Protesting Hong Kong Youths Worried About Their Economic Future

Posted by on Nov 24, 2014 in Blog | 0 comments

At the outset of the Hong Kong Occupy Central student protests in late September, this author had posted that behind the façade of demands for no holds barred electoral reform in 2017 was a deep-seated fear among Hong Kong youths (and some older cohorts) that Hong Kong’s advantages vis a vis major mainland cities are quickly being eroded.  Hence, their desire to elect Hong Kong leaders that will ‘fight’ for their ‘rights’ to preserve those advantages.  This CNBC video interview of a diehard protestor basically reflects those concerns.

But, the problem is Hong Kongers cannot have their cake and eat it too!.

Hong Kongers have to take the lumps along with the many benefits ‘one country, two systems’ has brought to the SAR.  (That Hong Kong has enjoyed and is enjoying numerous benefits from the relationship was readily admitted by the interviewee.)  When Hong Kong was far more advanced and affluent than their mainland counterparts, no complaints could be heard.  It is only after the rapid growth of the mainland over the past few years, particularly following the Great Recession, that the contempt for mainlanders and the feeling that Hong Kongers were increasingly powerless to reverse the process has set in.

Frankly, the hope among protestors that Hong Kongers will elect a Chief Executive who will be able to effectively confront Beijing and ignite Hong Kong to revive its past glories is illusionary.  With the further opening up of the mainland and deepening of reforms such as Shanghai’s free trade zone as well as others being contemplated – the Pearl River Delta greater area and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei integrated area, just to name a couple –  the advantages that Hong Kong has enjoyed are slowly slipping away.   It is no longer ludicrous to suggest that within another couple of decades, Hong Kong will simply become another Chinese city, the very fear of the protestors.  Sadly but realistically, it’s an inevitability that many prominent economists and politicians have already alluded to.

So, go home protestors and try to better Hong Kong’s prospects through other more effective means before you lose them all.

The video can be seen at:   http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000332912