There is a war in Hong Kong, with no trenches. There are prisoners and depressed on the barricade of autonomy and the Western agenda; and loss of face in China, in the management of the Second System and the rightful place in the global power club. “Those who go to war give and take,” says the popular saying, when justice, negotiation, the duty must be overturned… Power, blind and animal, takes everything forward: orders who can, obey who gives. Macau contemplates … in the world of the moon.
When England handed Hong Kong over to “Motherland” – 1 July 1997 – it left a destructive campaign underway. “After us it will be chaos,” said Chris Patten’s court. The Chinese dictatorship was demonized and the British ego overvalued. The Region suffered, tourists left, the turnover fell … but for a short time. The City of Rio das Pérolas has rediscovered its vocation as a financial center and global trader; but it went further: it recreated a particular Chinese identity, closer to Taiwan than to Beijing.
After 23 years, Hong Kong lives in a climate of war. On one side of the barricade, autonomy is confused with independence, local identity with anti-continental xenophobia, full democracy with inalienable rights. On the other, the First System invades the Second; nationalism loses global awareness, Deng Xiaoping’s own memory is distorted and manipulated.
However, Article 23 of the Basic Law, approved in Macau in 2009, proved not to be a drama in itself. The problem with the National Security Act, anywhere in the world, lies in the abuses and the culture of enforcement. In the case of Hong Kong, the distrust is mutual. Even more when some deny it, and others force it. However, the urban violence, the radicalism of the protest and the chaos in which the city plunged gave the Communist Party more conservative side room to maneuver.
When Trump threatens military intervention in the face of anti-racist street protest; if it is easy to guess what the French riot police would do if a protest included incendiary bombs or invasion of Parliament, it is also fair to admit that the Chinese dragon has even been very patient. In fact, he didn’t breathe fire for a long time. However, it is now showing who’s boss. It’s your DNA, and it’s hard to deal with power in a raging state.
If Hong Kong cannot be big without China; it is also a fact that it never had democracy under the British flag. Even more: it was wrong to deny direct elections – even if conditioned. Especially because that would have left the burden on Beijing’s side, had it come to reject leaders of popular will. But it is also true that China is wrong. It has power, as well as a pretext; that is why he rides on the mistakes of a pro-democratic movement that has lost political sense, deluding itself with international support that China uses to devalue Hong Kong’s interests.
I defend a democratic China, of free thought, open to the world. But there is no such China. It’s been farther, it’s been closer … it’s not static or monolithic. Above all, this is a dynamic that belongs to the Chinese people themselves and their relationship with the communist dictatorship. It was never – nor will it be – an external project. Hong Kong is strong, but not enough. You have to learn to deal with it and find another way of affirmation. It doesn’t go there with frontal shock.
Macau is weak; totally dependent on China, and irrelevant to Western powers. He lives in times of excessive continental love and risks losing focus on the value of difference and on the mission of relating to the outside world, to the benefit of China itself. The fear behind the scenes is that the war in Hong Kong will shatter freedom and lifestyle in Macau. The hope, said in secret behind the scenes in Macau, is that Beijing will realize that it does not need to breathe fire. where there is no anti-continental challenge. In fact, if you do, you can even feed problems that don’t exist. Will the PC know how to contain this temptation? Deep down, nobody knows. Politburo himself will hesitate to tighten his neck at both ends, so that there is no doubt; or give the lollipop to the well-behaved son, for the rebel and the world to see.
The soul of the Second System lives in mixed feelings in Macau: sometimes it is exciting to see the energy and courage of the confrontation in Hong Kong, but it is a pity to realize that this is only going wrong; it is a rest for Macau to be aware of its minority – it does not take risks – but it scares its lethargy, lack of ambition and inability to negotiate…
Macau does not go to war – it neither gives nor takes. Hong Kong takes more on its back than the headaches it gives Beijing. Basically, there are three mistakes in this triangle. No one gets the best out of himself or this relationship.
*Mananging Director of Plataforma
