Protesting Like It's 2047

Hong Kong’s demonstrators have one big issue: Their city’s fate when China fully takes over in 28 years

- Matthew Campbell

When U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher agreed in 1984 to return Hong Kong to China, it wasn’t clear who would end up changing whom. The People’s Republic was still in the early days of the most dramatic economic transformation in modern history, opening for the first time in decades to money, people, and ideas from abroad. Hong Kong, freewheeling and prosperous, boasted plenty of what China’s reformers seemed to want: wealth, of course, but also order and stability, guaranteed by a colonial government that offered clean courts and some individual rights without ever flirting with true electoral democracy. “One country, two systems,” shorthand for Beijing’s pledge to maintain the city’s political character for 50 years after the 1997 British turnover, contained within it the possibility that by the time 2047 rolled around, the systems would have converged—mostly, perhaps, in Hong Kong’s direction.

After more than two months of violent confrontation, that’s decidedly unlikely. On Aug. 12 pro-democracy protesters made their most dramatic move yet, flooding into Hong Kong’s gleaming airport and forcing it to shut down completely. The next day, protesters disrupted service again, though short of closing things down. It was the latest episode in what’s become a summer of rage in Asia’s financial capital, with millions taking to the streets to oppose what they say are attempts to steamroll the city’s freedoms. Beijing has responded with undisguised fury, suggesting that some protesters have committed “terrorism” and hinting at the possibility of military action.