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Hongkongers abroad are joining in symbolically

Is this the birth of a nation? Those who wanted to push Hong Kong in the direction of formal independence have always been politely outnumbered. But the challenging, explosive assertion that “Hong Kong is not China” has become a routine feature of Hong Kong life.

Hong Kong was relinquished to China in 1997 after Britain secured paper guarantees that its independent judiciary and Commonwealth-style legal procedures would survive at least until 2047. When the handover was executed, the number 2047 meant — to the British trying to extract themselves from their last imperial briar patch — “far enough in the future for mainland China to have liberalized a bit.” The advent of Xi Jinping has since shown that progress, alas, does not proceed in a predictable linear way.

Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images

The radicals and youths who have advanced a program for the political independence of Hong Kong have turned out, despite their naïveté, to have a strong underlying logic on their side. The 1997 deal is often summarized as having tried to preserve “one country” with “two systems.” Hongkongers always appeared to accept this. Even though Tiananmen Square was still a fresh memory in ’97, the general public celebrated the handover with every appearance of sincerity.

There was an element of racial resentment in this. Hong Kong had never had much reason to like its middle-class white expatriates, and had correctly detected that the British administration was more eager to dispense cheaply with its colonial responsibilities than it was to preserve HK’s liberties. The ex-colonists clearly considered that their chances of keeping the whole crap game rolling were about as good under their fellow Chinese — people no less keen than themselves on wealth accumulation and a materialist vision of the good life, complete with ponies and yachts.