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Hong Kong politics
OpinionComment
Alice Wu
Alice Wu

Opinion | Jiang Zemin’s journey from transitional figure to transformational leader a fitting legacy for Hong Kong

  • Initially considered a compromise candidate, the late president led Hong Kong and China into a new era
  • Now, as our city begins another chapter, we could use more of Jiang’s underdog spirit

Reading Time:3 minutes
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Then president Jiang Zemin smiles through the rain, and waves to a crowd on his arrival in Hong Kong on June 30, 1997. Photo: Reuters
Alice Wu
The passing of former president Jiang Zemin marks the end of an era for China. He will be remembered as the transformative leader who brought China onto the highway of incredible growth, building on what paramount leader Deng Xiaoping had begun by opening up the country through bold market-economy reforms and leading China’s accession to the World Trade Organization.
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Deng brought China out of isolation; Jiang brought the nation fully into the world.

Deng was the father of “one country, two systems”, the policy that ensured the smooth handover of Hong Kong and Macau back to the motherland and is seen as the eventual solution to the Taiwan issue.

Jiang oversaw the handovers of both special administrative regions. He was instrumental in implementing one country, two systems. If Deng wrote the prologue to the Hong Kong SAR story, Jiang opened the first chapter.

At the time, Jiang set just the right tone for one country, two systems in Hong Kong, under the gaze of a largely sceptical world. It was, of course, not without its challenges.

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If the move by Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu to ask Beijing to seek an interpretation of the national security law over whether overseas counsel can take part in national security cases is controversial today, consider that the first instance of a reinterpretation of the Basic Law occurred under Jiang’s watch.

Jiang was instrumental in instilling confidence in one country, two systems by taking what we can now clearly see to have been a hands-off approach when it came to Hong Kong affairs. The metaphor “well water does not mix with river water” Jiang so famously quoted in 1989 turned out to be the guide to what the policy would mean on the ground.

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