Bright Lights, Big Problems: China's Hong Kong Dilemma
Hong Kong's democracy movements seem to be at odds with what Beijing has planned for the former British colony. Is a compromise possible?
But if there is no sign of serious progress by year-end, and the Occupy Central movement responds by shutting down the business district, all bets are off. That drastic step would be extremely unpopular with Beijing, the local business community and much of the public. When China regained sovereignty over Hong Kong, it promised that the civil and social systems would remain intact for fifty years to 2047. It could use a shutdown as an excuse to bring that day forward.
Robert Keatley, a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal and the South China Morning Post, was recently in Hong Kong.
Image: Flickr/BarabaraWilli/CC by 2.0