Democratic hopes in Hong Kong have been struck a crushing blow in recent weeks.
The electoral changes, enacted under the pretense of reform, give Beijing sweeping authority to amend the city’s Basic Law, effectively revoking the semi-autonomy and democratic freedoms that the former British colony enjoyed under its “one country, two systems” framework enacted in 1997.
Many of Hong Kong’s most prominent figures and activists have been sentenced, including 72-year-old billionaire media mogul and democracy activist, Jimmy Lai.
So where does all this leave the embattered city? Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Ai-Men Lau discusses the unfolding situation with Sharon Hom, Executive Director of Human Rights in China, and Alvin Y.H. Cheung, Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University, on MLI’s Pod Bless Canada podcast.
Cheung offers his grim diagnosis: “What Beijing has done to Hong Kong elections is ‘reform’ in the same way that shooting someone in the head is a medical intervention.”
Outlining his view of the Chinese Communist Party’s ambitions towards Hong Kong, he adds: “They want Hong Kong to be a Potemkin city with façade institutions that look just different enough that the outside world will continue to invest. But at the same time they want Asia’s self-proclaimed ‘World City’ to be exempted from world scrutiny.”
