IN HONG KONG, public trust in both the central government in Beijing and the territory’s own administration is stretched perilously thin. A seemingly routine event on February 8th—food-hygiene patrols targeted at illegal street vendors—triggered hours of rioting. Activists suspicious of the mainland’s influence in Hong Kong were among those who piled into the rampage (see article). Anxieties about the Communist Party’s sway in the territory have been whipped up recently by the disappearance of five booksellers; many believe they were arrested by agents from China’s mainland to stop the publication of a book about President Xi Jinping. It is widely thought that one of those detained was seized by a snatch squad in (supposedly autonomous) Hong Kong itself.
Resentment of the mainland is aggravated by the party’s refusal to grant the territory full democracy, as well as by a hotch-potch of other fears and prejudices. It is even affecting debate about such matters as building transport infrastructure. Work is under way on two huge projects: one...Continue reading
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