Occupy Central
Occupy Central is a civil disobedience movement which began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It calls on thousands of protesters to block roads and paralyse Hong Kong's financial district if the Beijing and Hong Kong governments do not agree to implement universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020 according to "international standards." The movement was initiated by Benny Tai Yiu-ting (戴耀廷), an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, in January 2013.
Umbrella Movement
The Umbrella Movement (Chinese: 雨傘運動; pinyin: yǔsǎn yùndòng) is a loose political movement that was created spontaneously during the Hong Kong protests of 2014. Its name derives from the recognition of the umbrella as a symbol of defiance and resistance against the Hong Kong government, and the united grass-roots objection to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) of 31 August.
The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.
The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.
POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 54:
Full coverage of the day’s events
Mainland students become collateral targets
Eugenia, who is pursuing a course at HKU’s Faculty of Business and Economics, got a rude shock last month when the university’s student-run Campus TV ran a story about her, pointing out that she had been a member of the Communist Youth League of China (中國共產主義青年團).
The “expose” came as Eugenia was preparing to contest for the post of social secretary for the new executive body of the HKU Students Union, taking on several other contenders.
In today’s highly politicized society marked by fear and distrust of the Communist Party, especially on university campuses, one can imagine the implications of such a report.
Along with insinuations about her loyalties, Eugenia — who hails from Guangzhou — was also accused of inviting a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference to a dinner party held on campus last year.
Following the report, Eugenia was overwhelmed by questions, during an election campaign debate last week, about her Communist identity and alleged links to the CPPCC member.
One editor of the Students’ Union magazine Undergrad (學苑) – which came in for rebuke recently from Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying for advocating Hong Kong independence – said Eugenia deliberately tried to hide her Communist Youth League membership, and that her election bid may be a scheme orchestrated by Beijing’s Liaison Office to plant its ears and eyes in the Students’ Union.
The attacks prompted Eugenia to write an open letter on Jan. 25, saying that Hong Kong’s freedom and liberal society are the reasons she chose the territory for higher education, and that she didn’t expect her mainland identity to become an issue.
Noting that she couldn’t choose her place of birth, the sophomore said she doesn’t want to be subjected to a Cultural Revolution-style smear and interrogation environment.
According to her, she just wanted to participate in campus activities and see how a students’ union in Hong Kong functions differently from one in the mainland.
“Why can’t I run for a HKUSU post simply because I once wore a red scarf?” she questioned.
Red scarf (紅領巾) is the official symbol of the Communist Youth League and the Young Pioneers of China. In propaganda materials, it is emblematic of the blood of revolutionary communist martyrs.
Given the recent developments, it remains to be seen whether Eugenia will still stand any chance in the student body elections.
Campus battles
It is said that Eugenia is the first mainlander to run for a HKUSU post since HKU started admitting large batches of mainland students after the 1997 handover. Last academic year, 2,781 UGC-funded quotas at HKU were taken up by mainland freshmen.
On the HKU campus you can still see several of Eugenia’s campaign posters. In the picture she looks young, bright and pretty with a winsome smile. But one wonders whether she can still keep her smile given the questions thrown at her and even some hostility.
Consciously or otherwise, her surname is spelt in the Cantonese way of “Yip” rather than the Putonghua pronunciation of “Ye”.
Eugenia says she shares the same political stance as other members of the proposed cabinet of the Students’ Union, including ending the single party dictatorship in the mainland and opposing the enactment of Article 23 of the Basic Law.
But that hasn’t put a stop to the questions and doubts surrounding her in the minds of fellow students.
Similar things have happened in Taiwan colleges too.
Last September, Cai Boyi (蔡博藝), a girl from China’s northwestern Gansu province who was among the first batch of mainland students in Taiwan, became a candidate for the students’ union president at Tamkang University (淡江大學).
Cai was also a member of the Communist Youth League before she went to Taiwan. Media reports fuelled the worry that Beijing may manipulate student organizations and even brainwash local students “through imperceptible but constant influence” from mainlanders like Cai.
During the election Cai’s mainland nationality was made public with a conspicuous Chinese national flag printed besides her name on the ballots.
Cai lost the election.
‘Original sin’
It seems a mainland identity, especially the Communist Youth League membership, is deemed as the “original sin” for students such as Eugenia and Cai.
But one should bear in mind that virtually all students in the mainland, from primary schools to high schools, are all required to join the group of Young Pioneers and the league.
Top students who score high marks in exams will be invited to join early while others may automatically become members at a later time. By comparison, there are more stringent procedures to become a Communist Party member.
Basically, the league almost has nothing to do with most students’ daily life and by any standard it is more a formality than a formal organization with concrete functions. The league exists in name only.
Eugenia is telling the truth when she says that “99 percent of mainland students in Hong Kong are also league members” and such membership means nothing at all.
It is well-known that local youth in Hong Kong and Taiwan are no fans of the Communist Party.
Beijing’s bullying and string-pulling with regard to the affairs of the two places have only deepened the sense of estrangement.
Given this situation, people like Eugenia, Cai and other mainland students have unfortunately become collateral targets. We can only hope that better sense prevails when emotions cool in the future.
Opposing Leung equals challenging the central government?
Those who studied modern Chinese history in school and read the harrowing personal accounts of experiences during the Cultural Revolution are no strangers to such rhetoric.
When the Cultural Revolution was at its height and Jiang Qing (江青), China’s first lady at the time, rose to supreme power, there was an unwritten political consensus that “whoever opposes Comrade Jiang Qing is opposing Chairman Mao Zedong”.
Jiang was charged with treason after Mao’s death. During the open trial, she defended herself by saying she was nothing but Mao’s running dog: “I will bite whoever Chairman Mao asks me to bite.”
Now, in the light of the statement that “whoever opposes Leung Chun-ying is opposing the central authorities”, the only reason Leung inserted a paragraph in this year’s policy address condemning a student union publication must be that he was told to do so.
I bet Leung wouldn’t have had the guts for such an assault without prior approval.
I participated in the drafting of several policy addresses when employed by the Hong Kong government’s Central Policy Unit. Even in the peaceful years during the Tung Chee-hwa administration, all drafts would be submitted to Beijing for approval before they were finalized for delivery.
But Leung’s attack on the students can’t be wise and may backfire, especially when his government is working on the procedure for the 2017 election for chief executive.
Leung’s accusations may instead draw more attention to pro-independence thinking in Hong Kong and turn a student publication — the Hong Kong University Students’ Union’s Undergrad magazine — into a bestseller.
Another piece of evidence that Beijing is pulling the strings behind the scenes is that NPC deputy Cheng Yiu-tong, also a member of the Executive Council, revealed after the Shenzhen meeting that “the central government is determined to push Leung to take on challenges (「中央政府已將梁振英押上去了」)”.
The hidden message is that Leung must execute to the full extent whatever order he is given and he must “bite whoever Beijing asks him to bite”.
Yet Leung may welcome such orders, because tasks like these are where his expertise lies, rather than real work like formulating effective policies to enhance the city’s economic prospects or coming up with measures to ease the housing shortage.
After the Occupy movement, Leung feels the need to renew the political agenda to give full play to his “expertise” in political struggle as a way to conceal his incompetence in addressing a whole range of economic and livelihood issues.
Beijing’s edict to crack down on any musings about Hong Kong independence no doubt comes as a lifesaver to him.
Now here is the question: why is Beijing so desperate to mount an all-out war on “separatists”?
Beijing is aware that its retrogressive election package for 2017 will be vetoed by the Legislative Council, and it wants a scapegoat to bear all the blame. So attacking Undergrad is just Step 1.
It will label all supporters of civil nomination as separatists — student leaders, democrats and even Henry Tang Ying-yen’s allies (Tang was a former chief secretary and Leung’s major rival for chief executive in the 2012 election) — and round them up in one shot.
Blaming the student publication for agitating for independence for Hong Kong is the first move in trumping up an ultimate charge of endangering national security and territorial integrity so that Beijing’s foes can be brought down one by one.
By fair means or foul, Beijing is mounting a full-scale purge in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong government and Beijing’s organs in the special administrative region are pouring in resources in support, as witness the inauguration on the weekend of the Hong Kong Army Cadets, a new uniformed youth group backed by the Hong Kong garrison of the People’s Liberation Army.
This is Beijing’s elaborate plan. Yet it is doomed to fail.
The reason: it’s a fallacy that changing people’s minds, or ideological remolding, can be accomplished within just a decade or two with such a purge.
The mainland is precisely a testimony to that.
There is no denying that ideological education in the mainland is a total failure, when numerous Communist cadres at all levels, while claiming they love the country and uphold noble moral values, have committed all sorts of nasty deeds and crimes throughout the past decades.
How can you expect Hongkongers, advocates of universal values in a far better and civilized society, to shift their ground and become fans of the Communist Party just 17 years after the handover?
The only way to amend China’s image is to correct all the wrongdoings and enhance governance, morality, market activity and people’s behavior.
Only after that can Hongkongers find some common ground for national identity and self-recognition as Chinese.
Back to Leung: he must be complacent after having been given his masters’ full backing, especially when Beijing has made it explicitly clear that challenging him means challenging the central government.
But perhaps he should be aware that if Beijing has a change of heart — it is known for its unpredictability — he can be abandoned at any time.
Just remember what happened to Jiang Qing in the end.
This article first appeared in the Hong Kong Economic Journal on Jan. 19.
Translation by Frank Chen
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