[Among Tibetans and Uighurs,
beleaguered ethnic minorities in China’s far west, there is hope that the
protests will draw international scrutiny to what they say are Beijing’s broken
promises for greater autonomy. The central government’s refusal to even talk
with pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong, exiled activists add, also
highlights a longstanding complaint among many ethnic minority groups in China:
the party’s reliance on force over dialogue when dealing with politically
delicate matters.]
BEIJING — As
thousands of protesters continueto
swamp the streets of Hong Kong, challenging China’s Communist Party leaders
with calls for greater democracy, much of the world anxiously awaits signs of
how Beijing will react to their demands.
But
the anticipation is perhaps most keenly felt along the periphery of China’s
far-flung territory, both inside the country and beyond, where the Chinese
government’s authoritarian ways have been most apparent.
Among Tibetans and Uighurs,
beleaguered ethnic minorities in China’s far west, there is hope that the
protests will draw international scrutiny to what they say are Beijing’s broken
promises for greater autonomy. The central government’s refusal to even talk
with pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong, exiled activists add, also
highlights a longstanding complaint among many ethnic minority groups in China:
the party’s reliance on force over dialogue when dealing with politically
delicate matters.
“We’ve
seen this movie before, but when people stand up to the Chinese government in
places like Lhasa or Urumqi and meet brutal resistance, there is no foreign
media to show the world what’s happening,” said Nury Turkel, a Uighur-American
lawyer and activist, referring to the regional capitals of Tibet and Xinjiang.
“The difference here is what’s happening in Hong Kong is taking place in real
time, for all the world to see.”
Few
places are watching the protests as closely as Taiwan, the
self-governed island that China claims as part of its territory. Beijing’s
refusal to grant Hong Kong the
unfettered elections that were promised when the former British colony was
returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 — a move that prompted the
protests — has sharpened opposition to President Ma Ying-jeou
of Taiwan and his efforts to forge
closer economic ties with the mainland.
The
concept of “one country, two systems,” the
political arrangement that has given Hong Kong a raft of liberties unknown on
the mainland, was first envisioned as a framework for forging reunification
between Taiwan and China. Although relations have improved in recent years, the
two sides have never signed a peace accord, and Beijing maintains the option of
taking Taiwan by force.
“As
we closely follow events in Hong Kong, we have this feeling that in the
not-so-distant future, we could very well end up like Hong Kong,” said Titus
Chen, a Taiwanese academic and the editor of the journal Chinese Political
Science Review, noting what he and others describe as China’s growing influence
on the island. “Today it’s Hong Kong; tomorrow it might be Taiwan.”
No
matter how the impasse is resolved, the struggle unfolding in Hong Kong is
already a public-relations nightmare for Beijing. Outside China, the scenes of
peaceful student protesters sprayed with tear gas and bloodied
by thugs have elicited unwelcome comparisons to the 1989
pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square,
which ended in violence when the Chinese military moved to crush the protests,
earning Beijing years of international opprobrium.
The
drama in Hong Kong, playing out in real time on social media and beamed across
the world by the international news media, also threatens to complicate
Beijing’s ambitious efforts to burnish its image abroad. In recent days,
rallies in Singapore, Seoul, Manila and elsewhere have drawn thousands of
people expressing solidarity with
the demonstrators in Hong Kong.
John
Delury, a professor of East Asian studies at Yonsei University in South Korea,
said his students, many of them from countries across Asia, have been riveted
by the events in Hong Kong. “I think the impact on young people across Asia
could be much bigger than what Beijing anticipates,” he said, noting Hong
Kong’s role as regional purveyor of pop culture and a center for international
finance. “From a soft-power perspective, if anything remotely like what
happened in 1989 occurs in Hong Kong, China can kiss its soft power goodbye for
a couple of decades.”
The
political tumult in Hong Kong has become a headache for
Beijing at a time when party leaders are grappling with a host of challenges,
from a slowing economy to diplomatic skirmishes with neighbors like Japan,Vietnam and
the Philippines. Then
there is mounting unrest in Xinjiang, in
China’s far northwest, as well as the simmering discontent in Tibetan areas
that has prompted more than 130 people to take their own lives through
self-immolation.
WHAT PROMPTED THE HONG KONG PROTESTS?
Hong Kong belongs to China and operates under a policy of “one
country, two systems.”
· Hong
Kong, a British colony until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty, is governed by a mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
· The
city maintains an independent judiciary, and residents enjoy greater civil
liberties than residents of mainland China. Hong Kong has a robust tradition of
free speech.
· Democratic
groups say Beijing has chipped away at those freedoms, citing an election law
proposed last month that would limit voting reforms.
· China
had promised free elections for Hong Kong's chief executive in 2017. But the
government rejected a call for open nominations, instead proposing that candidates would continue to be chosen by a committee
dominated by Beijing.
·
The current city leader, Leung Chun-ying, has
clashed with the pro-democracy opposition. After the crackdown on protesters Sunday, some
called for his resignation.
·
Advocates for Tibetans and Uighurs have
been especially active on social media, drawing parallels between Hong Kong and
the autonomous regions that Beijing established for the nation’s largest ethnic
minorities more than six decades ago. “What we have in common with the people
in Hong Kong is that we are all fighting for freedom and justice against an
authoritarian regime that has broken its promises again and again,” Tenzin
Jigdal, a Tibetan activist, said in a phone interview from Dharamsala, India,
home to the Tibetan government in exile.
Those
promises include constitutional guarantees that ethnic minorities would have a
significant role in managing their own affairs, much as Hong Kong does. In
reality, the sprawling autonomous regions set up for Tibetans, Uighurs,
Mongolians and other groups are run by ethnic Han Chinese officials appointed
by the central government. Most experts outside China agree such entities are
autonomous in name only.
Although
Hong Kong residents still enjoy an uncensored Internet, an independent
judiciary and a relatively unfettered press, their complaints echo those that
Tibetans and Uighurs have been making for years: about growing interference
from party leaders in Beijing and increasing economic disparity fueled by a
surge in wealthier migrants from the mainland.
Most
analysts agree that events in Hong Kong have already done significant damage to
one of China’s so-called core interests: its six-decade effort to bring about
reunification with Taiwan. That effort has already run into mounting resistance
among the island’s 23 million residents, crystallized last spring when student
activists occupied Taiwan’s legislature for nearly a month to protest a trade
bill with China. Opponents said the measure, backed by Mr. Ma and his
legislative allies from the governing Kuomintang, would have given Beijing too
much influence over Taiwan’s economy, which is increasingly dependent on the
mainland.
The
protests, known as the Sunflower Movement,
succeeded in halting the bill, providing inspiration to the young activists who
have led the pro-democracy effort in Hong Kong.
In
a move that stunned many people in Taiwan, President Xi Jinping last
month reaffirmed Beijing’s determination to pursue “one country, two systems”
for Taiwan. Given events in Hong Kong, the announcement was seen as poorly
timed and prompted an immediate rebuke from President Ma, who has been
struggling to ease widespread mistrust of Beijing among Taiwan’s electorate.
Jiho
Chang, a leader of the Sunflower Movement, said the combination of Mr. Xi’s
remarks and his government’s refusal to give Hong Kong residents the right to
elect their leader freely had finally put to rest the notion that Taiwan and
Beijing might one day come together under the rubric of “one country, two
systems.”
In
a phone interview, Mr. Chang laughed when asked if “one country, two systems”
still had any resonance among people in Taiwan.
“I’m
very confident China would break its promises on anything,” he said. “China
claims it wants to bring us closer together, but given what we’ve seen
happening in Hong Kong, it has only succeeded in pushing us further apart.”
