THE ROVING
EYE One
country, two (failed)
systems By Pepe Escobar
HONG KONG - It wasn't supposed to be like
this.
They won't see it on CCTV in the
motherland - it won't be reported anyway. At least
400,000 Hongkongers, snaking all over Central in
absolutely sweltering heat, from early afternoon
until deep into the night, and from all walks of
life (tycoons excluded), all of them expressing
their anger at Hong Kong's new CEO, pro-Beijing
property developer Leung Chun-ying; the notion of
"one country, two systems"; their impossibility to
actually vote; and last but not least, motherland
China.
Definitely this is not what Little
Helmsman Deng Xiaoping envisaged - as Hong Kong
celebrated the 15th anniversary of the handover;
400,000 people, in a city of 7 million, is
immense. Nothing could be more graphic than the
contrast between two very different appraisals of
"one country, two systems"; in the early
evening, while the
pro-democracy protest still rolled on in Central,
and spread to the west of Hong Kong island, a
proverbially hyper-pro fireworks display dazzled
the throngs massed in Kowloon, soaking up the most
spectacular Blade Runner-esque skyscape on the
planet.
The outgoing Dragon-in-chief,
Chinese President Hu Jintao, came into town to the
swearing in of the new CEO - whose job is
essentially to maintain the sanctity of Hong
Kong's huge fiscal reserves; to satisfy the key
shareholders (as in global corporations and
banks); and to apply no-holds-barred top-down
management. Not much different from what the
imperial Brits did. The problem is the scheme
excludes nearly all of Hong Kong's
population.
Hu are these people? As usual
in hyper-choreographed, securitized to death
China-style ceremonies, Hu may not have noticed
when a pro-democracy demonstrator tried to
interrupt him as he began his address, waving a
flag, calling for a full condemnation of the June
4, 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and no less than the
end of the Chinese Communist Party. The protester
was duly led away - accused of being "too loud".
I watched the investiture of the new CEO
with a group of elderly Hongkongers. Whenever Hu,
displaying his trademark Madame Tussaud charm,
showed up on screen they were furious, accusing
him of being a "murderer" (especially during his
stint in Tibet). "Whenever he walks there are
piles of bodies under his feet", one of them told
me.
Hong Kong's 3.4 million
registered voters are fed up with the
stratospheric wealth gap graphically expressed by
multi-billionaires flaunting their wealth in
contrast to people actually living in cages in
Kowloon; income inequality has never been higher
over the past four decades. They want serious
measures against air pollution. They want proper
pensions. They want adequate housing at reasonable
prices. And most of all they want to vote. A Hong
Kong Spring has been brewing in slow motion for 15
years now.
"One country, two systems" boils down to a
tycoon (Tung Chee-hwa), then a civil servant
(Donald Tsang), then a self-made millionaire
(Leung Chun-ying) acting as the city's CEO,
"elected" by only 689 votes out of a 1,200-strong
committee of - what else - business elites, most
of them billionaires faithfully obeying the
mainland's agenda and with an eye to their immense
profits.
Leung Chun-ying has made a few
politically correct noises - as in pledging to
rein in out of control housing prices; locals
overwhelmingly blame them on wealthy "locusts"
from the mainland and their suitcases full of
yuan. Yet his own credibility is already
compromised - as the top scandal in town is how he
had made no less than six illegal additions to his
mansion in the millionaire neighborhood of
Victoria Peak.
So Hongkongers aren't
holding their breath. They know the most densely
populated strip of land on earth is essentially a
land speculation Holy Grail. If you are a
mega-property developer, your profit margins are
literally galactic.
The feeling among the
marching 400,000 this Sunday boiled down to an
immense frustration about having being handed a
non-representative government in perpetual
collusion with big business. Virtually everyone
points to way more democratic Taiwan or South
Korea as examples of what Hong Kong could be in
terms of solving its practical problems concerning
housing, welfare and the environment.
In
the end, the frustration inevitably had to be
channeled towards China's Communist Party.
Dragon-in-chief Hu has also made the right noises
- assuring Hong Kong that Beijing does care. In
theory, Hongkongers will be allowed to elect their
own leader in 2017 - and all (not only a few)
legislators by 2020. Yet Beijing remains
absolutely mum about the deadlines.
It's
fair to assume the Hong Kong Spring won't stop
simmering. And tens of millions in China will be
paying close attention. Leung would better do a
much better job than his predecessors. Otherwise
sooner or later it will be nearly impossible to
appease the masses with just a fireworks display.
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