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EDITORIAL: Taiwan,
Hong Kong and democracy
The pro-democracy movements in Taiwan and Hong Kong have in the past followed
different routes, but recent events in Hong Kong suggest there has been a degree
of confluence in their trajectories.
For the past 10 or so days, students have staged hunger strikes to protest plans
by the Hong Kong government to introduce Chinese patriotism classes in schools,
which people suspect are an attempt to brainwash schoolchildren. Tens of
thousands of people gathered on the streets of Hong Kong to protest against the
planned curriculum changes and eventually succeeded in getting the government to
announce it would withdraw plans to introduce the new classes within the next
three years. This was a victory for the people of Hong Kong, who stood up for
their rights.
This brings to mind the Wild Lilies Student Movement (野百合學運) of 1990, when more
than 6,000 students staged a hunger strike in front of the Chiang Kai-shek
Memorial Hall, calling for the disbanding of the National Assembly, the
abolition of the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of National
Mobilization for Suppression of the Communist Rebellion (動員戡亂時期臨時條款), the
holding of a state affairs meeting and the setting of a timetable for political
and economic reforms. Then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) met their demands and
put Taiwan on the path to democratic reform.
On Sunday, Hong Kong had its Legislative Council elections. The enthusiastic
protests against the patriotism classes failed to translate into the predicted
legislative seat gains for the pro-democracy parties, despite a turnout rate of
53 percent. Hobbled by ill-advised tactical voting and infighting, the
pan-democracy camp managed to win only 18 seats, while the pro-China,
pan-establishment camp got 17. Although the pan-democracy camp’s haul fell short
of predictions, it retained more than a third of the seats and will have the
right of veto in the new legislative session. Nevertheless, Democratic Party
Chairman Albert Ho (何俊仁) fell on his sword to take responsibility for the
party’s poor showing.
The political situation in Hong Kong has parallels with that in Taiwan. Both are
under threat by China’s “one country, two systems” idea and both are under
pressure from Beijing. The pro-China, or pro-establishment camp is like the
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in Taiwan, with the advantage in funding and
resources. Taiwanese would have been only too familiar with scenes during
Sunday’s election of voters being bused to voting stations, instructions on how
best to vote tactically and large adverts splashed across Hong Kong newspapers
on election day calling on people to vote for “stability.” The pan-democracy
parties in Hong Kong lack the pro-establishment camp’s resources and ability to
organize tactical voting, and rely on ideas and their transmission to attract
votes, much like the Democratic Progressive Party here. We have more experience
of party politics than Hong Kong, where it is still in its early stages and has
a long way to go. It can learn from the experience of Taiwan’s democratic
movement.
Some people have likened Taiwan’s situation now to that of Hong Kong in 1997,
when the former British colony was handed back to China. At that point, China
started to pervade all levels of Hong Kong’s politics and society. There are
fears that Taiwan is becoming increasingly like Hong Kong in this regard. Now,
as the governing and opposition parties work out how best to deal with China and
formulate their China policies, Hong Kong is a useful reference. Taiwan and Hong
Kong can learn a lot from each other. And for us, this starts with monitoring
the mass school strikes organized by the student movement.
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