Hong Kong, the famous special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, has successfully fought off a mandatory pro-Beijing school material. This incident should be given its due weight. Although it is not given considerable public attention, a war is being waged in Hong Kong. A war on the future shape of government. The current form of government will reach its formal end only on 2047, but the struggle is on. Three main alternatives are being promoted -
- a full democratic development of Hong Kong with universal suffrage.
- the current status quo of a limited democracy, in which some of the powerful and the wealthy enjoy special extra voting rights.
- more or less adopting the mainland China's model.
It appears that in this round, mainland China supporters have lost, and considering the Chinese leadership's ability to firmly manage huge problems such as the population growth or the struggling economy, this failure is surely not taken lightly.
Sooner or later the conflict between the one-party paradigm of mainland China and the democratic paradigm of Hong Kong will reach a boiling temperature. It is quite clear now that this will take place much sooner than 2047. What are we going to see then ? Will Hong Kong reach a Prague Spring like period which will end as bitter ? Or will Hong Kong lead the Chinese empire to a similar fate to that of the USSR ?
It is anyone's guess, with most of the really important variables hidden by the Chinese government. But what is crystal clear, is that this clock is ticking.
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