Don’t write off Hongkongers just yet

Dismissing today’s Hong Kong as just another Chinese city is unfair to its people who are working hard to make the best of their situation

Dennis Wilder

Published: 9:30am, 8 Jun 2024

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Hong Kong’s reputation has recently suffered new blows with the passage of the domestic Article 23 national security law and the conviction of 14 pro-democracy activists on charges of conspiracy to commit subversion.

It is easy to dismiss today’s Hong Kong as just another Chinese city where citizens mindlessly obey the Communist Party. That is a superficial and unfair characterisation of Hongkongers, who are known for making the best of any situation, even if it is not of their own choosing. The people of Hong Kong, who have endured repression under British and Japanese masters and now Beijing, are worthy of our respect and admiration.

Last month, I brought a group of Georgetown University students to Hong Kong for a dialogue with students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Peking University, Fudan University and the University of California, San Diego. I was apprehensive about returning to Hong Kong after the Covid-19 pandemic, especially since the city has been placed under a US State Department travel advisory.

I was an exchange student studying Chinese through the Yale-in-China programme at Chinese University in the 1970s, and I was posted to Hong Kong in the 1990s. We advocated hard then, in accordance with the Hong Kong Policy Act, for greater democracy. And I, as much as any American, lament the adoption of laws that may limit freedom of the press, of speech and the right of assembly.

However, what I found was a Hong Kong that remains a unique and exciting international city in Asia. While Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei are all great cities, the level of English skills found among Hongkongers is far higher.

Close to 10 per cent of Hong Kong’s residents are expatriates from around the globe, including more than 80,000 Americans. Uber drivers, hotel staff and other service personnel speak good English and are friendly ambassadors for their city.

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Uniquely among Chinese cities, there are no restrictions on internet access and reporters and editors are free to cover important stories on political, military, economic and societal developments in China. Hong Kong also remains an international media hub.

In addition, Hong Kong’s judiciary boasts world-class standards and international businesses can remain confident that matters will be fairly adjudicated in the city’s courts. Hong Kong’s civil service and police force remain free of the widespread corruption found across the border in Guangdong province.

Hong Kong’s universities remain bastions where students can debate freely, although their ability to protest publicly has been curtailed. My Georgetown University students spent three days on Chinese University campus, where they encountered students eager to engage with the international issues of the day.

My regret is that Hongkongers have not adequately explained the continued vibrancy and uniqueness of the city to the world. I am reluctant as an outsider to suggest solutions, but my meetings and meals with smart local people suggest several avenues to explore.

For example, Hongkongers need to find local leaders who can speak for them on the world stage and who can defend Hong Kong’s relative autonomy in Beijing. In the past, prominent members of the Hong Kong business community served this role, and by doing so they gave Hong Kong a stature that allowed them to converse with their masters in Beijing on a relatively equal footing.

There are many among Hong Kong’s business elite who could assume such a role, but they are understandably reluctant to enter the political fray and potentially damage their own reputations and businesses.

Hong Kong also needs to revive Cathay Pacific, its flagship airline. Once one of the world’s most prestigious airlines, it has yet to recover from the resignation of its chief executive officer in 2019 following severe criticism from Beijing over its employees’ participation in the street protests.

Cathay lags behind its mainland rivals and has not recovered its routes to the Middle East and Southeast Asia. It needs to solve its persistent shortage of pilots and connect the city to many more major destinations around the globe.

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Instead of focusing on the ways Beijing has damaged Hong Kong, it is time to defend the people of Hong Kong by acknowledging and supporting the unique role they still play in East Asia.

Many Hong Kong families came to the city from China during the desperate days of famine and the chaos of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. They built a remarkable city through industriousness equal to any citizen on the planet. They did this while suffering the indignities imposed by colonial masters from London and while being looked down on by the Communist leadership in Beijing.

I remember asking a Chinese official before the return of Hong Kong to China in 1997 what he thought of Hongkongers. He condescendingly replied that they were sorry folks who did not know who they were, but soon Beijing would teach them.

We should support Hongkongers as best we can so they ensure that the “one country, two systems” framework remains effective and thrives, secure in the knowledge that they have international allies.

Dennis Wilder is a former senior American intelligence official and policymaker. He currently serves as a professor of practice at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow of Georgetown’s Initiative for US-China Dialogue on Global Issues