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The Growth of “Localism” in Hong Kong

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The Growth of “Localism” in Hong Kong Current affairs China perspectives The Growth of “Localism” in Hong Kong A New Path for the Democracy Movement? YING-HO KWONG series of political protests in recent years, including localist rallies maintain harmonious relations, and supported the reversion of sovereignty for the June 4 Massacre, anti-parallel trading protests, and the Mong from Britain to China after 1997 under the principle of “One Country, Two AKok Riot, have triggered concerns over the development of “localism” Systems.” (4) In fact, Hong Kong’s democrats have always been divided by (bentu zhuyi 本土主義 ) in Hong Kong. For decades, traditional pan-demo - ideological differences, but have sought room for co-operation on political cratic parties ( fan minzhupai 泛民主派 ) have been struggling with the Chi - issues. The collaboration among democrats strengthened during and after nese government over political development. Although many of them have the Tiananmen Massacre. During the 1989 democracy movement in China, persistently bargained with the Beijing leaders, progress towards democracy Hong Kong democrats formed the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patri - remains stagnant. Thus, Hong Kong’s democrats have been beset by “tran - otic Democratic Movements in China to support the Beijing protesters. In sition fatigue,” which commonly exists in hybrid regimes that combine both the meantime, disagreements among democrats generally decreased be - democratic and authoritarian elements. (1) A growing number of Hong Kong cause the majority shared the common goal of supporting democratic de - people, especially youngsters, have become impatient, disappointed, and velopment in China against the bloody clampdown by the authorities. (5) sceptical towards the existing pan-democratic parties, and have shifted into The wave of democracy movements further intensified after 1997. In the the localist camp in order to search for new direction against political in - early stage after the handover, the democrats were still working together tervention by China. to fight against political control by Beijing. This sentiment kept rising until Localism, according to Law Wing-sang, refers to a political movement that 2003, when the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) govern - focuses on the preservation of Hong Kong’s identity and autonomy. (2) The ment decided to enact the national security law (Article 23) in the Legisla - movement includes a multitude of groups with different goals, ranging from tive Council, an anti-subversion law intended to constrain political rights, advocating greater autonomy to independence for Hong Kong, but most of resulting in 500,000 people marching on 1 July. Although the bill was finally them have developed a strong sense of local identity and object to growing withdrawn by the government, this biggest march after the handover pro - political encroachment by the Beijing government into Hong Kong’s polit - voked Beijing leaders to start intervening in Hong Kong affairs. After this in - ical, economic, and social affairs. The rise of localism that has adopted cident, the democrats repeatedly organised huge rallies calling for full strong “anti-China” positions implies more confrontation within the democ - universal suffrage to elect the Chief Executive and Legislative Council in racy camp overall. Thus, the democracy movement in Hong Kong has en - 2007 and 2008, respectively. In contrast, Beijing’s response was highly hos - tered a new stage, with a more polarised democratic scene. Existing tile and criticised the democrats as attempting to destabilise Hong Kong. (6) literature has long recognised that the traditional pan-democratic camp However, by 2008, “transition fatigue” existed among pan-democrats. has been serving an important political function of promoting democratic Some studies in hybrid regimes predict that a long period of political stag - development. (3) However, the implications of the newly established localist nation contributes to rising discontent regarding the status quo and attrib - groups have yet to be thoroughly explored. By studying the gradual rise of “localism,” this article attempts to examine why there has been an increase 1. Ngok Ma, “Hong Kong’s Democrats Divide,” Journal of Democracy , Vol. 22, No. 1, 2011, pp. 54-67. in localist groups, what impact this will have on the democratic camp as a 2. Wing-sang Law, “Xianggang bentu yundong de xingqi yu zhuanzhe” (The trajectories of Hong whole, and how the authorities have responded. Kong localist movement), Taiwan Literature Studies , No. 4, 2013, p. 96. 3. Jermain T.M. Lam, The Political Dynamics of Hong Kong Under Chinese Sovereignty , New York, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2000; Ngok Ma, Political Development in Hong Kong: State, Political “Transition fatigue” in Hong Kong Society and Civil Society , Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2007; Baohui Zhang, “Political Paralysis of the Basic Law Regime and the Politics of Institutional Reform in Hong Kong,” Asian Survey , Vol. 49, No. 2, 2009, pp. 312-332; Ming Sing, “Hong Kong’s Democrats Hold their Own,” The existence of a traditional pan-democratic camp in Hong Kong can be Journal of Democracy , Vol. 20, No. 1, 2009, pp. 98-112. traced back to the negotiations for democracy in Hong Kong since the mid - 4. Sonny Shiu-hing Lo, “The Role of a Political Interest Group in Democratization of China and Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China,” Journal dle of the 1980s. At that time, Martin Lee and Szeto Wah, two democrats of Contemporary China , Vol. 22, No. 83, pp. 923-943. who led a pro-democratic alliance with 95 groups, were invited to take part 5. Joseph Y. S. Cheng, “The Tiananmen Incident and the Pro-democracy Movement in Hong Kong,” in the Drafting Committee to design the Basic Law, the “mini-constitution” China Perspectives , No. 2009/2, pp. 91-100. 6. Wai-man Lam and Irene L. K. Tong, “Civil Society and NGOs,” in Wai-man Lam, Percy Luen-tim after the handover. Although Beijing had no intention of providing any con - Lui, Wilson Wong, and Ian Holliday (eds), Contemporary Hong Kong Politics: Governance in the crete promises such as full democracy, the democrats largely agreed to Post-1997 Era , Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 2007, pp. 135-154. N o. 2016/3 • china perspectives 63 Current affairs Graph 1 – Development of public discourse on the “localist camp” from 2007 to May 2016 2,000 1,800 Number of newspaper reports that mentionned the keyword 1,600 “localist camp” ( bentupai ) 1,400 1,200 1,000 800 600 400 200 0 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016* (up to May 31) Source: author’s own research, based on information received from the WieseNews electronic platform. The research counted the number of newspaper reports that mentioned “localist camp” ( bentupai 本土派 ) between 2007 and May 2016. The local newspapers covered in this research are Apple Daily, Hong Kong Commercial Daily, Hong Kong Eco - nomic Journal, Hong Kong Economic Times, Ming Pao Daily News, Oriental Daily News, Sing Pao, Sing Tao Daily, Ta Kung Pao, and Wen Wei Po . utes responsibility to both the government and leaders of the opposition chairman Wong Yuk-man, advocated a “Vote-them Out Campaign” to “punish” camp. (7) Hong Kong democrats face a long struggle in the face of Beijing’s the DP in the District Council elections. They also advocated infusing new re - desire for democratic display without substance. The Legislative Council sistance strategies such as filibustering and occupying events to push the gov - election in 2008 was marked by some democrats starting to urge the adop - ernment to make political reforms. More hard-line democrats were convinced tion of a more progressive approach to pressure the authorities to make that a more “radical” strategy should be used to challenge “Hong Kong Com - political reforms. The League of Social Democrats (LSD), a relatively radical munists ruling Hong Kong” and to defend Hong Kong against the control of the party, proposed a “de facto referendum.” Their idea was for five out of 23 Beijing government. More importantly, they believed that pan-democrats were pan-democratic legislators, one from each of the five Legislative Council too conservative and hindered the democratic movement. Their advocacy was districts, to resign at the same time, and called for the result of by-elections highly controversial at that time but incrementally changed the political culture to be viewed as a popular referendum on democracy. The Civic Party (CP), in Hong Kong, indirectly cultivating the rise of localism. led by professionals and the middle class, agreed to this action, but the Democratic Party (DP), the leading opposition party, refused. The DP feared The rise of localism that the resignations would antagonise moderate voters and infuriate the Chinese government. Although the CP-LSD alliance won their seats back, Growing dissatisfaction with the established opposition pan-democracy many democrats strongly criticised the rejection by the DP, and the political camp’s efforts to challenge the existing political system has led many Hong rift within the democracy camp deepened. (8) Kong people to consider a new direction to protect the interests of Hong The divide among Hong Kong’s democrats increased drastically when the Kong. This is one of the key factors that has nurtured the rise of the localist DP decided to “bargain” with Chinese leaders over the political reform pack - movement. In recent years, “localist camp” has become one of the most age. Direct face-to-face negotiations between Beijing leaders and DP legis - popular terms used by local politicians and the media to describe politics lators were held in May 2010. After the discussion, DP chairman Albert Ho in Hong Kong (see Graph 1). Originally, the roots of localism were not po - publicly stated that he would urge party members to support the political litical. The first wave emerged in 2005 when activists set up groups such as reform package when the government agreed to expand the franchise behind Local Action to campaign to protect the Star Ferry Pier and Queen’s Pier the five new functional constituency seats to include Hong Kong’s 3.2 million from demolition.
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