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ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES◼ REMARKS
● Hong Kong’s demonstrators have
one big issue: Their city’s fate when
China fully takes over in 28 years● By Matthew Campbell
Protesting L ike It’s 2047
When U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher agreed in 1984
to return Hong Kong to China, it wasn’t clear who would end
up changing whom. The People’s Republic was still in the early
days of the most dramatic economic transformation in modern
history, opening for the first time in decades to money, people,
and ideas from abroad. Hong Kong, freewheeling and prosper-
ous, boasted plenty of what China’s reformers seemed to want:
wealth, of course, but also order and stability, guaranteed by a
colonial government that offered clean courts and some indi-
vidual rights without ever flirting with true electoral democ-
racy. “One country, two systems,” shorthand for Beijing’s
pledge to maintain the city’s political character for 50 years
after the 1997 British turnover, contained within it the possi-
bility that by the time 2047 rolled around, the systems would
have converged—mostly, perhaps, in Hong Kong’s direction.
After more than two months of violent confrontation, that’s
decidedly unlikely. On Aug. 12 pr o-democracy protesters made
their most dramatic move yet, flooding into Hong Kong’s
gleaming airport and forcing it to shut down completely. The
next day, protesters disrupted service again, though short o
closing things down. It was the latest episode in what’s becomea summer of rage in Asia’s financial capital, with millions taking
to the streets to oppose what they say are attempts to steamroll
the city’s freedoms. Beijing has responded with undisguised
fury, suggesting that some protesters have committed “terror-
ism” and hinting at the possibility of military action.
To pessimists—and in today’s Hong Kong, there are plenty—
the rupture is confirmation that the Communist Party and
a free city will never be able to peaceably coexist. And yet
they must. Despite the wishes of some of Hong Kong’s more
passionate activists, Chinese rule isn’t going anywhere. But
neither is the fury of many in Hong Kong. “On the current
trajectory, another confrontation is inevitable, unless the
younger generation in Hong Kong can see that their con-
cerns are being addressed,” says Steve Tsang, director of the
University of London’s SOAS China Institute and the author
ofA Modern History of Hong Kong.China’s leaders, he says,
“just don’t get it. Their default is to use repression, which will
only breed more protest.”
Hong Kong’s worst crisis since the handover began in June,
with rallies of unprecedented size against legislation backed
by the pro-Beijing chief executive, Carrie Lam, that would
allow extradition to mainland China. Lam, a longtime civil
servant elected by a handpicked committee of local nota-
bles, had badly misjudged the public mood. On the eve of
another huge protest, she agreed to shelve the proposed
law, later declaring it “dead.” For emboldened activists, that
wasn’t enough. They’ve now taken to the streets in large num-
bers for 10 consecutive weeks, clashing with police who have
been given the green light to use aggressive tactics. Almost
never employed before this year, rubber bullets and tear gas