OPINION - Politics
‘One Country, Two Systems’ The root of the problem
1997 marked the year where Hong Kong adopted the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ arrangement, where the city would supposedly enjoy its pre-existing legal arrangements under a single, unified China. Whilst its implementation seemed rather straightforward, in practice, this has not been the case. Indeed, whilst the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China was initially met with great optimism, the everfraying relationship between Hong Kong and the mainland runs the risk of fully deteriorating in the face of growing protests within the Special Administrative Region. This can be seen especially with the current 2019 protests, where, once peaceful, these demonstrations have turned
violent. Such violence has paralysed Hong Kong whilst greatly exacerbating dire relations with the mainland. What has caused this rift? Whilst Beijing have been open in blaming such unrest on foreign interference and socio-economic woes, I argue that most of the blame lie with the inherent contradictions within the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ arrangement. These contradictions relate to issues of the levels of autonomy that Hong Kong truly possess and the power of the central government.
Administrative Regions under the centralised authoritarian rule of China as a unitary state’’. Indeed, this autonomy is outlined in Hong Kong’s mini constitution (the Basic Law), which states how Hong Kong would retain its current way of life, promising full universal suffrage and the maintenance of the capitalist system. Whilst this may seem clear on paper, in reality, the arrangement has been riddled with large scale tensions which seek to break open the very bonds which keep the system together.
Theoretically, the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ arrangement can be said to be a “policy innovation to preserve a high degree of autonomy of the Special
Indeed, one can point to the ongoing attempts at the political and economic integration of Hong Kong by Beijing. These attempts, I argue, have been central in 13
