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The Liberty Times
Editorial: Ma wants Chinese colonialism
Elementary-school students in Hong Kong recently received a student handbook
about the territory¡¦s Basic Law from school authorities. Yet in many places, the
handbook is unrelated to the law. Instead it contains a wealth of patriotic
material, including directing students to work for unification with Taiwan,
claiming that it ¡§is part of our sacred territory.¡¨
Parents and Internet users have been fiercely critical of the Hong Kong
government for, as they see it, using the Basic Law as a brainwashing tool. Some
have even responded by calling Taiwan an independent country and not part of
Chinese territory.
The handbook claims that as the Chinese flag was raised on the day of Hong
Kong¡¦s return, it wiped away the national humiliation that was the result of the
century-long British occupation and that the territory has prospered after being
embraced by the motherland.
After 1997, Hong Kong was completely at the mercy of China and the idea that it
is governed by Hong Kongers is nothing but an empty slogan.
The Sinicization of Hong Kong is quickly intensifying and this even includes the
territory¡¦s demographic structure.
The Beijing-supported chief executive is constantly trying to think up new ways
of brainwashing the population, while democracy, freedom, human rights and the
economy deteriorate, leaving the number of Hong Kongers that identify with China
at an all-time low.
Yet Hong Kong residents are refusing to bow to the authoritarian Chinese regime
and its representative, and June 4 and July 1 have become political symbols of
that resistance.
Hong Kong is not far from Taiwan and the so-called ¡§one country, two systems¡¨
was devised to be used in the unification of Taiwan also. The added fact that
President Ma Ying-jeou (°¨^¤E) was born in Hong Kong should serve to make the
government warier of China.
However, Ma does not seem to care in the least that Hong Kong¡¦s economy is being
controlled by China, as he stubbornly continues to pursue his goal of eventual
unification by first attaching Taiwan to China economically.
The agreements signed by China and Ma, from the Economic Cooperation Framework
Agreement to the cross-strait service trade agreement are copies of the Closer
Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) that China has signed with Hong Kong,
and now uses to control both the Hong Kong economy and its people.
Yet Ma does not care.
While more and more Taiwanese are waking up to the danger of the situation, Ma
is launching an even greater effort to whitewash and ¡§detoxify¡¨ the situation,
in the process redefining the meaning of democracy.
The qualitative and quantitative changes in Hong Kong over the past 16 years
contain many similarities with what is happening in Taiwan.
Hong Kong¡¦s ¡§patriotic¡¨ politicians and capitalists have assured the
authoritarian government in Beijing of their loyalty in exchange for individual
political and economic advantages, which consolidate their position within the
unification framework.
Just like the average Taiwanese, the average Hong Konger has seen job
opportunities disappear and incomes drop while it becomes impossible to maintain
a dignified lifestyle.
The happiness, employment and long-term welfare of the general public have been
sacrificed for the prosperity and stability of a small minority of Hong Kong¡¦s
elite.
Considering this situation, surely Beijing¡¦s hope that the people of Hong Kong
should identify with China is futile.
In the 19th century, a weak and humiliated China suffered under the occupation
of Great Britain, France and other imperialist states. Historically speaking,
this is of course an injustice committed against China.
However, history often swings back and forth, and while ceding Hong Kong to
Great Britain was a humiliation to China, the territory prospered and developed
under the British far surpassing any Chinese city.
This does not apply only to Hong Kong. To this day, any part of China once
occupied by a foreign power remains more developed than other parts of China. It
is not very surprising that people sometimes jokingly say that China¡¦s biggest
humiliation was not the cession of Hong Kong to Great Britain, but rather that
the British turned Hong Kong into the pearl of the Far East. Ironically, this
saying has been verified over and over again by Hong Kong¡¦s regression over the
past 16 years.
Hong Kongers have continued to protest annually on June 4 and July 1 against the
brainwashing going on in their educational system, the delayed introduction of
universal elections and their puppet government.
There is repeated evidence that more and more Hong Kongers are leaving their
colonial mindset behind in search of an identity of their own. At the July 1
demonstration this year some people held up the colonial British flag.
Though they do not long for a return to the colonial era, their opposition to
China¡¦s authoritarian rule is evident.
At the same time, Ma and his cohorts, who are in fact in charge of a sovereign
state, are inviting Chinese colonialism.
From ¡§one China, different interpretations¡¨ and ¡§one country, two areas¡¨ to the
view that the relationship between Taiwan and China is not a relationship
between countries, they are unreservedly, accepting the idea that even Hong
Kongers reject: ¡§Taiwan is part of China¡¦s sacred territory.¡¨
To say that this defies belief is a gross understatement.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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