Can China’s communist party go against its own grain, give Hong Kong space to run its affairs? | The Indian Express

Can China’s communist party go against its own grain, give Hong Kong space to run its affairs? | The Indian Express

Written by Thomas Abraham |Updated: June 19, 2019 11:44:55 am

The writer, a former editor of The South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, is now based in Bengaluru.

Can China’s communist party go against its own grain, give Hong Kong space to run its affairs?

As new generations of Hong Kongers drift further away from the Chinese motherland, both culturally and politically, the worry in Beijing must be that it will have to contend with an increasingly ungovernable city on its southern coast.

People attend a rally in support of demonstrators protesting against the proposed extradition bill with China, in Hong Kong, China. (Reuters Photo)

Hong Kong is like a pressure cooker on a stove, hissing steam when the temperature from China rises, and subsiding when the powers that be lower the flame. Last week, over a million protestors, many young, took to the streets to protest a new law that would allow people from Hong Kong to be extradited to China, a move that would threaten critics of the Chinese regime who have till recently found relatively safe haven in Hong Kong. After clashes between the police and protestors, the head of the Hong Kong government, Carrie Lam, was forced to temporarily shelve the extradition law.