RED LANTERNS Hong Kong and promises betrayed

Xi Jinping came to the former British colony to demonstrate that normalization has become an absolute priority. On July 1, 1997, Martin Lee and Margaret Ng cried out from the balcony of Parliament for freedom and democracy. Today they face the consequences of the National Security Law. And Hong Kong becomes more and more a sad, depressed and frightened city.

Milan () July 1, 1997 – July 1, 2022: Hong Kong 25 years later. The date of July 1, the day Hong Kong celebrates the ‘return’ to the motherland after 156 years of British colonialism, requires special reflection this year. Twenty-five years is a time that is celebrated with joy in the lives of individuals, couples or communities. But this is not the case in Hong Kong: this year’s festivities are certainly pharaonic, but people do not feel involved. The visit – marked by exceptional security measures – by Xi Jinping, the strong man of Beijing, president of the People’s Republic of China and secretary of the Communist Party, will only increase the gloomy atmosphere that invades the city.

The management of the Covid 19 pandemic reinforces the distancing and isolation measures for guests arriving from Beijing. Chinese leaders are quite drastic and even ruthless in imposing measures to stop the contagion, as has been seen in the fierce confinement imposed on the city of Shanghai in recent months. There is always the feeling that, at least in the case of Hong Kong, radical health measures are also an instrument of the repressive political agenda. This trip to Hong Kong is Xi Jinping’s first outside mainland China since the pandemic broke out in January 2020. Authoritarian leaders – obsessed with fear of getting sick – carefully avoid occasions that expose them to contagion. However, the normalization of Hong Kong has become an absolute priority for Xi and with his presence he wants to demonstrate it unequivocally, clearly and conclusively.

The Chinese president will formally start the term of John Lee, the new chief executive of the “Special Administration Zone” of Hong Kong, elected on May 8 in the most undemocratic way, that is, by 99% of the members of the Election Committee. John Lee was a police officer until he became head of the Department of Security in 2017. Under his orders, the police forcefully suppressed the popular protests that began with the march of a million citizens on June 9, 2019. Without a doubt it is not a source of satisfaction for us to know that the Chief Executive who will assume power in Hong Kong Kong declares that he comes from the Catholic world and that, according to what he says, he would have acquired the principles that guide his political action in the Catholic school he attended . We believe that Christian democratic leaders currently in prison, many of whom have explicitly described their social and political commitment as an application of evangelical principles, are much more faithful to the Gospel.

These 25 years are a major turning point for Hong Kong. When the treaty between China and Britain on the future of the colony was signed in 1984 and the long process of drafting the Basic Law, or Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, began, Deng Xiaoping himself stated that for fifty years Hong Kong would continue to maintain his ‘special’ lifestyle: “The horses will keep running, the bank stocks will keep yielding, and the dancers will keep dancing.” With this famous phrase, Deng Xiaoping, who at least showed he knew Hong Kong, wanted to reassure the city’s inhabitants and the international community about the financial, economic, social and political future of the city. Deng left it settled in a document inventing the original “one country-two systems” formula. And the Hong Kong exception was to last fifty years. Meanwhile, it also applied to Macao (1999) and in the future it should also have reassured Taiwan, convincing the island’s population that they need not fear reunification with mainland China. Meanwhile Hong Kong, in accordance with the promises made, would progressively develop democratic mechanisms to increase citizen participation in public affairs, up to universal suffrage.

Many have wondered why fifty years. There are various interpretations, but I am convinced that the best explanation is that Deng believed that China was making great strides towards modernization and would take 50 years to become similar to Hong Kong. So Hong Kong was not to be like China but precisely the opposite, at least in the intentions of Deng Xiaoping, the second communist emperor after Mao Zedong.

Therefore, it is a source of great disappointment, bitterness and pain for people, that this promise of freedom and democracy is stolen from them without having even exceeded 25 years. Hong Kong was never democratic, but it was a free and cosmopolitan city. Now it isn’t. It is a sad, depressed, fearful and uncertain city. Many people are abandoning her forever. There was also a big exodus before 1997, when many citizens mistrusted Beijing’s promises after the Tiananmen Square massacre. At that time it was an exodus of prudence on the part of those who could afford it. But there were also positive signs: the number of international residents rose sharply as the “one country, two systems” formula seemed to be succeeding, and even some who had left returned. Today it is not like that. Expats leave a city where they no longer feel at home and safe. Many Chinese citizens, even those who do not have a good economic situation, have already left or intend to leave the city. Perhaps they had democratic sympathies and that is enough to fear for them and their children. It is a sad exodus.

I remember a July 1, 25 years ago. I was also in the central square of the Statue of Hong Kong, below the Parliament of the city. At midnight, as President Jiang Zemin and Prince Charles signed the return of Hong Kong in Wanchai, Martin Lee spoke from the balcony of Parliament and delivered the famous “July 1 Statement” calling for freedom and democracy. After him, the lawyer Margareth Ng took the floor. Both democratic leaders were recently arrested and sentenced. Margaret Ng is out on bail; Martin Lee has the sentence “in abeyance”.

Bishop Stephen Chow recently wrote that life for people and believers in Hong Kong “looks more and more like an existence between the cracks. Before, we enjoyed a lot of space and freedom of expression.” But, continues the bishop, “the light of God is found in all things, even in the cracks. The harsher the condition, the more resilient life will be. In some cases the cracks may even widen.” Bishop Stephen concludes his heartfelt appeal with an invitation that reminds me of some passages in the diary of Etty Hillesum, the young Dutch woman murdered at Aushwitz who never lost faith in God and in the beauty of life: “Accept the changes of reality that we have to live does not mean approving them. Safeguarding our inner space to discern is essential and beneficial”.

The history of Hong Kong is a story of betrayed promises and betrayed hopes. The arrest of Cardinal Joseph Zen, bishop emeritus of the diocese and ‘conscience of Hong Kong’ has painfully reminded us: an invisible line thought to be insurmountable has been crossed. Christians do not lose hope, they know well that the opposition of power to the Gospel and its message of freedom is not an exception, but rather an outcome for which one must be prepared with courage. Blessed Paolo Manna reminded us: “Governments have goals contrary to Christians because they fear freedom, and the gospel is synonymous with freedom.” Let us follow Monsignor Chow’s invitation and face what is happening in the dearest and wonderful Hong Kong preserving our freedom, above all with the exercise of the interior life.

* PIME missionary and sinologist

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