
Mr. Leung has not given much indication that he has democratic instincts. He tried to bully the legislature into passing a reorganization of government departments without full debate before he took office. Some opposition politicians mounted a filibuster, but in the end it failed to pass by a single vote because pro-Beijing legislators abstained or failed to show up.
Hong Kong’s autonomy is supposed to be guaranteed under Deng Xiaoping’s formula of “one country, two systems,” but Mr. Leung consistently emphasizes “one country.” He plans to create a Culture Department that will promote love of the motherland, and a “patriotic education” curriculum in the state-funded schools. Before taking office, he issued orders to private hospitals to stop accepting mainland mothers seeking to give birth in the territory to get around China’s one-child policy. His lineup of new officials and advisers is from Communist central casting.
Even more worrying, Mr. Leung and his allies have limited tolerance for dissent. According to his rival for chief executive, during mass protests in 2003 he advocated the government calling out People’s Liberation Army troops stationed in Hong Kong to maintain order. Last year the Central Government Liaison Office launched jingoistic attacks on academics and journalists to intimidate dissident voices. This has stoked fears that Hong Kong will become just another Chinese city. Opinion polls conducted by the University of Hong Kong show that trust in Beijing is at an all-time low.
Mr. Leung does understand how to wage class warfare. He promises to control property prices and provide more public housing, and he advocates increased spending on social welfare programs, which will come out of Hong Kong’s huge fiscal surplus and reserves. This could help him build political capital to push his vision for the electoral system after 2017.
While Beijing has committed to the election of the next chief executive by one person, one vote, the process of nominating candidates has yet to be determined. The Communist Party wants to ensure that the choice is among its loyalists. Local leftists suggest adapting the committee that elected Mr. Leung into a nomination committee, with a high percentage of members needed to secure a spot on the ballot.
Mr. Leung will quickly find out that Hong Kong people won’t stand for this kind of rigged system. On Monday he had to abandon a visit to one district after being cornered by protesters for 45 minutes. On Tuesday, a pro-Beijing district council set up a stage-managed town hall for him in another area, but this led to more criticism for breaking his promise to listen to the public. Much as Beijing and Mr. Leung love one-Party harmony, the public has fully embraced the nonviolent but contested nature of democratic politics. The sooner the new chief executive understands this, the more successful his term will be.
