Wednesday, June 20, 2007

One-sided Memories

The media in Beijing have already started their special coverage marking the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to the motherland.

And of course they have all been glowing reports.

Most of them stress how it was China that made the former British colony prosperous, helping it get through the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, and now because the SAR is inextricably linked with China, Hong Kong has no one else but the mainland to thank for its economic boom.

They also talk about how under British rule, Hong Kong people didn't know anything about their Chinese heritage. But now after 10 years, many Hong Kongers are learning Putonghua and discovering what it means to be Chinese.

What they don't talk about is how the city had to suffer through SARS, with not much help from the mainland, how the Chinese government has meddled in Hong Kong laws (Article 23), and the question of universal suffrage ever coming to the city.

It's interesting how China is still hell bent on stressing the economic benefits.

But Hong Kong already has that. The city and its people want more.

There will be another march on July 1 in Hong Kong pushing for more political reforms.

It won't be much longer before the Chinese themselves will be asking for more. What will the Central Government do then?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

for thousands of years the chinese people lived under a feudal system. they lack the idea of democracy, besides they are not toally well educated to be self governing. the populus is so uneven due to the vast land mass and difficutly in commuication to impose a western style of democray is impossible. look at the caotic voting in the third world countries are good examples.