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Opinion | Hong Kong should celebrate its common law, to boost trust in the city
- Protecting the city’s distinct advantages calls for leaders to promote the importance of the common law system, and impress on Beijing the urgent need for Chinese officials, here and on the mainland, to study it
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When Hong Kong reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 under the formula of “one country, two systems”, naivety and over-optimism pervaded the city, the mainland and beyond with the belief that the only thing that changed was the flag.
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But the exuberance only lasted six years. In 2003, the Hong Kong government, following the Basic Law, tried but failed to introduce a home-grown national security law amid mass protests.
Since then, there have been missteps by both the pro- democracy camp in Hong Kong and officials in Beijing, gradually leading to a point of no return. Twenty-six years later, with two national security laws in place, naivety and excessive pessimism are taking hold in Hong Kong, the mainland and beyond with the belief that the city is becoming or has already become another Chinese city under one socialist system.
Many factors have contributed to negative perceptions about Hong Kong’s outlook, the chief one being that Beijing’s heavy-handed imposition of the national security law in 2020 showed it intended to turn Hong Kong into one system all along. If Beijing really wanted to do that, it would have done so a long time ago.
But perceptions about Hong Kong have changed drastically. Political and business elites have scrambled to embrace mainland-style language, tone, narrative and even marching style for the disciplinary forces. On top of this, the city has become a focal point in the rising geopolitical tensions between China and the West, which worsens the perceptions of Hong Kong.
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All this has given rise to a distinct impression that the city is hanging on every word from Beijing and eagerly awaiting instructions on how to move forward.
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