When I lived in Hong Kong it was
a British colony, in 1997 it revered to China with an agreement that for 50
years it would operate as “one country two systems”. In simple terms this means
that China would remain communist and without the relative political freedoms that
were enjoyed by the people in Hong Kong whereas the Chinese Government would
not interfere with Hong Kong. At the time Hong Kong’s position as a trading
port and primary commercial point of access to China meant that changing things
could potentially harm China. Slowly things seem to be changing and this was noticeable
to me in two area’s firstly the newspapers are not as politically free as they
were and this is obvious when you read them, the second one was to me a little
more shocking. The pictures above were banners hanging at the Kowloon terminal
of the Star Ferry.
Falun Gong is a “spiritual discipline”
that “combines the practice of
meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises with a moral philosophy” according
to Wikipedia. It has been effectively outlawed in China where it is perceived as
a threat to the power of the communist party. It is, however, still allowed in
Hong Kong. Taiwan or the Republic of China has long been a thorn in the side of
China and the Beijing government would like to see it return to the fold and
become part of mainland China. The anti Taiwan and Anti Falun Gong banners are signs
of how Hong Kong is slowly becoming more Chinese, the loss of freedom this entails
is deeply worrying to me.
