First published: Prospectmagazine.co.uk, 29/09/201
China needs to pay attention to the demands of Hong Kong residents who feel they were promised democracy
Whether or not he actually said it, Harold MacMillan is credited with answering a question about what he feared most about being Prime Minister with the phrase “Events, my dear boy, events.” Chinese President Xi Jinping may now be feeling much the same as civil disobedience in Hong Kong turns into something approximating a popular rebellion. It is impossible to foretell the course of events on the streets over the next few days, let alone weeks. But the trouble in Hong Kong represents the first serious and mass challenge to the authority of the President since he was installed at the end of 2012. It seems probable that the “one country, two systems” principle under which Hong Kong has existed as a special region of the Chinese mainland since British rule over the island ended is quickly morphing from a motif to an epitaph….“more:”
