Deng Xiaoping’s “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” is rapidly being replaced by Xi Jinping‘s “patriots ruling Hong Kong”.
On March 4, the fourth meeting of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Wang Yang delivered a work report at the meeting. He said on the issue of Hong Kong and Taiwan, Beijing “firmly supports the full implementation of the principle of ‘patriots ruling Hong Kong’, strengthening solidarity and friendship with compatriots in Hong Kong and Macao, Taiwan and overseas compatriots, and conducting research and consultation on strengthening patriotic Education for young people in Hong Kong and Macao and promoting cross-strait economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation. “
People who are concerned about Hong Kong must have noticed that Wang Yang here, in addition to emphasizing the “patriots ruling Hong Kong” this reference, did not mention the “one country, two systems, Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong, a high degree of autonomy” formulated by Deng Xiaoping’s twelve-word policy of governing Hong Kong.
If I remember correctly, the official authoritative statement of “patriots ruling Hong Kong” was first published in the March issue of the official publication Bauhinia magazine in the form of a speech by Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the Communist Party of China. Xia said, “On January 27, when listening to the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor’s presentation of her duties in 2020, President Xi Jinping stressed that the significant turnaround from chaos to governance in Hong Kong has once again demonstrated a profound truth: to ensure that the practice of ‘one country, two systems’ is stable and far-reaching, we must always adhere to the principle of ‘patriots ruling Hong Kong’. It is necessary to adhere to the principle of ‘patriots ruling Hong Kong'”.
As a Voice of America report analyzed, the Communist Party’s approach to Hong Kong has gradually changed since Xi Jinping took power, especially since the anti-China protests in Hong Kong. First, it emphasized the importance of “one country” over “two systems” in “one country, two systems,” then it omitted “a high degree of autonomy,” and now it includes “one country” over “two systems. Then the “high degree of autonomy” was omitted, until the current “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” was replaced by “patriots ruling Hong Kong”. After these three steps, Deng Xiaoping’s promise of 50 years of unchanged Hong Kong policy has become a reality in Xi Jinping’s hands, with Beijing running Hong Kong affairs.
Anyone who knows the history of Hong Kong’s reunification knows that when Deng Xiaoping promised “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong,” he did not impose conditions on what kind of Hong Kong people could and could not rule Hong Kong. Although in practice, Hong Kong people who take orders from Beijing have always dominated the executive and legislative systems in Hong Kong, before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Hong Kong people of all political positions, including the democratic camp in Hong Kong, also enjoyed some political space in this system.
The fundamental difference between “patriots ruling Hong Kong” and “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” lies in the fact that it explicitly requires Hong Kong people to be “patriots” to participate in the governance of Hong Kong. In the words of Xia Baolong, “What is ‘patriots ruling Hong Kong’? In short, ‘patriots ruling Hong Kong’ means that Hong Kong should be governed by patriots after the return to the motherland, and that the power of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region should be in the hands of patriots.”
Although neither Xi Jinping nor Xia Baolong specified the definition or criteria for judging the so-called “patriots,” it is clear that in today’s official Chinese discourse, to love the country is to love the Party, and a “patriot” is someone who loves the Party, someone who listens to the Party and follows the Party. The decision of whether a person loves the party or not is not in his own hands, but in the hands of the party. In other words, you love the party or not, your own words do not count, the party said only, the party that you love the party you really love the party. Specifically at the moment, the most important thing to love the party is to have the “four consciousnesses” (i.e. strong “political awareness, awareness of the big picture, core awareness, awareness of alignment”), to achieve the “two maintenance” (“maintain Xi Jinping’s position as the core of the CPC Central Committee and the core of the whole Party, and maintain the authority and centralized leadership of the Party Central Committee”).
It can be seen that if “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” gives Hong Kong democrats a place in Hong Kong’s legislative and executive decision-making processes, “patriots ruling Hong Kong” excludes them from these processes altogether. In this way, Hong Kong’s legislature and administration will be completely monopolized by the CCP’s agents, and the result will be the complete death of “one country, two systems.
In retrospect, the Chinese Communist Party‘s commitment to the Hong Kong issue is still fresh in our minds.
In October 1984, when meeting with a delegation of Hong Kong and Macau compatriots to observe the National Day, Deng Xiaoping said, “When we say in the agreement that there will be no change for 50 years, we mean no change for 50 years. Our generation will not change, nor will the next generation. In fifty years from now, when the mainland has developed, will it still deal with these issues in a petty manner? So don’t worry about change, it can’t change.”
In January 1990, Deng Xiaoping met with Li Jiacheng, a wealthy Hong Kong businessman, and when talking about Hong Kong’s one country, two systems, Deng said, “It will not change, it cannot change, not that it will remain unchanged in the short term, it will remain unchanged in the long term …… that is, it will remain unchanged for fifty years, and there is even less reason to change after fifty years… …”
Now, only 24 years after the return of Hong Kong, not even half of the 50 years, the Chinese Communist Party’s policy of governing Hong Kong has changed from “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” to “patriots ruling Hong Kong”, proving once again that the Chinese Communist Party is purely a rogue party that does not keep its word and has no integrity!
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