The Hong Kong Chief Executive Election Protest: A Test Case for the Chinese Party-State's Response to Social Movements Under the 'One Country, Two Systems' Framework

Autor: Lin, Ching-Yao, 林敬堯
Rok vydání: 2016
Druh dokumentu: 學位論文 ; thesis
Popis: 104
As the British were preparing their imminent withdrawal from Hong Kong on the eve of the 1997 Handover, the city officials begin enacting a series of reforms related democratization and representational governance. Beijing’s newly established office of Chief Executive was mandated to report directly to the central government. Granted a wide range of powers, the Chief Executive became Hong Kong’s primary administrative entity. The purpose of this arrangement was to allow Hong Kong to retain the essential features of its original administrative structure while simultaneously enabling the central government to fully lead and supervise the governance of the city. To put it succinctly, since the Handover, the growth and development of Hong Kong’s system of governance, especially in regards to democratization, has been curtailed by Beijing at every turn. In this flashpoint of contradiction between new and old systems of administration, the social ideals held by powerful political communities and those of ordinary citizens have come into sharp conflict. Both sides hold incompatible understandings regarding the relationship between community and citizen as well as on the nature of citizenship itself. The political communities undertake a top-down approach promoting the liberal citizenship tradition. Regular citizens, on the other hand, take a bottom-up approach when putting their ideals into practice. This type anti-traditional liberal methodology seeks to redefine the concepts of and relationship between political community and citizenship, consummating in the gradual creation of a corporate citizenship. What are the causes and cures of Hong Kong’s incessant social conflicts? In this paper it is argued that “ripping apart” is actually the beginning stage of “communication.” Although Beijing has not formally disassembled its “one country, two systems” framework, the central government is nonetheless in direct control of policy in Hong Kong. This fact was evidenced in both the quantitative and qualitative changes of the Umbrella Movement. The people currently have no means of expanding their influence in the government, despite the use of elections and various other measures—authoritarian governments do not make reforms on their own accord. This paper takes the relationship between state and society as its starting point and examines research on the production of social movements and development mechanisms from the three-fold perspective of change, structure and discourse. This paper studies the scale of Hong Kong’s reoccurring social movements utilizing a concrete analysis of events set against the backdrop of a society in transition. Entailed in this analysis is an observation the structural elements associated with Hong Kong’s social, economic and political transformation. An attempt will be made to construct a structural analysis of the current discourse (e.g., social norms and arrangements, self-identity, legality) as well as to present an explanation model that combines the three elements of change, structure and discourse. This research indicates that problem resolution should involve rationalizing the relationship between nation and society, which would result in Hong Kong and the central government becoming equal participants in the discourse of self-identity along with an increased consensus regarding the legality of the Hong Kong government’s policy initiatives. Future social movements could be promoted with a greater degree of efficiency, resting as they would on the basis of more robust social institutions. The continual fomenting of frustration among the lower strata of society is a reflection of the Hong Kong citizenry’s unwillingness to submit to the conditions imposed on them by Beijing in order to survive. This discontent has already spread to sections of the middle class. Unresolved political issues such as this can only lead to continued civic unrest. How could dissenters, confronting the powerful Chinese Communist Party, hope to gain universal suffrage without the use of protests? Would no universal suffrage and no democracy change this situation for the better? Hong Kong’s democratic movement thus faces a three-pronged predicament: (1) the central government, applying pressure on all sides, has shattered city’s hopes of democracy; (2) the failure of democratic reforms has left the problem of governance unresolved; (3) the deep social rift that emerged in the aftermath of the Umbrella Movement.
Databáze: Networked Digital Library of Theses & Dissertations
Externí odkaz: