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Opinion | Harsh truths for Hong Kong: extradition bill protests will not achieve anything
- Retired Singapore diplomat Bilahari Kausikan says Beijing will never tolerate any action that undermines national unity and the bill formalises ‘one country, two systems’
- Besides, what is really needed is good governance and a sensible housing policy – blame the tycoons for denying the city that
Reading Time:5 minutes
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As I write this, demonstrations in Hong Kong continue, although the extradition bill that sparked them has been shelved. This is the latest phase of protests that began in 2014 with the Occupy Central or “umbrella movement”.
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The proximate causes may be different, but they all arise from the disquiet of many Hong Kong people with Beijing’s sway. I do not know when the demonstrations will end. But I am quite certain about what they will achieve: absolutely nothing!
I can understand the disquiet of the Hong Kong people subject to a China that under Xi Jinping has increasingly stressed the control of the Communist Party over every sphere of life in China and not just in Hong Kong. But Hong Kong lost that battle before it even began.
Ever since the end of the Qing dynasty in the late 19th century, the legitimacy of Chinese governments – imperial, republican or communist – has rested on the ability to defend China’s sovereignty and its borders. I don’t think Beijing is eager to exercise direct control over Hong Kong. But the unity of China is not a matter on which any Chinese government will ever compromise.
The Hong Kong people, and the West generally, may have thought that the emphasis of the “one country, two systems” slogan lay on the second phrase. But for Beijing it was clearly always on one country. I shall not speculate about whether there was any real coincidence between what Britain’s leaders privately believed in 1997 and what they now say they believed.
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