June 6, 2017   Memo to Beijing: leave HK alone!

Beijing's recent threats towards Hong Kong are causing more and more HK people to be worried about the future. Some people are afraid that in a very short time HK will be just another city of China, without genuine freedoms etc.

How different this situation is to that of pre-1997 when HK people were so supportive of China and its opening up. The biggest investor in post 1979 China was not the US or Japan or Taiwan, but HK.

But since the 1997 handback, and especially since 2003 when Beijing tried to get HK to introduce Article 23 legislation, HK people feel threatened by Beijing. No wonder HK young people have become radicalised - just like the university students of Beijing became radicalised in 1919 to defend their homeland.

HK used to be like a tame house dog, loyal to Beijing. But because Beijing began yelling at the dog and kicking it, the dog has started barking. The way to stop it barking is not to kick it harder, but to be kind to it, as used to be the case.