My Take | Policies on Hong Kong are more forward-looking
Xi Jinping’s speech was without the warnings given by Hu Jintao against “external forces” and the need for a “grand united front”. Instead the focus was on long-term stability and prosperity
Critics of China will beg to differ but the policies of the central government annunciated by President Xi Jinping towards Hong Kong during the 19th national congress have been much more positive and forward-looking.
Gone are the warnings against “external forces” and the need for a “grand united front” in the speech given by then retiring president Hu Jintao at the 18th congress. Instead the focus is on long-term stability and prosperity, with such initiatives as the economic development of the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau.
Concerns about foreign interference cumulated with the Occupy protests of 2014. But as the so-called yellow umbrella movement dies down, so too have fears about political intervention by foreign forces.
Meanwhile, the split within the loyalist camp between the so-called Leung gang (named after ex-chief executive Leung Chun-ying) and the Tang camp (after Henry Tang Ying-yen, his defeated electoral rival) has been mended under pressure from Beijing.
The tone of the central government today is much more confident and assertive. No wonder; after the debacle of the city’s failed electoral reform, Beijing has essentially forced all the major Western governments to concede that Hong Kong is solely a matter of China’s internal affairs. Besides lip service, no Western government will stand up for autonomy claims made by the local opposition.
