英文摘要 |
The Umbrella Movement in late 2014 in Hong Kong manifested not only tensions between “democratic Hong Kong” and “authoritarian Beijing”, but more importantly deep contradictions within China's own party-state system. The Umbrella Movement was a convergence of multiple social campaigns that sprung up over the last ten years under the banner of democracy and political autonomy. This article traces how the notions of democracy and autonomy in Hong Kong emerged from its special historical and geopolitical contexts, and how those conditions have now changed and therefore complicated the pursuit of these goals. This article then asks why the “one country two systems” approach, a consensus among major stakeholders thirties years ago, ran into deep trouble when China opened up and its economic integration with Hong Kong intensified. I suggest that it is the changing nature of the Communist Party and its relation to the state, and not just the lack of democracy, that caused the current crisis. Hong Kong deserves special attention not because it is distinct from the mainland, but precisely because it manifests contradictions in China as a whole in a particularly sharp manner. |