The Aftermath of the Hong Kong Protests: Everyone Loses

December 10, 2014 Topic: Domestic PoliticsDemocracy Region: China

The Aftermath of the Hong Kong Protests: Everyone Loses

"If Hong Kong’s pro-democracy politicians, youth and government haven’t won much, neither has Beijing."

The irony is that Beijing would run no great political risk; a pro-democracy candidate would almost certainly lose a free election. Hong Kong’s livelihood requires ever-closer ties to mainland entities, and its pragmatic citizens would never choose a chief executive who might have testy relations with leaders in Beijing. But taking any risk is not part of the ruling party’s ethos, and allowing such a compromise would require more tolerance, self-confidence and common sense than its leaders have shown to date.

Robert Keatley is a former editor of the Asian Wall Street Journal and the South China Morning Post of Hong Kong.

Image: Flickr/Benson Kua/CC by-sa 2.0