Undermining the Chinese Communist Party’s claim that Hong Kong has never been better, the financial hub city is reverberating under President Xi Jinping’s failed COVID-19 strategy.
Fixated on a delusional zero-case strategy, Communist Party officials face rising infection rates and frustration from city residents. Those residents, after all, see the freedom that much of the world now enjoys. They have also noticed as Communist Party officials gallivant about town getting COVID-19 and then blame others for their arrogant folly. Unfortunately for Hongkongers, COVID-19-related suffering is only the tip of Xi’s Hong Kong iceberg.
Today, Hong Kong is defined by the Communist Party’s utter intolerance toward any disagreement with its rule.
The days of a “one country, two systems” governing model are long gone, now existing only in the minds of Xi’s most loyal propagandists. The “one country, two systems” strategy had been applied since the former British colony city rejoined China in 1997. It meant that Hongkongers could enjoy the benefits of democratic governance and an independent judiciary, while China could benefit from the city’s financial growth and attractiveness to international investors.
Then Xi arrived.
Frustrated by Hongkongers’ rejection of his autocratic policies, Xi has waged a multiyear campaign to bring the city to heel. Independent media outlets have been gutted, their journalists thrown in prison. Electoral office has been limited only to those deemed sufficiently supplicant to the glorious party. Schools that once taught children how to think for themselves now teach children how to become party drones. Museums that once embraced history are now purged of uncomfortable memories. Amid all this, Xi and his minions have the gall to claim that Hong Kong remains a democracy and that its people’s interests are being well served. It says much about Xi’s mind that he dare not let Hongkongers vote on his propositions.
Yet, even as the communists spare no effort to ensure the subjugation of this once great city, they face a growing difficulty — namely, how to retain foreign investment amid an evermore obvious tyranny. True, major U.S. banks and companies such as Mars and Intel remain obsessed with access to Xi’s economy. But the more obvious Hong Kong’s tyranny becomes, the harder it will be for those companies to justify supporting it.
As with the failure of his COVID-19 strategy, Xi’s Hong Kong vision will eventually crumble.
