Christine Mak never cared much for politics in money-mad Hong Kong. At least, not until China's communist government decided to warn Hong Kong people that pressing too hard for democracy was unpatriotic.
Mak has become increasingly irritated with Beijing and Hong Kong's pro-China politicians since they launched a strident campaign to douse demands for more voting rights.
"We are not dogs. Just because you throw us some biscuits, it does not mean we will eat and lick your boots," said Mak, a fund manager in her 30s.
Now she intends to vote for a democrat in Hong Kong's legislative elections in September.
In the latest salvo in the war of words over democracy in Hong Kong, China's official media and Beijing's supporters in the city have attacked pro-democracy legislators, some by name, as unfit to be trusted with political power and unpatriotic.
They have also reminded Hong Kong of the economic favors Beijing has bestowed on it since it returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and warned that the city would suffer if unsuitable individuals were voted in.
But there are fears the row, which has included personal attacks on pro-democracy politicians, could trigger more public anger which could in turn force an even stronger response from China's leaders.
"We are not afraid, we want democracy. The harsher Beijing is, the more we will demand," said office worker Daniel Wong.
The danger for Hong Kong is that the escalating confrontation rattles confidence in one of the world's main financial centers.
"If this situation prolongs, it will not be good. It could lead to large demonstrations and that may provoke an even stronger reaction from Beijing," said a money market dealer.
The big question for China is how many voters think like Mak?
Landslide for democrats?
Beijing's reprimands and warnings stem from a simple fear: that the leaders chosen by Hong Kong people will challenge its power.
"It is most worried that those elected will challenge its authority, support dissidents on the mainland, and Taiwan independence," said pollster and politics lecturer Timothy Wong of Hong Kong's Chinese University.
"Beijing wants Hong Kong people to set its mind at ease and promise not to deviate from these important principles before it will even talk about political reforms."
But the strategy is not working, if polls are to be believed. A survey of 1,237 people late last month by the independent Ming Pao newspaper showed 52 percent would vote for democracy candidates, while 25 percent would back pro-China parties.
A third of those polled said their impression of the central government had been damaged by the recent rhetoric from Beijing.
"If [Hong Kong] votes tomorrow, the democrats will have a landslide victory," Wong said.
If the democrats secure more than half of the 60 legislative seats, they will wield enough power for the first time to veto government policies and that could bring the China-backed administration to its knees.
Recession, protests
Like many others in the former British colony, Mak embraced Chinese rule and the economic perks that Beijing lavished on the city after the 1997 handover when it became embroiled in one economic recession after another.
But protests last year highlighted deep discontent with the China-backed administration, whose policies have been blamed for the city's financial troubles.
Opposition politicians, who are now in a minority and have no real power, have called for a rapid move to full direct elections by 2007, the earliest that the Constitution would allow.
Hong Kong was promised a high degree of autonomy under a "one country, two systems" agreement with Britain before the city was handed back to China.
But analysts say China, always wary of any threat to social stability, is unlikely to allow full democracy in Hong Kong and risk similar demands on the mainland.
China has underwritten confidence in Hong Kong as a world financial hub but there are signs the political wrangle is beginning to have an impact on the financial markets.
The Hong Kong dollar weakened slightly last Monday, which one dealer attributed partly to a fresh comment from a Chinese expert, who singled out a Hong Kong rights group as unpatriotic.
The group the expert named was the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, formed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests in Beijing.
But some Hong Kong people say supporting pro-China candidates might be best for the city in the long run.
"It will not do to lock horns so aggressively with Beijing. It will only encourage it to throw out all our plans and we will be left with nothing. I will probably vote for pro-business candidates who have Beijing's ears," said executive Candy Lo.
The image was oddly quiet. No speeches, no flags, no dramatic announcements — just a Chinese cargo ship cutting through arctic ice and arriving in Britain in October. The Istanbul Bridge completed a journey that once existed only in theory, shaving weeks off traditional shipping routes. On paper, it was a story about efficiency. In strategic terms, it was about timing. Much like politics, arriving early matters. Especially when the route, the rules and the traffic are still undefined. For years, global politics has trained us to watch the loud moments: warships in the Taiwan Strait, sanctions announced at news conferences, leaders trading
The saga of Sarah Dzafce, the disgraced former Miss Finland, is far more significant than a mere beauty pageant controversy. It serves as a potent and painful contemporary lesson in global cultural ethics and the absolute necessity of racial respect. Her public career was instantly pulverized not by a lapse in judgement, but by a deliberate act of racial hostility, the flames of which swiftly encircled the globe. The offensive action was simple, yet profoundly provocative: a 15-second video in which Dzafce performed the infamous “slanted eyes” gesture — a crude, historically loaded caricature of East Asian features used in Western
Is a new foreign partner for Taiwan emerging in the Middle East? Last week, Taiwanese media reported that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) secretly visited Israel, a country with whom Taiwan has long shared unofficial relations but which has approached those relations cautiously. In the wake of China’s implicit but clear support for Hamas and Iran in the wake of the October 2023 assault on Israel, Jerusalem’s calculus may be changing. Both small countries facing literal existential threats, Israel and Taiwan have much to gain from closer ties. In his recent op-ed for the Washington Post, President William
A stabbing attack inside and near two busy Taipei MRT stations on Friday evening shocked the nation and made headlines in many foreign and local news media, as such indiscriminate attacks are rare in Taiwan. Four people died, including the 27-year-old suspect, and 11 people sustained injuries. At Taipei Main Station, the suspect threw smoke grenades near two exits and fatally stabbed one person who tried to stop him. He later made his way to Eslite Spectrum Nanxi department store near Zhongshan MRT Station, where he threw more smoke grenades and fatally stabbed a person on a scooter by the roadside.
RSS