I often disagree with columnist Alex Lo, but I think he’s got it substantially correct in the piece above.
It was indeed a mistake, naive and stupid, to reject the limited move to universal suffrage that was offered by Beijing in 2015. Many of us thought so at the time. Far better would have been to accept the limited offer, bank it in the back pocket, show that we can act and vote as rational beings, and then move to enlarge the freedom to vote. Instead they — the so-called “pan-democratic” coalition of democracy parties — picked up their bat and left the field in a huff. Feeling mightily virtuous, as they made clear to us at the time, but dudding we the Hong Kong people in the process.
And then we had the demonstrations of 2019, which rapidly spiralled into daily riots. Burning and vandalising property all over Hong Kong, even our much-loved MTR subway system burned and trashed, and mainland connected businesses attacked and viciously racially slandered. Then there was graffiti calling for Hong Kong independence. That was and is a huge Red Flag for Beijing. Never in a month of Sundays could Beijing accept that. Hence the National Security law.
But, as Alex points out, we have not become some kind of police-state dystopia, directly ruled by tyrants in Beijing. That’s a picture often painted in the western media, but it’s flat-out wrong.
We watch the insanity of France burning, and are glad of the safety of Hong Kong. Where, here in Discovery Bay I can leave my front door unlocked and leave stuff in the car, open, and never stolen. There’s something to be said for a society that has that safety and that doesn’t scrawl graffiti on every blank wall.
