Letters | For China, Singapore shows the way on placing economic progress above freedom of speech

Hong Kong is witnessing how the freedom of speech can impede economic growth

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Students of Nongyong Primary School walk up a mountain trail to return home to their village in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, in July 2012. Poverty alleviation measures in recent years and huge investments in school facilities have transformed the lives of students and villagers. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:40am, 14 Jan 2020Updated: 6:40am, 14 Jan 2020

I refer to “How about ‘human rights with Chinese characteristics’?” (January 9). Why is the West obliged to accept refugees from war-torn countries and supply humanitarian aid to areas affected by disasters? Because this is our humanitarian duty.

Every human being has the right to life. Access to necessities, such as food, shelter and medicine, are basic human rights. We can survive without the freedom of speech, but not without the access to necessities. The right to survival takes precedence over the right to free speech.

China was a poor country around 40 years ago. When it first embarked on economic reforms, China’s top priority was to address the right to survival of its poor, improving their access to food and health care. In 1979, nine out of 10 Chinese lived in extreme poverty. Today, around 30 per cent of its population is middle class and the average life expectancy has increased. Though millions are still poor, China is working to the change this.

However, some people neglect the poor’s right to survival and demand freedom of speech first. The problem with the freedom of speech is that some speech aims to create hatred or fear, to stir up unrest in society.

For example, some Hongkongers are angry at the police for arresting children. Who put these young people in the street in the first place? The democracy movement. Who forced China to consider making Macau a financial centre and weaken Hong Kong’s economic future? The democracy movement. Who stopped proposals to increase affordable housing? Not the government. Some Hongkongers are overwhelmed by free speech and have become irrational.

How can China grant its people freedom of speech and, at the same time, maintain a stable society, so that it can continue improving the right of its poor to survival? One way, like in Singapore, is to restrict the freedom of speech.