Vigil Hong Kong on the brink

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

Book - 2020

"On the frontlines of the battle for democracy in China The rise of Hong Kong is the story of a miraculous post-War boom, when Chinese refugees flocked to a small British colony, and, in less than fifty years, transformed it into one of the great financial centers of the world. The unraveling of Hong Kong, on the other hand, shatters the grand illusion of China ever having the intention of allowing democratic norms to take root inside its borders. Hong Kong's people were subjects of the British Empire for more than a hundred years, and now seem destined to remain the subordinates of today's greatest rising power. But although we are witnessing the death of Hong Kong as we know it, this is also the story of the biggest challen...ge to China's authoritarianism in 30 years. A small group of activists, who are passionately committed to defending the special qualities of a home they love, are fighting against Beijing's crafty efforts to bring the city into its fold-of making it a centerpiece of its "Greater Bay Area" megalopolis. Jeffrey Wasserstrom, one of America's leading China specialists, draws on his many visits to the city, and knowledge of the history of repression and resistance, to help us understand the deep roots and the broad significance of the events we see unfolding day by day in Hong Kong. The result is a riveting tale of tragedy but also heroism-one of the great David-versus-Goliath battles of our time, pitting determined street protesters against the intransigence of Xi Jinping, the most ambitious leader of China since the days of Mao"--

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  • Disappearances
  • Negotiations
  • Victories
  • Punishments
  • Battles
  • Epilogue: Water.
Review by Kirkus Book Review

A longtime observer of Hong Kong protest movements argues that the autonomy of the region is being eroded by Beijing authoritynot gradually and probably irreparably.In this well-organized, strikingly relevant work, Wasserstrom (History/Univ. of California, Irvine; Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land, 2012, etc.) argues that the designation of Hong Kong by China and Britain in the handover of 1997 as a Special Administrative Region enjoying "a high degree of autonomy" is being threatened. While originally the Western assumption was that Hong Kong, as the region bringing much of the economic boom to China, would be too valuable to Beijing to disrupt by its repressive measures, the reality seems to be that Beijing's tentacles are pervasive and continue to tighten. Disappearances of protestors, forced confessions, the threat of extradition law, the installation of puppet legislators, the resistance to universal suffragethese are just a few of the familiar "screws" that mainland officials are implementing. The author provides a penetrating review of the situation through on-the-ground reporting and interviews with protest leaders like Joshua Wong and Chris Patten, the last British governor of Hong Kong. Wasserstrom works through the history of the region as a British colonial hub of trade in the mid-1800s and its subsequent enormous economic growth, overtaking even Shanghai after World War II. "Shanghai, after falling in 1949," writes the author, "was an example of a Golden Goose that the Communists killed not long after taking control of it." While there have been many victories for the democratic movement since renewed protests this yeare.g., pushing back against a new "moral and national education plan," which smacked of censorshipthe protest movement's other demandsdirectly electing the chief executive, the release of prisoners, investigation of police brutality, and immediate universal suffrage, among themhave not been met. Without civil disobedience and international pressure, Wasserstrom fears that Hong Kong will become a "captive colony of Beijing."A passionate, important study of the current affairs of a volatile region. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.