Two authoritative books reveal Hong Kong’s role in revitalizing China’s economy and Beijing’s attempts to impose its will abroad
Earlier this month, while celebrating the Sixth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee, the Communist Party of China once again announced its history of glorious achievements. A lot of space has been about the wise and truly impeccable leadership of the current Xi Jinping. President Xi attaches great importance to territorial integrity and, as he said, corrects past mistakes. In that catalog, Britain’s access to an unequal treaty that was regarded as a hopeless barren rock near China’s south coast in the 19th century is particularly prominent.
This unattractive rock lacks almost all natural resources except a deep and safe harbor, but it will grow into one of the most dynamic and prosperous societies in the world. Hong Kong can prosper as it did under British colonial rule, thanks in large part to China: of course, because of its proximity, Hong Kong can play its key role as an intermediary between China and the world of trade, finance, and investment. However, starting in 1949, the CCP’s victory in the Chinese Civil War triggered an exodus of approximately 100,000 people every day. When the figure reached 3 million in 1950, the Hong Kong government reluctantly closed the border. During the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and the Cultural Revolution disasters in the 1960s, despite Beijing's best efforts to convince its citizens that life in the People's Republic of China would be better, the flow of refugees continued.
The CCP’s special contribution to Hong Kong’s success is unlikely to appear in the party’s official history, but as Michael Sheridan said in his concise new history of this unique colony, it does reflect Deng Xiaoping’s revival of China. The formation of a strategy of desperate fate. 30 years of Maoist revolution. In one episode, Sheridan detailed the first visit of Chinese officials to Hong Kong in 1977, when it was impoverished China. What they learned there, including the astonishing comparison between Hong Kong’s 19.6 billion U.S. dollar trade volume and China’s 14.8 billion U.S. dollar trade volume, provided the basis for Deng Xiaoping’s opening-up policy, from Shenzhen’s first "special economic zone." To start, cross the border.
Hong Kong's temptation to impoverished Chinese citizens also left a deep impression on Xi Zhongxun, the secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee who bordered Hong Kong at the time. In 1978, during a border inspection, he encountered an astonishing phenomenon: China’s fields were not cared for, and people desperately crossed the border that was also the poverty line. He concluded that instead of punishing potential fugitives, the party needs to pay attention to their poverty.
By the time his son Xi Jinping gained supreme power in China in 2012, the party could claim to have solved the problem. At that time, Hong Kong formally returned to China, but still enjoyed relative autonomy under the terms of the agreement negotiated by Margaret Thatcher and Deng Xiaoping. The contrast between this is not the difference in wealth, but the politics, individuals and culture enjoyed by Hong Kong. free. Its young people want more. In the past two years, Xi Jinping's response to this has been fully reflected.
The story of Hong Kong is full of drama, politics and personality. Sheridan tells it very well, drawing on a variety of Chinese and British resources. His description of the future negotiations between Britain and China on Hong Kong has today’s lesson: China’s strategic approach to the warring factions on the British side. The previous governor, Chris Patten, tried to lock in a wider franchise before the handover in 1997. Hong Kong’s business elites are hostile. As Sheridan described, former ambassador to Beijing Percy Cradock and later Margaret Thatcher’s national security advisers are indeed hostile. Cradock wrote what he called Cradock's First Law of Diplomacy, which said "It's not the other party you need to worry about, but your own." In 1993, he privately introduced the British negotiating position to China in order to weaken Patten and become the embodiment of his motto.
Deng changed the material wealth of the People’s Republic of China, but China’s new middle class’s desire for a more open society fell victim to Xi Jinping’s formula for strengthening party control in this complex society. Strong nationalism triggered by dissatisfaction is the party's preferred narrative of the new era of strategic confrontation. In Hong Kong, as Sheridan said, the struggle really took place in terms of "political power, wealth, identity, data, freedom and conformity." For most of the past decade, it was promulgated on the streets of Hong Kong, as Chinese leaders sought de facto changes to the joint agreement's promises, and Hong Kong citizens pushed for its full promulgation.
One of the consequences of China’s actions in Hong Kong, its suppression in Xinjiang, and its hostility to more closely scrutinize the origins of the global pandemic is that the results of public opinion surveys have shown that liberal democracies have unprecedented levels of distrust and opposition to China. degree. So, what is the success of Xi Jinping's diplomacy, and what lessons can we find about China's global posture and intentions from Elizabeth C. Economics' new book?
The economy is a veteran China observer and has been engaged in constructive dialogue and cooperation with China for decades. However, today, as she elaborated, new fronts have been drawn, but they are not reassuring: China uses the pandemic to advance itself through vaccine diplomacy and strategic use of its almost monopolized basic medical supplies. Interests. Although Xi Jinping’s domestic repressive policies have triggered concerted international economic sanctions and the failure of a key economic agreement with China’s largest trading partner, the European Union, China seems ready to bear the price.
China is increasingly using the coercive power of its economic power to censor other countries' views that its historical and political views are inconsistent with those of the party itself. In China, this is called "guided public opinion." Abroad, this is a bold attempt to control discourse, trying to impose a single narrative of Chinese politics, personality, and exercise of power on the world, and reshape global institutions to adapt to this narrative and strengthen China’s influence.
The economy detailed China’s efforts to hold important international positions for its candidates, a process that included unabashed lobbying, threats to block export contracts, or promises to cancel debts to win votes. China’s efforts to reshape multilateral institutions have been extensive and systematic, and have benefited from the neglect or hostility of recent U.S. administrations towards the United Nations and all its work.
The economy believes that what China now sees is a rejuvenating country, spreading its values, trade and technology through its "One Belt, One Road" initiative, rather than the US-led world order; the US will be forced to withdraw from the dominant force in Asia in the near future.
She does not believe that success is inevitable, and sees the competition between the United States and China as one of the criteria that supports the prosperity and peaceful world that both countries desire. Today, in Hong Kong, it is not difficult to find someone who would say that the strict implementation of the National Security Law has restored stability and prosperity, and is worthless to what has been lost. The broader global challenges, like the economic framework, are no different. One lesson of these two books is that the game will not go smoothly without a consistent and sometimes costly commitment to the values ​​advertised by liberal democracies.
Isabel Hilton is the founder and senior consultant of chinadialogue.com
"China Gate: A New History of the People's Republic of China and Hong Kong" by Michael Sheridan is published by William Collins (£25). To support The Guardian and The Observer, please order your copy on Guardianbookshop.com. May charge for shipping
Elizabeth C's "The World in the Eyes of China" is published by Polity Books (£25). To support The Guardian and The Observer, please order your copy on Guardianbookshop.com. May charge for shipping