The rising localization movement
and desperate calls for democratization in Hong Kong serve as a warning to
Taiwan, where Sinicization and the weakening localization movement were grave
concerns, an academic said yesterday on the eve of the 16th anniversary of the
territory’s handover to China.
“The situation in almost every aspect of life in Hong Kong has
gotten so bad that Hong Kong independence — for which support remains very
weak, however — has been mentioned among the people,” said Chen Yi-chi (陳奕齊), a doctoral candidate at University of Leiden in the
Netherlands.
Chen, who also serves as the secretary-general of the Southern
Taiwan Society, analyzed political, economic and social development in Hong
Kong between 1997 and the present and made comparisons between Taiwan and the
territory, which was handed over to China on July 1, 1997, at a seminar
organized by the World United Formosans for Independence (WUFI) Taipei Chapter.
The year 2003 became a watershed year for Hong Kong, which was hit
by deflation — a result of the Asian financial crisis, SARS, the controversial
Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law regarding national security and the
signing of the Closer Economic
Partnership Agreement (CEPA) , which increased Hong Kong’s
economic dependence on Beijing, Chen said.
Since then, the “China factor” had infiltrated every aspect of the
former British colony as Beijing gradually asserted its political influence and
launched an economic invasion by sending more people to the territory and
siphoning off its educational, medical and business resources.
By the time Hong Kongers “awoke” from the dream of “one country,
two systems” that Beijing had promised, in about 2011 or last year, it was too
late, Chen said…
