King kong fire11/30/2022 ![]() ![]() If the bill became law, it seemed to spell the end for Hong Kong’s autonomy from China. The public had been galvanised by the threat of an extradition bill that would allow suspects to be taken to the mainland to face Communist party-controlled courts. Some wondered how long it would be before the vigils died away, and the memory of Tiananmen Square passed with them.īut on 4 June 2019, 30 years after the massacre, 180,000 gathered in Victoria Park. ![]() Still, it seemed inevitable that the commemoration would gradually dwindle. Its very existence showed why Hong Kong was different: “Even when we don’t care, we always know.”Įvery so often, Beijing would tighten its grip on Hong Kong, and attendance at the vigil would surge again – as in 2004, after a huge backlash killed off an attempt by the Hong Kong government to pass a national security bill that might have paved the way for peaceful critics of the Chinese Communist party to be jailed. But its relative unpopularity did not, to her, diminish its importance. Every one of the friends she invited refused. When the activist Bonnie Leung first attended as a student, a few years later, she was seen as “a weirdo”, she said. T he Tiananmen vigil has always been a barometer of anti-Beijing sentiment the first, in 1990, attracted 150,000 people, while only 30,000 gathered in 2000. In 1997, one in five Hong Kongers identified as Chinese 10 years later, one in three saw themselves that way. China’s years of double-digit growth brought economic rewards to the region and optimists hoped that its ongoing economic liberalisation would, over time, bring political change, too: the mainland might become more like Hong Kong. We’re Chinese people, not just Hong Kongers,” he said.Īs the handover passed and life in Hong Kong appeared to be continuing pretty much as promised, sympathy for the mainland grew. As a child, Li had witnessed the mass famine caused by the Great Leap Forward and the chaos of the Cultural Revolution, but now he felt hopeful. ![]() One supporter of the current protests, Li, who is 71 and came to Hong Kong as a teenager from Guangdong, popped two bottles of champagne to celebrate: “One to say farewell to Britain, and one to welcome the People’s Liberation Army to Hong Kong,” he remembered. Yet at the time of the handover, the fear in Hong Kong was matched by a certain excitement. Prince Charles, who attended the handover ceremony, wrote after his departure: “Thus we left Hong Kong to her fate and the hope that Martin Lee, the leader of the Democrats, would not be arrested.” It was a fudge, probably the best outcome achievable under the circumstances – a binding international treaty, but one that everyone knew was essentially unenforceable should China break its pledge.Ībout 500,000 people left between the signing of the deal in 19. ![]() Hong Kong would be allowed to maintain its autonomy and way of life for 50 years, until 2047, under the formulation known as “one country, two systems”. The British colony was due to be handed back to China eight years later, and in the days before the killings, as rumours of an impending crackdown spread, local activists had held signs warning “Today China, tomorrow Hong Kong”.īy that point, the Chinese and the British had already made the handover agreement that would come into effect in 1997. It wasn’t just horror and sympathy that Hong Kongers were feeling in 1989 it was foreboding. People from across society – clergymen, activists, Cantopop stars, businesspeople, foreign diplomats, even triad gangs – worked together to smuggle “most wanted” student leaders off the mainland and to safety. One million or more residents marched in mourning. When the People’s Liberation Army massacred hundreds of demonstrators in Beijing on 4 June 1989, the response in Hong Kong was overwhelming. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |