From Asia Media International in Los Angeles — Congratulations, Hong Kong! Under conditions of the greatest stress, you have pulled off a mainly spotless and brilliant territory-wide election whose results resonate worldwide.
Clean and clear elections are not that easy to pull off. (We in the U.S. are learning more about that every day.) Hong Kong’s weekend effort looks to have been about as un-flawed as the real world of politics ever permits. District Council elections were fiercely contested; first time-out anti-establishment candidates won most of them. And many of the winners are quite young (one is reported to be all of 18 — this take’s one’s breath away!)
No matter the result – anti-government or not – it was vital that the process proved fair and open and definitive. Ir did. As a result, the people have given Hong Kong a clear sense of political direction. Now it is up to the newly elected stewards of that consensus to move Hong Kong forward.
Negative interference by Beijing at this point would be a blunder. The sovereign government of the People’s Republic of China should work wisely and even humbly to nurture the famed formula of one-country/two-systems to a new level of functionality and credibility.
After all, it had all started well enough. In 1997, with its Basic Law and the one-country/two systems promise locked in place, it looked quite good for SAR China – the special administrative region. Tung Chee Hwa, the first chief executive (mayor or governor) under China, now looks like the wizard master of Fragrant Harbour, at least compared to the current chief executive, who now must see the door. Whoever is next must at least start off with the talent to bring everyone together again. A Hong Kong house divided against itself cannot stand.
Now is the right time, the historic moment, to embed Hong Kong as the truly special region of China that it needs to be. The Xi Jinping government must waste no time in working with the new HK consensus and dropping imperial airs. The Communist Party of China can show that it is a people’s party indeed by listening carefully and faithfully to the people of Hong Kong. There is no other way to go forward. If it handles this next step skillfully, it will show that the PRC is truly a modern, international government.
The movement in Hong Kong will not relent.