appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Frank Ching

The passing of Lee Kuan Yew triggered an outpouring of tributes, not least from leaders of Taiwan and the mainland. Much has also been said of the relations between Hong Kong and Singapore.
Certainly, Lee paid close attention to Hong Kong. Only two years after the handover, he made his views known of Hong Kong's future. Sixteen years later, it is interesting to see where he may have got things wrong about the former British colony.
In the interview with the Far Eastern Economic Review, Lee said that, for politicians from the Democratic Party to have any future, "you have to love China and love Hong Kong, in that order". This, mind you, was in 1999, before the clamour for full democracy and at a time when China was giving the first chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, pretty much of a free hand.
In fact, Lee said that Tung had a "no-win job" because he was caught "between the aspirations of the people of Hong Kong" for greater democracy and "the expectations of the leaders in Beijing".
Those words were spoken almost four years before the 500,000-strong march of July 1, 2003, which caused Beijing to step on the brakes where democracy was concerned, and which ushered in a new era of more hands-on mainland rule.
Also in that 1999 interview, Lee said that whatever aspirations people in Hong Kong had, "they have to be subject to the overriding national interests of China". In those early years, Beijing explained that its policy was meant to ensure the stability and prosperity of Hong Kong. Little was said of maintaining the mainland's interests.
But last June, the State Council issued a white paper revealing that the "one country, two systems" policy's objectives include "maintaining China's sovereignty, security and development interests". So, the mainland's interests are very much involved.
Lee's predictive powers seemed to falter when he said the most difficult period would be "the first five to 10 years" after reversion. Looking back, however, the Tung period and Donald Tsang Yam-kuen's first term look like a cakewalk compared with the almost perpetual state of crisis in recent years.
Lee emphasised that Hong Kong and Beijing needed to have a better understanding of each other. "I don't think the leaders in Beijing understood why there was no great rejoicing on July 1, 1997," he said. But, he added, China would have to accept that "150 years of British rule and a different way of life" have resulted in "a different subgroup" of the Chinese nation.
Beijing should understand that even those waving British colonial flags don't really want the British to return, but are merely expressing their frustration with their current lot. So there is certainly a need for it to understand Hong Kong better.
But Hong Kong will have to understand China better, too. Without raising the bugbear of national education, it does seem strange that, 18 years on, Chinese history is still not being adequately taught in secondary schools.
Frank Ching is a Hong Kong-based writer and commentator. Frank.ching@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @FrankChing1


Eighteen years on, we remain 'one country, two peoples'

Whatever aspirations Hong Kong people had, Lee said in 1999, they had to be "subject to the overriding national interests in China". Photo: EPA

Opinion

Frank Ching revisits Lee Kuan Yew's 1999 views of Hong Kong-mainland ties and finds that, then as now, mutual understanding is lacking


Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

Eighteen years on, we remain 'one country, two peoples'

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Frank Ching revisits Lee Kuan Yew's 1999 views of Hong Kong-mainland ties and finds that, then as now, mutual understanding is lacking

Frank Ching revisits Lee Kuan Yew's 1999 views of Hong Kong-mainland ties and finds that, then as now, mutual understanding is lacking