September 10, 2003

China holds up Hong Kong as an example to the world--and especially to Taiwan--about how "one country, two systems" can work. Communism and democracy can coexist, it insists.

China probably would rather have skipped the vigorous display of people's democracy that recently forced Hong Kong's leader to dump a Draconian domestic security measure--but there is no better display for the world to see. If a measure of freedom is surviving in Hong Kong, it is because the people there insist on it.

They protested an infringement on their cherished civil liberties. Surprisingly, the local government was forced to back down. Beijing remained silent, at least in public.

Hong Kong's Basic Law, the constitution that has governed its status as a special administrative region of China since the British relinquished control six years ago, requires that it pass an internal security law. It says nothing, though, about when that must be done.

Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, attempted to ram through a deeply unpopular version of a security law this summer. The proposed law sent chills through Hong Kong. It threatened free speech, free association and Hong Kong's free-wheeling press, and gave the government sweeping powers, including warrantless searches.

It would have allowed the government to banish local groups that are affiliated with mainland organizations that have been banned in China. The prime, though not the only, example would have been Falun Gong, banned as a cult on the mainland but free in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's citizens took to the streets. Half a million people--nearly 10 percent of the population--staged a demonstration on July 1. That was the largest gathering since the 1989 pro-democracy movement, which was ultimately crushed by Beijing in Tiananmen Square.

There were other rallies during the month. Faced with a huge public revolt, the government first attempted to make the anti-subversive law more palatable. But, in the end, it bowed to the will of the people and withdrew it altogether.

This battle is far from over. Tung's decision to withdraw the anti-subversion measure was a response to the popular will, but it was also a tactical move. His government's popularity was dropping like a rock because of the measure and it must face the voters in elections next summer. The internal security law, in one form or another, will likely resurface.

But Hong Kong's summer of discontent and the response of authorities there and in Beijing speaks volumes about the historic--and delicate--transformation going on in the world's most populous country.

Economic liberalization over the last quarter century has raised living standards and is raising expectations about political liberalization. China's new president, Hu Jintao, who is also head of the Communist Party, faces the difficult task of trying to satisfy those rising expectations while keeping the party in control. Communism and democracy may be coexisting--but the people of Hong Kong have firmly declared that the latter has a brighter future.

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