The Last Gasp of a Nation Unheard

The Last Gasp of a Nation Unheard by Lap Gong Leong

           2017 was supposed to mark the 20th anniversary of a contented and prosperous Hong Kong that shone brightly under Chinese leadership. And while pollsters found the election of a new Chief Executive to have immediately perked up public optimism, nobody could deny that the last 20 years were an epoch filled with lost opportunities. In essence, no one was really satisfied with the direction of the city. The Chinese and their allies in Hong Kong were anything but genuinely joyous. In the years leading up to 1997, many a patriot (including my father) assumed that they were inheriting an economic engine filled with dynamic people ready to make China great. However, the ensuing decades were filled with only stagnation and decline, and the ensuing chronic misgovernance that took hold was often blamed on the fifth column opposition part and parcel of the vast Anglo-American conspiracy. Despite talking a big game of repudiating untrammeled free markets for compassionate and virile state capacity, the Beijing Bloc never enacted the strong Industrial Strategy they fantasized about nor did they build comprehensive welfare and healthcare. While flurries of new bodies were set up to improve Hong Kong, nothing much had changed for the better. For all their braggadocious promises, Hong Kong’s new rulers did not tamper with positive non-interventionism. While public expenditure grew by leaps and bounds, it was covered by an excellently efficient tax system. Successive governments kept wasting money on anything that could win plaudits from voters without much thought as to its prudence or necessity. Since Chinese capital and foreign investment provided voluminous revenues, the government stayed complacent even while it constantly feared being displaced by Shenzhen and Shanghai. Hong Kong’s establishment stares in riotous envy when seeing Shenzhen’s startup culture and tech companies. They still didn’t embrace Keynesianism. What they did was gradually developed a network of sectoral interventions and incentives that were supposed to put Hong Kong on the map and diversify its economy. However, instead of new industries, savvy companies were able to exploit the fears and hopes of desperate policymakers. While Hong Kong is undoubtedly Asia’s “Wine Hub” and host to a bevy of prestigious conferences and meeting points, the average citizen is providing subsidies to favored companies and interests that tow the party line. Hong Kong people receive precious little benefit aside from tax-free wine and slightly cheaper office space. Hospitals are overcrowded and public services feel emaciated despite greater spending. Manageable, much less affordable, rent is elusive and the living costs are exorbitant.

           When protests reached a fever pitch in 2014 and 2019, the establishment blamed lingering British influence embedded within Hong Kong’s institutions and substandard living conditions. There was no self-reflection. They demanded that free markets be replaced with compassionate interventionism, the people to be given more budget sweeteners, true patriotism to be instilled into the youth, and Hong Kong to be deeply integrated into its surrounding cities. Hong Kong’s Chinese believe that Hong Kong’s recurrent problems stem from colonialism’s persistent presence and treat it almost like original sin. Union jacks at protests or any catchy vaguely pro-independence slogan bring them into red-faced apoplexy.

All this has sidelined their promise to improve social care and for political and social terraforming. Only until Hong Kong people learn to love China, the Chinese, and the communist party’s way will they receive the public services long promised by successive governments. Only when Hong Kong people are truly decolonized and its politicians sincerely patriotic will there be free and fair elections. This isn’t autonomy, much less a high degree of it. This is societal blackmail. An impossible demand that requires the wholesale destruction of an individual and collective national identity.

           Hong Kong’s predicament cannot be solely placed with China and the Chinese. Hong Kong people, for all their bravery and integrity, are perennially fearful and are loathed to genuinely ponder the constitutional question. For all the anthems, flags, protests, and expressions; for all the art and passion of newfound nationhood, the average Hong Kong person is stabbed with wrenching terror. China is simply too big, too rich, too powerful, and too jealous of a nation to fight. Since the crackdown, the citizenry has entered deep denial. The broad populace still believes that China’s intolerable acts are the result of a big misunderstanding of legal and political doctrine with unintentional misinterpretations of heated conversations, and that lenience can be restored through good behavior and clarification.

In my opinion, citizens have yet to fully admit to themselves that One Country, Two Systems is constitutionally inauthentic. Rather than a bulwark protecting special status, OCTS has been the rope used to tie Hong Kong down into a submissive and pliant position. Until people admit this reality, there will be no progress, let alone future action.

The result of this fear and loathing is cessation. Hong Kong people still live in a world-class financial center. For many, if there are opportunities to live a nice life, they won’t voice or exit. Even if they despise patriotic education and national anthem law, there’s enough dim sum and milk tea to numb the pain. 

2 years on, the protests are the last gasp of a nation unheard. We have yet to know if the said nation will assert itself again in hopes of restoring its own natural rights. Don’t hold your breath.

[Each week, I join Lap Gong Leong, a colleague in weekly conversation; Lap is an emerging writer and commentator on a wide range of topics including politics, education, film, science fiction, and building a prosperous and free society for all. His analysis and critique aims to break through the logjam of conventional ideas and wisdom, especially as it relates to the careers and lives of individuals with Autism. We are pleased to share the 15th piece of writing from our recent exchanges.

About Lap Gong Leong: A graduate of the Borough of Manhattan Community College in Liberal Arts, "I am in the process of transferring to a four-year university. However, the lack of Autistic aids for many individuals, including myself has incentivized me to work for myself." A resident of NYC, Lap also divides his time between Hong Kong and Singapore.]