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| Hong Kong Feels Less Invested in Fight for Democracy on Mainland | Hong Kong Feels Less Invested in Fight for Democracy on Mainland |
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| HONG KONG — For years, Hui King-to has taken part in the solemn candlelight vigil in Victoria Park here commemorating those who died during the Chinese government’s suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989. | HONG KONG — For years, Hui King-to has taken part in the solemn candlelight vigil in Victoria Park here commemorating those who died during the Chinese government’s suppression of protests in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989. |
| But this year, Mr. Hui, a 20-year-old student, stayed away, along with many others. And a student group that has been one of the mainstays of the annual vigil pulled out this year after a quarter-century of support. | But this year, Mr. Hui, a 20-year-old student, stayed away, along with many others. And a student group that has been one of the mainstays of the annual vigil pulled out this year after a quarter-century of support. |
| Such a response by young Hong Kong residents should be music to the ears of China’s leaders in Beijing, who for decades have worked to airbrush the events of 1989 from the nation’s collective memory, banishing any mention of June 4 from the Internet, classrooms and history books. | Such a response by young Hong Kong residents should be music to the ears of China’s leaders in Beijing, who for decades have worked to airbrush the events of 1989 from the nation’s collective memory, banishing any mention of June 4 from the Internet, classrooms and history books. |
| One place on Chinese soil where that has been impossible is Hong Kong, whose people enjoy civil liberties denied to mainland Chinese under the agreement that returned the former British colony to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Albert Ho, a Democratic Party lawmaker, announced to the crowd Thursday night that 135,000 people were there, an estimate that represents a drop from the 180,000 that organizers said took part last year. | One place on Chinese soil where that has been impossible is Hong Kong, whose people enjoy civil liberties denied to mainland Chinese under the agreement that returned the former British colony to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. Albert Ho, a Democratic Party lawmaker, announced to the crowd Thursday night that 135,000 people were there, an estimate that represents a drop from the 180,000 that organizers said took part last year. |
| But the reasons many young people have given for staying away from this year’s vigil are unlikely to please Beijing. Many, like Mr. Hui, say they do not feel the need to commemorate events that happened before they were born — and in a place, mainland China, for which they feel little affinity. Thursday’s crowd at Victoria Park, while large, was still the smallest since 2008. The police estimate — normally a fraction of the organizers’ estimate — said 46,600 people attended. | |
| “I used to be a Chinese nationalist, and I considered myself Chinese,” said Mr. Hui, a business administration student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “I loved China the country — not the Communist Party — then. That was when I first started going to the candlelight vigil; I didn’t know better then.” | “I used to be a Chinese nationalist, and I considered myself Chinese,” said Mr. Hui, a business administration student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. “I loved China the country — not the Communist Party — then. That was when I first started going to the candlelight vigil; I didn’t know better then.” |
| “But when I came to realize how all these rallies were useless, I threw away all these Chinese nationalist thoughts,” he said. | “But when I came to realize how all these rallies were useless, I threw away all these Chinese nationalist thoughts,” he said. |
| Surveys have indicated that young people in Hong Kong, far and away China’s richest major city on a per-capita basis, feel less affinity toward mainland China than before the 1997 handover. Instead of feeling an attachment to China, they are looking inward, disillusioned by Beijing’s uncompromising stance on freer elections in Hong Kong, which set off huge student-led protests last year. | Surveys have indicated that young people in Hong Kong, far and away China’s richest major city on a per-capita basis, feel less affinity toward mainland China than before the 1997 handover. Instead of feeling an attachment to China, they are looking inward, disillusioned by Beijing’s uncompromising stance on freer elections in Hong Kong, which set off huge student-led protests last year. |
| “Until a year and a half ago, many in Beijing tended to dismiss nativist politics of Hong Kong, believing its impact was confined to a tiny group of radicals at the political fringe,” Zhang Baohui, a professor of political science at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, said in an email. “Now they recognize that identity politics is fast spreading, especially among the young people.” | “Until a year and a half ago, many in Beijing tended to dismiss nativist politics of Hong Kong, believing its impact was confined to a tiny group of radicals at the political fringe,” Zhang Baohui, a professor of political science at Lingnan University in Hong Kong, said in an email. “Now they recognize that identity politics is fast spreading, especially among the young people.” |
| A long-running semiannual survey by the University of Hong Kong found that at the end of last year, 42.3 percent of people in the city identified as Hong Kongers, while 17.8 percent identified as Chinese — among the highest and lowest numbers since 1997. All such opinion polls are conducted by telephone, and in each case since 2000, more than 1,000 adult Cantonese speakers have been contacted. | A long-running semiannual survey by the University of Hong Kong found that at the end of last year, 42.3 percent of people in the city identified as Hong Kongers, while 17.8 percent identified as Chinese — among the highest and lowest numbers since 1997. All such opinion polls are conducted by telephone, and in each case since 2000, more than 1,000 adult Cantonese speakers have been contacted. |
| Among people ages 18 to 29, 55 percent identified themselves as Hong Kongers, according to another widely cited poll, by the Hong Kong Transition Project. That telephone survey, conducted from Dec. 18, 2013, to Jan. 1, 2014, contacted 1,007 permanent residents and had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. | Among people ages 18 to 29, 55 percent identified themselves as Hong Kongers, according to another widely cited poll, by the Hong Kong Transition Project. That telephone survey, conducted from Dec. 18, 2013, to Jan. 1, 2014, contacted 1,007 permanent residents and had a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points. |
| On Thursday night, a large-scale replica of the Monument to the People’s Heroes, a large obelisk in the center of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, was the centerpiece of the Victoria Park rally. People bowed to it, candles in hand, as they heard accounts over the loudspeaker of victims and their still-grieving relatives. Attendees were noticeably older than the student-dominated protests that shut down parts of central Hong Kong late last year. | On Thursday night, a large-scale replica of the Monument to the People’s Heroes, a large obelisk in the center of Tiananmen Square in Beijing, was the centerpiece of the Victoria Park rally. People bowed to it, candles in hand, as they heard accounts over the loudspeaker of victims and their still-grieving relatives. Attendees were noticeably older than the student-dominated protests that shut down parts of central Hong Kong late last year. |
| One student who did attend was Lam Pak-yui, an 18-year old about to finish secondary school. He says he struggled over the past two days over whether to attend the Victoria Park rally or alternate events.. “Picking which event to attend is a reflection on the question of whether I am Chinese,” he said. In the end, he decided that Hong Kong is part of China and that cannot be changed. Pushing for democracy in China does no harm to Hong Kong, he said. | One student who did attend was Lam Pak-yui, an 18-year old about to finish secondary school. He says he struggled over the past two days over whether to attend the Victoria Park rally or alternate events.. “Picking which event to attend is a reflection on the question of whether I am Chinese,” he said. In the end, he decided that Hong Kong is part of China and that cannot be changed. Pushing for democracy in China does no harm to Hong Kong, he said. |
| For some, disillusionment with China has led to calls for more autonomy for Hong Kong, even independence. A separate rally organized by students at the University of Hong Kong was attended by hundreds of people. Some painted Chinese characters on the ground that read “The spark of democracy will glow forever.” | For some, disillusionment with China has led to calls for more autonomy for Hong Kong, even independence. A separate rally organized by students at the University of Hong Kong was attended by hundreds of people. Some painted Chinese characters on the ground that read “The spark of democracy will glow forever.” |
| And across the harbor in Tsim Sha Tsui, another, very different rally was underway. | And across the harbor in Tsim Sha Tsui, another, very different rally was underway. |
| One of the groups leading that rally was Civic Passion, which pushes for a more confrontational approach to mainland Chinese influence in Hong Kong. Hundreds of people gathered there, shouting “down with the Communist Party” and burning images of several Hong Kong officials made from cardboard cutouts. | One of the groups leading that rally was Civic Passion, which pushes for a more confrontational approach to mainland Chinese influence in Hong Kong. Hundreds of people gathered there, shouting “down with the Communist Party” and burning images of several Hong Kong officials made from cardboard cutouts. |
| Yolan Tsoi, an 18-year-old nursing student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said she is disappointed in the candlelight vigil’s “pointless” ritual, year after year. “Hong Kong’s democracy has nothing to do with China,” she said. | Yolan Tsoi, an 18-year-old nursing student at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, said she is disappointed in the candlelight vigil’s “pointless” ritual, year after year. “Hong Kong’s democracy has nothing to do with China,” she said. |
| Although most Hong Kong people fault the Chinese government for its crackdown on the Tiananmen protesters — hundreds of whom were killed, by many accounts — they increasingly think that they are not responsible for China’s democratic development, according to surveys by the University of Hong Kong. | Although most Hong Kong people fault the Chinese government for its crackdown on the Tiananmen protesters — hundreds of whom were killed, by many accounts — they increasingly think that they are not responsible for China’s democratic development, according to surveys by the University of Hong Kong. |
| And there are signs of a widening divide over whether the candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, with its focus on bringing democracy to China, should continue. Support for the vigil’s organizer, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, has fallen to a new low this year, according to the university’s poll. | And there are signs of a widening divide over whether the candlelight vigil in Victoria Park, with its focus on bringing democracy to China, should continue. Support for the vigil’s organizer, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, has fallen to a new low this year, according to the university’s poll. |
| “It is a deepening of Hong Kong people’s identity and the rise of localism,” said Steve Tsang, head of contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham and a Hong Kong historian. “Unlike people from the 1980s, they no longer see the future of Hong Kong and China as tied together.” | “It is a deepening of Hong Kong people’s identity and the rise of localism,” said Steve Tsang, head of contemporary Chinese studies at the University of Nottingham and a Hong Kong historian. “Unlike people from the 1980s, they no longer see the future of Hong Kong and China as tied together.” |
| The contrast with an earlier generation of student activists could scarcely be greater. Benny Tai, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, was a student in 1984, the year Britain agreed to return Hong Kong to China. A student group on campus, which had written to Zhao Ziyang, who was then China’s prime minister, received a reply promising that democracy in Hong Kong would be a “certainty” after Beijing reasserted control. That inspired Mr. Tai. | The contrast with an earlier generation of student activists could scarcely be greater. Benny Tai, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, was a student in 1984, the year Britain agreed to return Hong Kong to China. A student group on campus, which had written to Zhao Ziyang, who was then China’s prime minister, received a reply promising that democracy in Hong Kong would be a “certainty” after Beijing reasserted control. That inspired Mr. Tai. |
| Five years later, Mr. Zhao, by then the Chinese Communist Party’s general secretary, was toppled from power after he showed too much sympathy for the student protesters on Tiananmen Square. | Five years later, Mr. Zhao, by then the Chinese Communist Party’s general secretary, was toppled from power after he showed too much sympathy for the student protesters on Tiananmen Square. |
| Mr. Tai has been a leader in the movement calling for China to fulfill its commitment to Hong Kong by introducing a system in which the city’s top official, the chief executive, would be chosen by popular vote. | Mr. Tai has been a leader in the movement calling for China to fulfill its commitment to Hong Kong by introducing a system in which the city’s top official, the chief executive, would be chosen by popular vote. |
| But the National People’s Congress of China, which has final say over changes to Hong Kong’s governing mini-constitution, ruled last year that only candidates vetted by a nominating committee dominated by Beijing loyalists would be allowed to run for the office. That led Mr. Tai’s Occupy Central movement, along with student groups, to engage in sit-in protests that paralyzed parts of the city for months. | But the National People’s Congress of China, which has final say over changes to Hong Kong’s governing mini-constitution, ruled last year that only candidates vetted by a nominating committee dominated by Beijing loyalists would be allowed to run for the office. That led Mr. Tai’s Occupy Central movement, along with student groups, to engage in sit-in protests that paralyzed parts of the city for months. |
| Pro-democracy members of Hong Kong’s legislature have promised to block a motion, to be put to a vote on June 17, that would pass Beijing’s plan into law. But blocking the proposal would mean continuing the present system of selecting the chief executive, also by a Beijing-dominated committee, with no popular vote involved. That bleak choice for pro-democracy advocates has helped fuel the students’ disillusionment. | Pro-democracy members of Hong Kong’s legislature have promised to block a motion, to be put to a vote on June 17, that would pass Beijing’s plan into law. But blocking the proposal would mean continuing the present system of selecting the chief executive, also by a Beijing-dominated committee, with no popular vote involved. That bleak choice for pro-democracy advocates has helped fuel the students’ disillusionment. |
| People like Mr. Hui. | People like Mr. Hui. |
| “What happened in Tiananmen Square was our neighbor’s affair, not ours,” he said. “As long as they keep saying that they want to build a democratic China, I don’t think I’ll ever return to Victoria Park again.” | “What happened in Tiananmen Square was our neighbor’s affair, not ours,” he said. “As long as they keep saying that they want to build a democratic China, I don’t think I’ll ever return to Victoria Park again.” |