As China turns inwards, Hong Kong’s international outlook fades

An unclear future for Hong Kong
Internet Archive version

At this time when there is so much focus on national security issues and more integration with the mainland, two recent events have brought home the historic role of foreigners, good and bad, in the creation of the city.

First was that a half-Chinese Hongkonger with the very Irish name of Siobhan Haughey became the first to win two Olympic medals. That in itself was a lesson in how Hong Kong has to some extent avoided the ethno-nationalism that afflicts many places, the mainland included.

Second is the imminent publication of a biography of the late Hari Harilela, the Sindhi trader whose family came to Hong Kong in the 1930s and who went from small player in the tailoring business to richest Indian in the city with a string of hotels and other properties here and overseas. The biography written by formerly Hong Kong-based journalist and author Vaudine England includes much from Harilela’s own written recollections as well as a wealth of background information on Hong Kong’s business history and international links. The full article...  [and the second half below the fold]Maybe history itself is passing Hong Kong by, with no British empire, possibly dwindling Western connections, frictions between China and its southeast Asian and Japanese neighbours, fewer links to overseas Chinese in Asia, a China itself turning inward. But the more the government emphasises integration with the mainland, the less space there is for non-ethnic Chinese. 

The large south Asian and Filipino communities have long faced discrimination, official as well as informal. The efforts of the Equal Opportunities Commission to counter it are worthy but unlikely to make much progress so long as the government itself makes no effort to involve non-Chinese in advisory and policymaking roles, or provide effective enforcement of the legal rights of Asians in domestic helper and unskilled worker roles.

Even the wildly excessive 

quarantine rules

 seem to reflect an inward attitude which should be alien to an international city.

It may not matter to those making big money or old colonial timers who blame Hong Kong problems on radical youth, if many feel a chill of fear as government listens intently to mainland voices seeking to limit debate and punish dissenting views. But it does matter that Hong Kong has in the recent past lost the presence of such writers and journalists as Ching Cheong, once a senior editor with Wen Wei Po and well-known commentator on local and Beijing affairs, and most recently, Steve Vines, English-language writer, broadcaster and entrepreneur whose 35 years in Hong Kong included presenting a regular RTHK programme. Both left out of fear for their freedom.

It does matter that the education sector is facing “reform” and artists and academics in sensitive fields are under pressure.
Liberal ideas and the rule of law are not for cherry-picking. You either have a system which is tolerant if sometimes messy, or you have one driven by an authoritarian ideology. You either have a system which revels in diversity, or you have another middling Chinese city like Quanzhou, once an international city glowingly described by travellers Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo.
The writing is on the schoolroom wall.