Maybe It Did Work, Too Well: Hong Kong and the Despair of Freedom

In 1999 I studied for a semester at Hong Kong Baptist University. I was able to utilize the opportunity to room with a mainland Chinese student, meet missionaries in the city, and grow in religious and East Asian studies. By ‘99 two years had passed since the change over from British to CCP governance, under the “One country, two systems” political ideal.* On numerous occasions, I sat in pews and classrooms where Christians, reflecting on the short time, would predict that the influence on China’s governance would be from HK to them, not the other way around. I think they were correct, but the results so far have not been what they concluded would grow from that influence. Instead of more freedom, the new security laws applied to HK reveal the opposite. Instead of commerce and trade growth making the mainland populace clamor for greater freedoms and the CCP liberalizing their governance to accommodate, tightening occurred as China opened widely and began, in 2013, to truly engaged in global trade. The things that were thought would especially grow (Chinese Christianity, economic affluence and influence, desire for greater freedom from the populace) did all occur to different degrees, but with that came governmental tightening of their authority, not the political and religious freedoms expected. In other words, the change over worked well in the influences that would be applied, but the results of that influence were not what Chinese Christians, or liberal political observers, prognosticated in hope. Instead, maybe working too well, the influence has lead, at this moment of time, to the stamping down of freedoms.

I have written here and here of areas of great concern for Chinese governments in the past, and the CCP ruling party in particular now. Some of the vectors of concern have to do with foreign influence and religion in different ways. I posit that as the PRC continues to open up its hand to influence things outside its borders (whether politically or financially– and both of those are intertwined) this leaves them with a great felt need to tighten political control. This is, and least in part, what we are seeing in the PRC’s blustering both inside of mainland China among religious groups (Christians, Muslims, etc), minorities, and foreigners. It is also what we are seeing as the PRC reacts to those outside the mainland (see India, Southeast Asia, Australia, the Belt and Road Initiative, etc.) **

(*) I mention “ideal” purposefully here, based on historical events and that it was not as much a governmental law, rather it was a principle which subsequent actions and laws utilized. Also, it was an “ideal” in the negative sense– an idea based mainly on hope and not assurance.

(**) I will be updating this post with more information and thoughts in the coming days and weeks. Also, please excuse grammar and editing problems, as this will be hopefully corrected as this post is updated.