The Hong Kong Problem and the Dilemma of China’s Economy and Politics

[Current Issues and Policies 2019-19]

Dr. Kim Kisoo

Senior Research Fellow,

the Sejong Institute

kskim@sejong.org

Executive Summary

Allowing Hong Kong an autonomy may have a profound impact on the entire China. For one, will China be able to uphold its stance toward Taiwan that Taiwan should come back to ‘One China’ for it will be permitted to have ‘two systems’? Should Hong Kong gain an autonomy, will China be able to maintain its current level of control on all mass media including the internet and the Chinese people’s desire for liberty and democracy? How will it handle the impact of Hong Kong’s change upon separatism in Xinjiang Uygur and Tibet? Questions abound. The Chinese government might resolve the situation through military suppression as it did with the Tiananmen Square protest, but times have changed and such solution is no longer possible. Military crackdown of Hong Kong will provide the Western countries with a pretext to intervene in the Chinese affairs, possibly resulting in a total economic sanction on the country. After all, it is obvious that the Chinese government does not have a definite solution to the Hong Kong problem. This is the dilemma of the Hong Kong problem and China’s economic and political systems.