For Hong Kong’s student protesters, 2015 is off to a dismal start. They’d hoped that months-long demonstrations would lead to greater openness and dialogue with the city’s pro-China government. Now that he’s cleared the streets, though, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying seems to have lost interest in talking.
On Jan. 5, Leung cancelled town hall meetings aimed at strengthening lines of communication with citizens. A day later, the government released a 217-page “Report on the Recent Community and Political Situation in Hong Kong” that glossed over the gripes of pro-democracy forces. Police may begin arresting more than 30 protest organizers as soon as next week.
The report to Beijing is particularly telling. Meant to be a comprehensive and “truthful” autopsy of protests that disrupted the city for more than two months, in reality it’s a whitewash. The report concludes, wrongly, that Hong Kong and China share a “common aspiration” politically. Protest backers are demanding a free choice of their own leader by 2017; Beijing wants to vet the candidates. That’s a pretty fundamental divide. As 18-year-old student leader Joshua Wong, one of those on the wanted list, said on Facebook: “This report was meant to be a sweetener from the government,” offered as a concession after earlier talks with protesters. “But there’s no sugar coating on this sweetener. It’s poison.”
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