Hong Kongers Would Prefer British Rule

[Mid]

Poll Says Hong Kongers Would Prefer British Rule
Reported by Xin Lin for RFA's Mandarin Service.
Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
2013-03-14


Danny Chan, founder of a 'We're Hong Kongese, not Chinese' Facebook group, poses with a colonial-era flag in Hong Kong, Jan. 31, 2013.
AFP

An informal online poll by a Hong Kong newspaper inspired by a recent referendum in the Falkland Islands shows that 92 percent of readers who voted think Hong Kongers would prefer a return to British rule.

The poll on the English-language South China Morning Post's website was posted after residents of the Falkland Islands, a British Overseas Territory in the South Atlantic, voted 99.8 percent to remain under the United Kingdom rather than be handed over to Argentina.

The poll, titled "Would Hong Kongers vote to return to a British overseas territory, given the option?" showed that, measured at 7:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday, 3,966 readers had voted "yes," while 373 voted "no."

The newspaper said in a blog post that the poll was unscientific and "just for fun," and that the question was carefully worded to avoid the impression that responses meant votes from the people of Hong Kong.

There was no way to determine whether those who responded were Hong Kong citizens.

Hong Kong legislator and political activist Leung Kwok-hung, known by his nickname "Long Hair," said that while the poll wasn't a scientific survey, it gave a snapshot of public sentiment towards Beijing in the years since the 1997 handover to Chinese rule.

"Hong Kong people feel that [their own] government is doing a worse job than it was during British rule," Leung said.

"If you were to ask them whether they were better off before the handover, the answer would probably be that things were a bit better."

'Interference' from CCP

Leung said people in Hong Kong tended to see 1997 as a dividing line.
"The interference from the Chinese Communist Party has frightened people in Hong Kong," he said. "That interference is getting more and more obvious, and more and more serious."

One Facebook user commented on the poll that the British had never told Hong Kong people they should be "patriotic" or that they should support the government.

"The government didn't interfere with the media; it respected Hong Kong's local culture, so people naturally gave their allegiance to the British," the user wrote.

The user said the label "Chinese" had been thrust upon Hong Kongers following the handover.

Growing mood of opposition

One commenter said: "Sixteen years after the handover, pro-British feeling is still pretty strong," while another said, "This result should worry anyone who loves China and loves Hong Kong."

Media commentator Poon Siu-to said that, even without the poll, it was clear that Hong Kong people felt the city had gone downhill since the handover.

"There is a growing mood of protest against and opposition to China, which has to do with the huge pressure and interference Beijing imposes on Hong Kong," Poon said.

He said recent disputes between Hong Kongers and their compatriots across the internal border such as the buying up of infant formula milk by mainland traders had exacerbated the problem.

Poon said Hong Kong's own government was partly to blame. "[They] have put too much emphasis on one country, and not enough emphasis on two systems," Poon said, referring to the formula under which Beijing promised to take over Hong Kong.

He said the government had paid more attention to public opinion and traditional freedoms under British rule and that the gap between rich and poor had been narrower.

"These things have had a huge influence on people's views," he said.

Hong Kong's leadership

The poll comes shortly after comments from China's new leadership at the National People's Congress (NPC) session, calling on Hong Kong to be patriotic and to put their trust in Beijing.

Chinese officials have also hinted that they are unlikely to approve of full and direct elections to the Legislative Council and for the territory's chief executive by 2020, as permitted in the mini-constitution, the Basic Law.

Anxiety over the city's political future sparked an "Occupy Central" movement in the downtown business district last year, with participants calling for universal suffrage by the next election.

On Jan. 1 of this year, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong to demand the resignation of embattled chief executive Leung Chun-ying and universal elections for his replacement.

Leung was narrowly selected for the chief executive job this year by a pro-Beijing committee.

Under the terms of its 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong was guaranteed the continuation of existing freedoms of expression and association for 50 years.

But journalists and political analysts say that the ruling Chinese Communist Party has redoubled its ideological work efforts in the territory following mass demonstrations on July 1, 2003 against proposed anti-subversion legislation, which the government later abandoned.

Last year, proposals for patriotic education in the territory's schools were shelved after thousands of protesters camped outside government headquarters for several weeks, dressed in black and chanting for the withdrawal from the curriculum of what they called "brainwashing" propaganda from the Communist Party.

rfa.org

[superman]

I wrote this years ago on this forum. About 10 years ago I visited Kowloon. Me and my mate was talking to this Kitchen sink in a bar when he came out with this statement. "When the UK was in charge we didn't want yous and now we bitterly regret it.
When in India a few years later I was told more or less the same thing after being told that we (Brits) had stolen all the jewels from the Taj Mahal before we left. Eat shit you mother fckuers.

[Rural Surin]

kow-sip-song percent.

Find these "generalised" polls hard to fathom.
Make-believe for the masses.

[sabang]

Many of my expat colleagues are still living and working there, although they tell me HK ain't like the good ole pre-hangover days. Then again, HlK never was like the good ole days- it's a fast moving, money obsessed place with little regard for tradition or history. I well remember the long timers bemoaning the 'good ole days' of Hong Kong in the 70's & 80's, generally holding court, half sozzled, at the FCC or HK Club.

Ask the average HKer if he would like a return to colonial rule, he'll just laugh- "no chance". But he still might rattle on a bit about the good ole days. One of several good things the hongkies got off the brits is they are not afraid to moan about their government.

[ch1ldofthemoon]

I wonder what answers the poll would throw up,if it had been conducted in a chinese language paper?

[Kurgen]

Time to assemble the armada and take back the island.

[Norton]

Time to assemble the armada and take back the island.

Don't forget to fill the holds with opium.

[Seekingasylum]

I think it was only the other week when I mentioned in a thread my Hong Kong Chinese landlord bemoaning the passage of the Brits and how the mainland Chinese didn't understand that he was different to them and was" British Chinese ".

I suppose they feel their identity is threatened and romanticising about the past is just a symptom of that. Mind you, with over a billion of the fuckers pressing down it's scarcely surprising.

Hong Kong in the old days, that is end of the 60s to the early 70s, was a much more exciting place than it is now, cheaper too. Chap could begin a night drinking margaritas in the Peninsula Hotel for 12 $ a pop, fall into Ned Kelly's Last Stand and have a pint at 4 $ and then wend one's way to Wanchai and score some dope and opium in a brothel where a shag with Cindy Chan cost 30 $.

And then, day after, to Big Wave bay to play in the surf.

Happy days.

[sabang]

Yeh, I believe the CIA has a whole load of the stuff available.
Tobacco, booze, coke, opium- we anglo's done real well out of drugs.

[The Ghost Of The Moog]

A couple of the veterans on here seem to interpret colonial times as being better because of certain boozing opportunities!!

The reason why this poll came out the way it did derives from the following...


1) The Hong Kong Government is populist - it tries to pander to the non-tax paying hordes.

2) The Hong Kong Government is anti-colonial - it seeks to eliminate 'legacy' structures - even if they are beneficial legacies.

3) Education in Hong Kong is now skewed away from English language (not towards Mandarin, but Cantonese). It bodes ill for the youth of the city. Their Granddads driving cabs, speak better English than the Grandchildren.

4) Hong Kong people dislike mainlanders, who they perceive as being richer than they, and uncouth.

5) People don't really want to be managed by the UK (a basket case economy), but they simply don't feel special anymore - just another south Chinese city.

6) The colonial flag is being used as a symbol of protest and Beijing does not like that one bit.


I could carry on all day about this. That was a precis. I should do so better over a cheap G&T at the FCC !!

[Seekingasylum]

I must confess at the age of 18 the politics of HK was not uppermost in my mind.

Stretching one's allowance and wondering if I should forsake a trip to Cindy Chan in favour of a night out in Tsim Sha Tsui was perhaps the measure of my concerns.

I do recall Legco & Exco running the place as some form of bogus democracy but most couldn't give a flying toss, I mean the natives, since they were more interested in working their arses off and making money. The Communist cadre, most of the Star Ferry crew, occasionally had a go at the imperialist running dog exploitation thing but the majority knew this was Red China fomenting it for appearances sake and no one took them seriously although a few bombs did go off.

Every weekend the high and mighty of the Peak mafia and assorted rice barons would congregate in the Mandarin Hotel or wherever and throw a bash in aid of the Community Chest which was a fund for the poor and needy. These charity events were no more than a fart in the breeze in terms of a social welfare programme but it was good PR and showed how the capitalists "cared".

Stinkers market by the Walled City ghetto was as far as I could/would go to see how life truly was for the bottom of the heap.

[gaysexbyproxy]

Time to assemble the armada and take back the island.

Don't forget to fill the holds with opium.

this

[piwanoi]

I wrote this years ago on this forum. About 10 years ago I visited Kowloon. Me and my mate was talking to this Kitchen sink in a bar when he came out with this statement. "When the UK was in charge we didn't want yous and now we bitterly regret it.
When in India a few years later I was told more or less the same thing after being told that we (Brits) had stolen all the jewels from the Taj Mahal before we left. Eat shit you mother fckuers.

Having spent quite a lot of time in South Africa both Pre and post Apartheid many older black South Africans inform me they was far better off under White rule ,I am in regular contact with a couple of friends who say Thousands of Zimbabweans are "breaking the doors down" to get in so it must be a hell of lot worse there

[Rocksteady]

Yeah, old Robbie did a sterling job of turning the breadbasket of Africa into the breadline of the continent

I remember an incident at a railway station somewhere in India when an Old fella stopped me and asked me when I would be back? I replied that I had no intention of returning.

He said, 'Not you - the British! Everything worked in those days!"

[piwanoi]

Yeah, old Robbie did a sterling job of turning the breadbasket of Africa into the breadline of the continent

I remember an incident at a railway station somewhere in India when an Old fella stopped me and asked me when I would be back? I replied that I had no intention of returning.

He said, 'Not you - the British! Everything worked in those days!"

Hmm , I bet that statement brought a wry smile on eh!

[Rural Surin]

A couple of the veterans on here seem to interpret colonial times as being better because of certain boozing opportunities!!

The reason why this poll came out the way it did derives from the following...


1) The Hong Kong Government is populist - it tries to pander to the non-tax paying hordes.

2) The Hong Kong Government is anti-colonial - it seeks to eliminate 'legacy' structures - even if they are beneficial legacies.

3) Education in Hong Kong is now skewed away from English language (not towards Mandarin, but Cantonese). It bodes ill for the youth of the city. Their Granddads driving cabs, speak better English than the Grandchildren.

4) Hong Kong people dislike mainlanders, who they perceive as being richer than they, and uncouth.

5) People don't really want to be managed by the UK (a basket case economy), but they simply don't feel special anymore - just another south Chinese city.

6) The colonial flag is being used as a symbol of protest and Beijing does not like that one bit.


I could carry on all day about this. That was a precis. I should do so better over a cheap G&T at the FCC !!

All this being said, Beijing was prudent to promote special autonomous status back when - allowing HK to function with reasonable restraints as it has for some time.

Hong Kong has always been Chinese, even when drapped in the Union Jack.