The Wall Street Journal Asia editorial page is covering the uptick in verbal attacks on Hong Kong individuals and institutions by Chinese Communist officials and their official press. So far, the list includes pro-democracy politicians and their supporters, the Catholic Church, and the top U.S. diplomat in the territory. Now, the Wall Street Journal editorial page notes, “Beijing is turning up the Cultural Revolution rhetoric again” in a “rectification campaign” aimed against two academics.
The “struggle session” targets are Robert Chung, a professor who does independent polling at Hong Kong University about the civic identity of the people of Hong Kong. According to the Journal, the number of people saying they identify as Hong Kong citizens is at a 10-year high, while the number who identify themselves as Chinese has hit a 12-year low. Chung gamely stood up for himself, and the feelings of the Hong Kong people, by rejecting “Cultural Revolution-style curses and defamations,” which had been lobbed by pro-Beijing newspapers. These, he wryly pointed out, are “not conducive to the building of Chinese national identity among Hong Kong people.”
