{"id":20042,"date":"2019-03-31T11:47:29","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T03:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=20042"},"modified":"2019-04-01T17:53:50","modified_gmt":"2019-04-01T09:53:50","slug":"hong-kongs-democracy-struggle-how-to-break-out-of-the-impasse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2019\/03\/31\/20042\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s democracy struggle \u2013 how to break the impasse?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Carrie Lam\u2019s government faces its biggest challenges since taking office<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Editorial from Socialist (\u793e\u4f1a\u4e3b\u4e49\u8005\u200f) magazine issue 51, Spring 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increased authoritarian rule and a political crackdown in Hong Kong have not translated into stable government. The Shatin-Central subway line construction scandal, the plan to build an artificial \u201ctycoon island\u201d near Lantau, the refusal to prosecute two high-ranking pro-Beijing politicians, attacks on CSSA payments for the elderly, and the collapse of the public healthcare system, all these crises have shattered the government\u2019s credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following January\u2019s botched attacks on CSSA payments to the elderly, the popularity of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has fallen to a new low with an approval rating of minus 23 percentage points. Severe repression has not made Lam\u2019s government strong. Although the opposition political parties are in a state of paralysis, the government itself suffers from extremely low levels of public support. While China\u2019s \u2018Communist\u2019 regime (CCP) under Xi Jinping has tightened its control over Hong Kong, it is largely oblivious to the real mood of Hong Kong\u2019s people. By cranking up the political pressure on Lam\u2019s government, Beijing could at any moment trigger significant unrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Attacks on democratic rights<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government continues its unprecedented attacks on democratic rights. While the controversial National Anthem Law is being pushed through the legislature, a new extradition treaty with mainland China is also being hammered out, which will further erode Hong Kong\u2019s separate judicial system and threaten civil rights. Hong Kong citizens who challenge the CCP dictatorship could soon risk being handed over to China\u2019s guilty-if-we-say-so legal system on \u201cnational security\u201d grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year\u2019s District Council elections will see widespread political screening to eliminate pro-democracy candidates that the authorities accuse of advocating \u201cself-determination\u201d or \u201cHong Kong independence\u201d. But an even bigger question is whether the CCP will also demand disqualification of candidates who support calls for \u201cending one-party dictatorship\u201d. If so, next year\u2019s more important elections to the Legislative Council (Legco) could see virtually all opposition candidates barred from standing. This would complete the Legco\u2019s metamorphosis from a powerless talking shop into a mere clap-o-meter for government policies, no different from China\u2019s NPC.
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After \u201cCY\u201d Leung Chun-ying stepped down as Chief Executive two years ago he did not fade away. He has very much hung around representing the CCP\u2019s hardline approach to ruling Hong Kong, keeping the pressure on Lam\u2019s government from the sidelines, demanding more ruthless action for example by cracking down on pro-independence localists and pushing for Article 23 national security legislation as soon as possible.
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The CCP needs CY to continue in his role as a political thug and this is why he enjoys a high degree of official protection. This is in sharp contrast to his predecessor Donald Tsang, who has just been released after 20 months in prison for \u201cmisconduct in office\u201d. Moreover, if CY were to be prosecuted and even convicted on corruption charges in connection with the HK$50 million payment he received from Australian engineering firm UGL while in office, this would also compromise the authority of the CCP regime, which made him a vice chairman of China\u2019s prestigious CPPCC after he left Government House.
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Due to the political weakness and lack of a fighting strategy of the moderate pan-democrats, Hong Kong\u2019s mass democracy movement has been paralysed. The ruling camp\u2019s arrogance and self-confidence seemingly knows no limits. Regina Ip, of the pro-establishment New People\u2019s Party, now boldly declares, \u201cthe times are different\u201d.
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The claims we are unlikely again to see 500,000 people take to the streets as was the case in 2003, when the last attempt to introduce Article 23 legislation was defeated. That mass protest ended Ip\u2019s career as security minister.
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Now she claims there was a unique environment in 2003, with economic recession, the SARS epidemic, and a housing bust, all contributing to popular unrest, rather than opposition to Article 23 in itself.
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Ip is guilty of historical revisionism. The government was completely stunned by the mass turnout in 2003. Then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa was quoted by news media in the morning predicting that only 50,000 people would go to the streets. Today\u2019s rulers, as Ip shows, are equally out of touch with reality. The disparity between the rich and poor, crazy house prices, and the decline in people\u2019s livelihoods, are worse today than in 2003. There is no shortage of objective factors for mass revolt.
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Timid leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mass anger shown against Lam\u2019s plan to build HK$1 trillion worth of artificial islands near Lantau is a warning of the real mood among grassroots workers. The problem is there that is no clear organised leadership or strategy to resist the government\u2019s authoritarian pro-rich agenda.The democracy movement has suffered repeated setbacks as a result of timid and indecisive leadership from the pan-democrats, who value capitalism\u2019s need for \u201cstable\u201d profit making above the population\u2019s need for democratic rights. These can only be achieved by far-reaching mass struggle which by its very nature poses a threat to the capitalists\u2019 interests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has inevitably lowered the confidence of the masses in the current struggle and that in turn has created a certain living space for the conservative pan-democratic leadership. After their defeat in the two legislative by-elections in West Kowloon the pan-democrats concluded, incredibly, that their election campaigns in the past have been too politicised and radical. Therefore, they say, they should now concentrate on \u2018parish pump\u2019 politics. They blame the \u201clow consciousness\u201d of the masses for this further retreat from the road of struggle.
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Within the leading circles of the pan-democratic camp there is now a cynical calculation that they can benefit from the government\u2019s attacks on the radical wing of the movement and the largely fragmented localists (Hong Kong nationalists). Their thinking is that the radicals like \u2018Long Hair\u2019 of the LSD and youth group Demosisto will be prevented from running in the next Legco elections, and therefore radical votes will automatically flow to the moderate pan-democrats. This marks a further adaptation to the authoritarian regime.
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Politics is not only about counting votes. Growing sections of the population see that the moderate pan-democratic politicians are incapable of leading the democratic struggle and are in fact reducing themselves to the role of a token opposition. Consequently, many are now less inclined to vote for them. This was seen clearly in the two West Kowloon by-elections, which showed that the previously assumed \u201c60\/40\u201d division of votes, between the pan-democrats and the pro-government camp, is no longer a foregone conclusion. Unless a real political alternative is presented that offers a way to fight back against the government\u2019s right-wing pro-business agenda, then the pro-Beijing parties with their superior campaign machines and unlimited funds will enjoy a big advantage in heavily rigged elections.
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Another conclusion of the pan-democrats after the by-election defeats is that they were unable to absorb votes that went to localist candidates last time around. Now there is an attempt by sections of the pan-democrats to mimic some localist rhetoric, while steering well clear of the independence issue (which Beijing has declared a \u2018red line\u2019), in the hope of co-opting the localists\u2019 voter base.
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For example, the Labour Party\u2019s Lee Cheuk-yan published an article recently in which he borrowed the localists\u2019 rallying cry of a \u201cbrave war\u201d, implying a willingness to use violence. This was a blatant appeal for localist votes. Nobody seriously believes moderates like Lee will sanction violent actions, but they can opportunistically steal some localist rhetoric and phraseology, such as opposing \u2018new immigrants\u2019 (a term for mainlanders) and official promotion of Mandarin language as part of a populist pitch for former localist voters.
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Socialists oppose the defeatist position of the pan-democratic leadership and their opportunistic manoeuvres. We call for the reconstruction of a mass democracy struggle independent of the moderates and their kowtowing before capitalist policies. What is lacking most of all in Hong Kong at present is organised struggle by the working class in defence of living standards and against the never-ending attacks of the government.
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This struggle, and the resumption of genuine struggle for full and immediate democracy, including democratic control of the economy and society\u2019s abundant wealth, cannot succeed without building unity with workers in China to overthrow the CCP\u2019s pro-billionaire dictatorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we stand for<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n