The Hong Kong Story Continues

Donald Tsang, a former civil servant has been overwhelmingly nominated by Hong Kong’s election committee members to replace Tung Chee Hwa as the territory’s new leader. The fact that Beijing is backing him helps. But he is very popular with the Hong Kong public as well, though he may be expected to toe the Beijing’s line.

Unfortunately some in Hong Kong, misled by its last British governor into imaging that Hong Kong could achieve independence of some kind, still bemoan that Beijing maintains power over the territory.

Look, could it have been any other way?

Of course Beijing will never ever let Hong Kong go its own way or even elect the leader of its choice or redesign its political system. If anything, Beijing has been tolerating the HK-ites' occasional bursts of protests and democratic rallies, but only because the mainland wants to provide a reassuring picture of democratic autonomy in Hong Kong to the Taiwanese people.

On the twilight of its colonial and sometimes draconian rule over 150 years, where the Chinese were always second or third class citizens, the British authority suddenly and hypocritically made a last minute show of democratic reforms, principally to show the world that it was not handing Hong Kong and its people over to a communist dictatorship – oh no, it was promoting democracy and independence for Hong Kong.

"See, they are independent people, not British citizens, therefore the UK had no responsibility for them. If the Hong Kongites get f**ked, it's strictly an affair between an independent territory and those Chinese across the border!"

The 11th hour hypocritical show of an impossible democracy had one sole objective - to wash British hands off 6 million of its slant-eyed yellow skin citizens.

Once the handover, including the 6 million ‘former’ British citizens, was completed the British government changed its immigration laws (amended previously to prevent HK-ites from claiming right of access into Britain) to allow 'more desirable' citizens of its other colonies, like Falkland Islands, to be accepted once again into the UK.