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Hong Kong, China – It is the ruling party that has maintained the underground organization in part of its territory as well, but as the Chinese Communist Party celebrates its centenary this week there are signs that it is emerging from the shadows of Hong Kong, a former British colony. It became the quietest city in China.
What’s more, the party – fear and hatred for many people in Hong Kong – demands their love and absolute loyalty.
“It is crucial for the PCK that the people of Hong Kong recognize China’s achievements under the leadership of the party,” said Bruce Lui, a tenured professor at Hong Kong Baptist University and a veteran political commentator. “If he doesn’t do that, he’s missing out on loving the party and the nation.”
In early June, a formation of more than 350 people gathered in a public square in Hong Kong despite restrictions on meetings with COVID to renounce the patriotic tune “No Communist Party, New China”.
Two weeks ago, a symposium on the party’s centenary was attended by a political elite in the heart of the city at a high-profile convention center, including past and present CEOs.
At one of the highest points in the territory on a weather radar, the slogan “Obey the party” appears on the skyscrapers below.
In recent years, the KPK is taking on a growing profile in the former British colony and claimed its presence in a territory that returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
For more than half a century, it was served by Hong Kong sanctuary from the Chinese generation on the mainland fleeing communist rule.
First came the wealthy class, which ended the civil war in 1949 and the communists withdrew to Taiwan after taking control of the nationalists. Industrialists, landowners and traders from the prosperous coastal cities of Shanghai and the surrounding coast moved south for fear of the possibility of collectivization.
The next to arrive were the intelligentsia, the targets of political cleansing in the 1950s. Then came the exodus of ordinary people expelled by famine and the violence of the Cultural Revolution.
Between 1952 and 1965, at least 1.5 million sought refuge in Hong Kong for the party, which accounted for nearly half of the population at the time.
Many believe that the commitment to freedom is embedded in family habits, along with the trauma of life under communism.
But even during colonialism, the communists were never far from Hong Kong.
Communist supporters played a role in the mass strikes of 1922 and 1925 in the then Crown colony. Communist-backed trade unionists rioted in 1967, killing 51 people and wounding 848.
Then the colonial authorities decided to eliminate the communist groups by ordering the government to register them, and so they all took them underground.
In front of the Xinhua party
The Xinhua News Agency, founded in the deadly days of World War II, as a liaison office for the party, was allowed by the communist fighters to take legal action after defending Japanese-occupied rural parts of Hong Kong, according to the “Underground Front” book. , Communist Party in Hong Kong ”by Christine Loh, a former member of the Hong Kong legislature.
Until the 1997 transfer, Xinhua would act as the de facto Chinese mission and city center of the party.
Wong Cho Bau students of the Hong Kong Federation of Secondary Education Workers carry the Chinese national flag while attending the flag-raising ceremony earlier this month. [Jerome Favre/EPA]
In 1987, however, after signing the Sino-British Joint Declaration and returning to power in Hong Kong three years later, then-Xinhua director Xu Jiatun chose a party member who worked on incognito candidates to replace him. It was a shock to Hong Kong society. Xu saw it as a much-needed reminder of political reality.
“Xu told me,‘ Now that Hong Kong is going back to Chinese sovereignty, it’s better to let the people of Hong Kong get used to being in CCP HK, ”said Ching Cheong, a longtime Chinese commentator. politics at the time was the editor-in-chief of Wen Wei Po, one of the Hong Kong-controlled newspapers in the state media group.
Two years after it was handed over, the Central Government Public Relations Office officially replaced Xinhua. The Liaison Office, Ching said, strictly complied with Beijing’s orders. “one country, two systems”The framework was aimed at the British and not to get into trouble in Hong Kong.
However, in 2003, half a million people took to the streets in protest of Beijing’s push for anti-sedition legislation – and it prevailed – and the liaison office found an excuse to participate, however, through a representative.
Resources for candidacies for the two pro-Beijing political parties became more abundant, channeled through the liaison office, as well as those provided by local magnates who were eager to join Beijing at the time the Chinese economy began to thrive.
About 10 years later, as Chinese President Xi Jinping continues to consolidate his power, the party – which he heads as secretary general – is increasing its dominance on the mainland. In Hong Kong, most people consider the party’s dragging presence as a subsequent reflection.
Over the past year, however, what the liaison offices have said has become more frequent, such as: “Patriots He must govern Hong Kong. Anyone who opposes the party cannot be called a patriot. “
At a meeting two weeks ago, he reminded delegates: “No Communist Party, no” one country, no two systems “, a framework that sought to guarantee the colonial status quo of civil liberties and the rule of law, for 50 years after delivery.
“The message that the party is supreme is clear,” Luik told Al Jazeera. “No more party leadership is as vague as the ‘central government’, as the ‘homeland’.”
In the intervention, it was agreed that a Hong Kong chief executive would be chosen by a committee that candidates should first meet with Beijing. In the legislature, only half of the seats would be elected directly, ensuring that Beijing will be able to maintain control by giving some political phrases to the people of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong General Manager Carrie Lam greets a Chinese representative in March before the opening session of the National People’s Congress in Beijing’s Main People’s Hall. He will also attend the centenary celebrations in Beijing. [File: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters]
But new election rules Beijing’s imposition has drastically reduced the number of directly elected seats and has been pro-democracy politicians disqualified under National Security Act imposed last year. Most are in jail, while others have escaped exile.
The party is believed to be exploring new avenues in Hong Kong’s electoral policy.
Peninsula academics and party spokespersons underestimated the territory’s pro-Beijing party as a “loyal loser” after the pro-democracy camps won the 2019 district council elections luizia, a new political group, the Bauhinia Party, was formed out of nowhere last December.
Founded by mainland Chinese immigrants, Bauhinia had a goal of 250,000 members, although the main pro-Beijing party managed to reach only 50,000 members a year. The ambitious goal has sparked suspicion that the party is a front for the Communists – trying to plant members in the elected office while maintaining the “one country, two systems” facade.
Commenter Ching believes there may be at least 400,000 communist parties waiting on the wings of Hong Kong, even if no one knows who they are or whether they joined the party locally or on the mainland.
“Beijing has concluded that the people of Hong Kong are not working,” Ching said. “So now the party wants to play the right role.”
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