Hong Kong and Mainland Politics

During our introduction we were introduced to Hong Kong and mainland politics. We were lucky enough to have the editor of one of the Hong Kong English newspapers come speak to us. What follows is a summary of some of the things I learned. In Hong Kong the two summers there have been huge protests for democracy. Last July 500,000 people took to the streets, 7% of Hong Kong's population. The protests have been completely peaceful, but they still really freak out the government in Beijing. Imagine 7% of all of China protesting - 108 million people - and you have a real problem. To some extent, the Chinese government has been surprised by the pro-democratic feelings in China. The government had believed that Hong Kong people were more completely mercenary and thought only about money, not politics. But so far the protests have not posed a serious threat to the government. It's an interesting tightrope that the Chinese government is trying to walk. The government cannot possibly allow Hong Kong to hold elections. Hong Kong is an offical part of China, and allowing them to hold an election would be the first step of introducing democracy to China itself. But China desperately needs to keep the people of Hong Kong happy. If 500,000 people are marching during a time of relative properity and good governance, imagine what would happen if the government and economy were really bad. Thus when it became clear that chief executive Tung Chee Hwa was incompetent and he was becoming unpopular among the Hong Kong people, the Chinese government had him removed and replaced him with Donald Tsang. Donald is very popular with a 70% approval rating. So instead of elections the Chinese government is choosing leaders based on public opinion polls. If there were elections it would be a certainy that the people elected would be certain that the Democratic parties would win. Thus this government by public opinion polls will only work as long as there is a potential leader who is both popular with the people and acceptable to Beijing.