City Beat | Hong Kong’s ‘revolution’? Not quite, but the days of property hegemony may be numbered
- Soaring property prices widely seen as driving force behind deep grievances and frustration among city’s youth
- And developers must understand times have changed and they face greater moral and political scrutiny
“Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution of our times!”
As popular as this slogan has become for the city’s protest movement against the government’s failed extradition bill, it has drawn fierce attacks from Beijing, which has questioned what context they are using the word “revolution” in and whether it represents a dangerous attempt to separate Hong Kong from China.
But before their “revolution” can go anywhere further, a drastic kind of reform – if not quite a “revolution” – with a clear goal seems to be in the pipeline, ironically initiated by a call from Beijing for fairer redistribution of land, one of the city’s most precious resources.
Firing the starting pistol was a lengthy commentary by the official People’s Daily, which, together with other state media outlets, slammed Hong Kong developers for focusing only on earning every “last penny”.
