OCT. 5, 2014
A beggar at the entry to a subway station in Hong Kong. The city’s income disparity is among the highest in the developed world. Credit Bobby Yip/Reuters
HONG KONG — The normally gridlocked thoroughfare in front of the main Lamborghini dealership here is now quiet and carless. Guests at the $600-a-night Mandarin Oriental hotel had to enter through a lowered metal security gate on a few recent evenings, and several jewelers and luxury handbag shops are temporarily shuttered.
The unusual lull in high-end business seems a fitting contrast to the public protests that began Sept. 26, when hundreds of students first took to the streets, the crowds later swelling to tens of thousands of young people who fought off tear gas to call for greater democracy, in open defiance of the Chinese government.
China is grappling with a political problem in part because Hong Kong is dealing with an economic one. Underlying the current unrest in Hong Kong, an affluent city of 7.2 million that was a British colony for 155 years before it was returned to China in 1997, is a widening wealth gap.
Growing closer to China has brought a bonanza to Hong Kong’s finance, trade, retail and real estate industries. Despite this, average wage growth in the city has stagnated for years, while the costs of housing and daily goods have surged.
Hong Kong belongs to China and operates under a policy of “one country, two systems.”
Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty, is governed by a mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
The city maintains an independent judiciary, and residents enjoy greater civil liberties than residents of mainland China. Hong Kong has a robust tradition of free speech.
Democratic groups say Beijing has chipped away at those freedoms, citing an election law proposed last month that would limit voting reforms.
China had promised free elections for Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017. But the government rejected a call for open nominations, instead proposing that candidates would continue to be chosen by a committee dominated by Beijing.
The current city leader, Leung Chun-ying, has clashed with the pro-democracy opposition. After the crackdown on protesters Sunday, some called for his resignation.
Hong Kong’s silent minority of elite tend to fall in line behind the Beijing leadership on political or economic policies that touch the city. Now, it appears to be largely the squeezed middle class, and a younger generation discovering its political voice, driving the unprecedented demonstrations that have shut down major routes in some of Hong Kong’s busiest districts over the past week.
China’s leaders “have ignored the man on the street for so long because everyone told them Hong Kong people aren’t interested in politics, that it’s all about business, and they haven’t realized that society has clearly changed,” said Fraser J.T. Howie, a co-author of “Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China’s Extraordinary Rise.”
“Even if protests just fizzle out, that’s not a victory for Beijing, and I don’t believe by any means it puts the democratic genie back in the bottle,” Mr. Howie said. “It’s going to be a maelstrom of governance for a long time to come.”
How Beijing chooses to respond to the sweeping protests is complicated by Hong Kong’s role as a major financial center for China. While the city’s economic output has diminished compared with China’s spectacular expansion over the years, it remains a particularly important gateway for foreign investors.
