Hong Kong mourns the end of its way of life as China cracks down on dissent
HONG KONGHong Kong exists, as writer Han Suyin put it in the 1950s, “on borrowed time in a borrowed place.” Throughout its history, the city has been a bargaining chip in negotiations, its fate decided by other powers, each treaty setting out new expiration dates. Its identity is laced with unease about the city’s inevitable end as we locals know it, with our powerlessness in the face of time.
There was the countdown to 1997, when Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule after 150 years as a British colony. Britain and China had agreed in 1984 that after the handover, Hong Kong would be guaranteed its capitalist lifestyle and freedoms for 50 years. After the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre targeted pro-reform students in Beijing, tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents left out of fear. Many later came back with foreign passports, an insurance policy and exit strategy should their worst fears materialize.
Now the countdown to 2047 is underway, to the end of the 50-year arrangement known as “One Country, Two Systems.” But last year, the government proposed an extradition bill that would allow suspected criminals to be sent to the mainland, setting in motion Hong Kong’s worst political crisis in decades. In June, Beijing fast-tracked a sweeping national security law that essentially criminalizes dissent.
After the law, which allows closed-door trials and life imprisonment, was announced, headlines read like obituaries: “The saddest day in Hong Kong’s history,” “An official death sentence for Hong Kong.”
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