The Economist - UK - 09.14.2019

58 The EconomistSeptember 14th 2019

1

“I

can sympathisewith the protesters in

Hong Kong,” says a young saleswoman

from Guangdong province, which borders

on the territory. “The rule of law, greater de-

mocracy—these are good things to be de-

manding,” she adds, attributing her views

to an “open mind” and software that allows

her to bypass China’s censorship appara-

tus. Then she wonders whether she might

have said too much.

Since the protests broke out in Hong

Kong three months ago, officials on the

Chinese mainland have been working hard

to prevent views like hers from circulating

openly. China’s state-controlled media

have focused only on the more chaotic as-

pects of the unrest, portraying participants

as a small number of violent separatists in

cahoots with foreign “black hands”. They

have ignored the record numbers who have

joined peaceful demonstrations and dis-

missed their pleas for democracy as merely

a ruse to achieve independence. So it is

hardly surprising that many people echo

the government’s line. They often argue

that the “rioters” in Hong Kong deserve to

be crushed. The saleswoman is a rarity.

But the authorities are jittery. In an arti-

cle published last month on the website of

Newsweek, Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassa-

dor to America, said the biggest threat to

China’s “one country, two systems” ar-

rangement for Hong Kong was posed by

“ill-intentioned forces” trying to turn Hong

Kong “into a bridgehead to attack the main-

land’s system and spark chaos across Chi-

na.” On August 19th Xinhua, a government

news agency, accused “anti-Chinese West-

ern powers” of trying to unleash a “colour

revolution” in Hong Kong that would “pen-

etrate” the mainland. A week later China’s

public-security minister visited Guang-

dong and urged local police to “resolutely

defend the great southern gate of China’s

political security” by combating “all kinds

of infiltration, sabotage and subversion”.

In other words, he appeared to suggest,

they must guard the province from Hong

Kong’s political influence.

If the government has reason to worry

about contagion from Hong Kong, Guang-

dong—the country’s most populous prov-

ince, with as many residents as France and

Spain combined—would be a logical place

to look for it. One reason is shared culture

and language. Many Hong Kongers are ref-

ugees from Guangdong, or their descen-

dants. Hundreds of thousands fled from

the province to the then British-ruled terri-

tory to escape famine or persecution dur-

ing Mao Zedong’s rule. Inhabitants of both

places commonly speak Cantonese, which

sounds very different from the mainland’s

official tongue, Mandarin. They take pride

in the region’s distinct traditions. Many

travel back and forth frequently.

Another reason is that Guangdong has a

history of relatively liberal thinking. It was

a laboratory for the economic reforms

launched four decades ago by Deng Xiao-

ping. Perhaps because it is so far from Bei-

jing (the province’s capital, Guangzhou, is

more than 1,800km from the national one)

and so close to Hong Kong, Guangdong has

Social stability

Shutting the gate

GUANGZHOU

Unrest in Hong Kong is being watched warily in the province next door

China

60 Chaguan: Trucker culture, China-style

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