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China’s New United Front Work in Hong Kong pp 1–42Cite as

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A Comprehensive Framework of Understanding the Context and Content of China’s New United Front Work on Hong Kong

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Abstract

Three main factors shape Beijing’s united front work in Hong Kong, namely (1) its determination to buttress the legitimacy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) leadership and the central government’s policy toward Hong Kong, (2) its national security consideration and (3) its geopolitical concerns about Hong Kong as a borderland vulnerable to Western influences. Beijing as the powerful political patron encounters the relatively pluralistic Hong Kong, meaning that its clients are mainly the local ruling elites. Yet, the civil society and masses of Hong Kong remain politically divided into three parts: (1) a relatively materialistic and pragmatic segment vulnerable to Beijing’s united front work; (2) a comparatively post-materialistic segment that resists it; and (3) an apathetic or indifferent segment that remains the target of lobbying from Beijing. Hence, the civil society is the arena of struggle between Beijing and its agents on the one hand and some pro-democracy Hongkongers on the other. Their relations are conflict-ridden in local elections at the legislative and district levels.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Lyman P. Van Slyke, “The United Front in China,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 5, No. 3 (1970), pp. 119–135. Also see James C. F. Wang, Contemporary Chinese Politics: An Introduction (New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2002), pp. 15–19.

  2. 2.

    Liu Rumei, “Discussion on the Origins and development of the United Front Work,” Journal of the Academy of Guizhou Socialism (in Chinese), vol. 4 (2014), pp. 26–30.

  3. 3.

    Zhang Suyun and Xu Jian, “The Anti-Japanese Ethnic Nationalities’ United Front and War Victory,” Journal of Liaoning University (Philosophy and Social Sciences) (in Chinese), vol. 33, no. 5 (2005), pp. 1–6.

  4. 4.

    Wang Mingqian, “‘Three-Three System’ and ‘Two Factions’: Regime-Building and United Front in Anti-Japanese Bases in Central China,” Journal of Zhejiang Normal University (in Chinese), vol. 40, no. 6 (2015), pp. 34–42.

  5. 5.

    Shih Wen, “Political Parties in Communist China,” Asian Survey, vol. 3. no. 3 (1963), pp. 157–164.

  6. 6.

    Xu Zhongtao, “The Basic Viewpoints of the Democratic Parties in Publicizing Public Opinion and Maintaining Principles,” Journal of the Academy of Guizhou Socialism (in Chinese), vol. 4 (2013), pp. 26–28.

  7. 7.

    Zhang Jiaoxia, “Examining the Characteristics of Intellectuals in Private Tertiary Schools Outside the Party and United Front Work,” Science and Technology Innovation Herald (in Chinese), no. 11 (2013), pp. 217–218. Sun Lizhen, “China’s Private-Sector Business Groups and the Features of United Front,” Journal of Zhejiang Shuren University (in Chinese), vol. 17, no. 1 (2017), pp. 105–108. Wang Xiaojin, “The Evolution of the United Front Theory and Practices of the Chinese Communist Party,” Research on the Chinese Communist Party’s History and Building (in Chinese), vol. 219, no. 2 (2013), pp. 99–103. Ming Shifa and Li Lin, “The United Front Path and Improvement in Developing the Religious Sector and Charity Organizations,” Journal of Yunnan Nationalities University (Social Science) (in Chinese), vol. 29, no. 5 (2012), pp. 66–72.

  8. 8.

    Luo Hai, “Discussion of the Party-Building and United Front Work Under the New Circumstances,” Journal of the Academy of Guizhou Socialism (in Chinese), Vol. 4 (2013), pp. 40–43.

  9. 9.

    Wu Bin, “Liao Chengzhi and New China’s United Front on Hong Kong and Macao,” Journal of Fujian Institute of Socialism (in Chinese), Vol. 89, No. 2 (2012), pp. 9–12.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Zhang Hongyan and Zhang Xiaomin, “The Content, Impact and Implications of Deng Xiaoping’s United front Theory,” Journal of Huzhou Teachers College, Vol. 27, No. 5 (2005), pp. 51–55.

  12. 12.

    Wen Qiaoshi, Tongzhan Gongzuo (United Front Work) (Beijing: Chinese Communist Party History Publisher, 2008), pp. 15–16.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., pp. 180–182.

  14. 14.

    Jinghua Shibao, July 31, 2015. Also see Gerry Groot, “The Expansion of the United Front Under Xi Jinping,” in Gloria Davies, Jeremy Goldkorn, and Luigi Tomba, eds., China Story Yearbook 2015 (Canberra: ANU Press, 2016), pp. 166–177.

  15. 15.

    Paul Morris and Edward Vickers, “Schooling, Politics and the Construction of Identity in Hong Kong: The 2012 ‘Moral and National Education’ Crisis in Historical Context,” Comparative Education, Vol. 51, No. 3 (2015), pp. 305–326.

  16. 16.

    Klavier Jie Ying Wang, “Mobilizing Resources to the Square: Hong Kong’s Anti-Moral and National Education Movement as Precursor to the Umbrella Movement,” International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 20, No. 2 (2017), pp. 127–145.

  17. 17.

    Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, The Politics of Policing in Greater China (London: Palgrave, 2016).

  18. 18.

    No author, Thirteen Lectures on the Spirit of the 19th Party Congress (in Chinese) (Guangzhou: New Democracy Publisher, 2017), p. 172. The publisher is under the administration of the Hong Kong Commercial Press Bookstore and the mainland’s published book is obviously a work that espouses pro-CCP or CCP views.

  19. 19.

    Ibid.

  20. 20.

    Ibid.

  21. 21.

    Gary Cheung, Tony Cheung and Joyce Ng, “China’s top body lays down law on Hong Kong’s oath-taking,” South China Morning Post, November 8, 2016 in http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2043768/chinas-top-body-lays-down-law-hong-kong-oath-taking, access date: April 3, 2018.

  22. 22.

    Cindy Chu Yik-yi, Chinese Communists and Hong Kong Capitalists (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), pp. 42–43.

  23. 23.

    Ibid., p. 43.

  24. 24.

    Ibid., p. 48.

  25. 25.

    Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, “The Chinese Communist Party Elite’s Conflicts over Hong Kong, 1983–1990,” China Information, vol. 8, no. 4 (Spring 1994), pp. 1–14.

  26. 26.

    In June 2017, Zhou said the people of Hong Kong were “brainwashed” by the colonial British for so long that anyone who opposed the policy of national education was to “force the youth to return to the brainwashing-style of the colonial education.” He added that, after the emergence of the 2014 Occupy Central Movement and the rise of the local independence movement, the enactment of Article 23 of the Basic Law to bansubversion, treason, sedition and secession should be implemented as soon as possible. See “Interview with Zhou Nan,” June 19, 2017, in https://www.thestandnews.com/politics/, access date: February 5, 2019.

  27. 27.

    “Xi elected Chinese president, chairman of the PRC Central Military Commission,” March 14, 2013, in http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/news/Appointments/2013-03/14/content_1783118.htm, access date: February 4, 2019. Also see Max Fisher, “Xi Jinping’s election as president of China, as told in crazy statistics,” The Washington Post, March 14, 2013, in https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/03/14/xi-jinpings-election-as-president-of-china-as-told-in-crazy-statistics/?utm_term=.5c9bbcac3928, access date: February 4, 2019.

  28. 28.

    Sonny Lo, Eilo Yu, Bruce Kwong and Benson Wong, “The 2004 Legislative Council Elections in Hong Kong: The Triumph of China’s United Front Work After the 2003 and 2004 Protests,” Chinese Law and Government, vol. 38, no. 1 (January/February 2005), pp. 3–29.

  29. 29.

    For the July 1, 2003 protest, see Sonny Lo, “Hong Kong, 1 July 2003: Half a Million Protestors,” Behind the Headlines, vol. 60, no. 4 (2004), pp. 1–14.

  30. 30.

    One of the authors of this book was contacted by mainland academics and observers who went down to the HKSAR to understand the “real sentiment” of the Hong Kong people after July 1, 2003. One of these mainlanders later became a research professor at a Hong Kong university.

  31. 31.

    Cao Erbao, “Governing Hong Kong under the conditions of ‘one country, two systems,” in Study Times, No. 422, January 29, 2008, translated into English, in https://www.civicparty.hk/cp/media/pdf/090506_cao_eng.pdf, access date: January 26, 2019.

  32. 32.

    Ibid.

  33. 33.

    See Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, The Politics of Controlling Organized Crime in Greater China (London: Routledge, 2013).

  34. 34.

    For the Occupy Central Movement leaders’ declaration in January 2013, see http://oclp.hk/index.php?route=occupy/book, access date: January 26, 2029.

  35. 35.

    “The Practice of the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Policy in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region,” June 10, 2014, in http://www.fmcoprc.gov.hk/eng/xwdt/gsxw/t1164057.htm, access date: January 26, 2019.

  36. 36.

    See The People’s Daily, July 31, 2015, in http://cpc.people.com.cn/xuexi/n/2015/0731/c385474-27391395.html, access date: January 26, 2019.

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    “The Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Regulation,” September 23, 2015 in http://cpc.people.com.cn/n/2015/0923/c64107-27622040.html, access date: January 26, 2019.

  39. 39.

    Ibid.

  40. 40.

    Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Tony Cheung, “All you need to know about Xi Jinping’s remarks on Hong Kong in his report to the party congress,” South China Morning Post, October 20, 2017.

  42. 42.

    “Interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law of the HKSAR of the PRC by the SCNPC,” November 7, 2016, in https://www.basiclaw.gov.hk/en/basiclawtext/images/basiclawtext_doc25.pdf, access date: January 27, 2019.

  43. 43.

    Wen Wei Po, June 20, 2018 and October 13, 2018.

  44. 44.

    David Beetham, The Legitimation of Power (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1991), pp. 25–26.

  45. 45.

    Ibid., p. 26.

  46. 46.

    Ibid., p. 38.

  47. 47.

    See Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, Competing Chinese Political Visions: Hong Kong vs. Beijing on Democracy (Westport: Praeger Security International, 2010).

  48. 48.

    Samuel P. Huntington, “Democracy’s Third Wave,” Journal of Democracy, vol. 2., no. 2 (Spring 1991), pp. 12–34.

  49. 49.

    See, for example, Jerry F. Hough and Merle Fainsod, How the Soviet Union is Governed (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979), Chapter 14, “The Distribution of Power,” pp. 518–555.

  50. 50.

    Philip Selznick, TVA and the Grass Roots: A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization (New York: Harper& Row, 1966), p. 13.

  51. 51.

    Ibid., pp. 259–260.

  52. 52.

    Ibid.

  53. 53.

    Michael Seward, “Cooption and Power: Who Gets What from Formal Incorporation,” Political Studies, vol. 38, no. 4 (December 1990), pp. 588–689. Seward uses the term “cooption” rather than “co-optation.”

  54. 54.

    John P. Burns, “The Structure of Communist Party Control in Hong Kong,” Asian Survey, vol. 30, no. 8 (August 1990), pp. 757–759.

  55. 55.

    Ibid.

  56. 56.

    Apple Daily, March 25, 2019, in https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/realtime/article/20190325/59407438, access date: March 31, 2019.

  57. 57.

    Hong Kong’s political parties are registered under the Company Ordinance, and there is no political party law in the HKSAR.

  58. 58.

    Alfred Meyer, “Theories of Convergence,” in Chalmers Johnson, ed., Change in Communist Systems (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970), p. 337.

  59. 59.

    Economic integration can be seen as a process of abolishing “discrimination between economic units belonging to different national states” and it is represented by “the absence of various forms of discrimination between national economies.” See Bela Balassa, The Theory of Economic Integration (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1961), p. 174.

  60. 60.

    Ibid.

  61. 61.

    Daniel N. Nelson, “Political Convergence: An Empirical Assessment,” World Politics, vol. 30, no. 3 (April 1978), p. 412.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.

  63. 63.

    Ibid., p. 414.

  64. 64.

    For the rise of conservative nationalists in China and their policy toward Hong Kong, see Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, “Ideologies and Factionalism in Beijing-Hong Kong Relations,” Asian Survey, vol. 58, no. 3 (2018), pp. 392–415.

  65. 65.

    Claude Ake, A Theory of Political Integration (Homewood, Illinois: The Dorsey Press, 1967), p. 1.

  66. 66.

    Ibid.

  67. 67.

    Lo Shiu-Hing, “Decolonization and Political Development in Hong Kong: Citizen Participation,” Asian Survey, vol. 28, no. 6 (June 1988), pp. 613–629.

  68. 68.

    Maurizio Viroli, For Love of Country: An Essay on Patriotism and Nationalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 4.

  69. 69.

    Ibid., p. 5.

  70. 70.

    Ibid.

  71. 71.

    Ibid.

  72. 72.

    Ibid., p. 8.

  73. 73.

    Ibid.

  74. 74.

    Lam Wai-man, Understanding the Political Culture of Hong Kong: The Paradox of Activism and Depoliticization (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2004).

  75. 75.

    Robert D. Putnam, The Comparative Study of Political Elites (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1976), pp. 154–164.

  76. 76.

    C. A, Hathaway, “On the Use of ‘Transmission Belts’ in Our Struggle for the Masses,” The Communist: A Magazine of the Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism, vol. 10, no. 5 (May 1931), pp. 409–423. Also see Michael Waller, “Communist Politics and the Group Process: Some Comparative Conclusions,” in David S. G. Goodman, ed., Groups and Politics in the People’s Republic of China (Bristol: University of Cardiff Press, 1984), pp. 196–215.

  77. 77.

    Daniel N. Nelson, Elite-Mass Relations in Communist Systems (London: Macmillan, 1998), pp. 33–34.

  78. 78.

    Robert D. Putnam, Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), p. 167.

  79. 79.

    Ibid., p. 180.

  80. 80.

    Ibid.

  81. 81.

    Lo, Hong Kong’s Indigenous Democracy.

  82. 82.

    Michael C. Williams, “Words, Images, Enemies: Securitization and International Politics,” International Studies Quarterly, vol. 47, no. 4 (2003), pp. 511–512.

  83. 83.

    Ibid., pp. 512–513.

  84. 84.

    Ibid., pp. 512–513.

  85. 85.

    O. Waever, “Securitization and De-securitization,” in R. Lipschutz, ed., On Security (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), p. 55.

  86. 86.

    Williams, “Words, Images, Enemies: Securitization and International Politics,” pp. 513–514.

  87. 87.

    B. Buzan, O. Waever and J. de Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner, 1998), p. 32.

  88. 88.

    Ibid., p. 26.

  89. 89.

    Ibid.

  90. 90.

    Apple Daily January 2015, p. A01.

  91. 91.

    Chin Wan, A Discussion of Hong Kong as a City-State (Hong Kong: Enrich Publishing Company, 2011).

  92. 92.

    See Tommy Cheung, “‘Father’ of Hong Kong Nationalism: A Critical Review of Chin Wan’s City-State Theory,” Asian Education and Development Studies, vol. 4, no. 4 (2015), pp. 460–470.

  93. 93.

    Tony Cheung and Jeffie Lam, “Ban on Hong Kong National Party over ‘armed revolution’ call met with both cheers and fear,” South China Morning Post, September 24, 2018, in https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/2165439/hong-kong-issues-unprecedented-ban-separatist-party, access date: February 6, 2019.

  94. 94.

    Garry Rodan, ed., Political Oppositions in Industrializing Asia (London: Routledge, 1996).

  95. 95.

    Lo Shiu-Hing, The Politics of Democratization in Hong Kong (London: Macmillan, 1997), Chapters 4 and 5, pp. 137–206.

  96. 96.

    Nelson, Elite-Mass Relations in Communist Systems, p. 32.

  97. 97.

    For a classic discussion of authoritarianism, see Juan J. Linz, Totalitarian and Authoritarian Regimes (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner, 2000), pp. 159–261.

  98. 98.

    For a useful discussion of pluralism, see Martin Carnoy, The State and Political Theory (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984), pp. 10–43.

  99. 99.

    For an earlier argument that Hong Kong has a relatively pluralistic polity that is mixed with China’s patron-clientelist politics, see Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, The Dynamics of Beijing-Hong Kong Relations: A Model for Taiwan? (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008), Chapter 1, pp. 7–38.

  100. 100.

    Ibid.

  101. 101.

    Lo, “Ideology and Factionalism in Beijing-Hong Kong Relations,” pp. 392–415.

  102. 102.

    Tang Wenfang, Populist Authoritarianism: Chinese Political Culture and Regime Sustainability (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), p. 152.

  103. 103.

    Ibid.

  104. 104.

    Ibid.

  105. 105.

    Ibid.

  106. 106.

    Ibid.

  107. 107.

    Ibid., p. 155.

  108. 108.

    Ibid.

  109. 109.

    Ibid.

  110. 110.

    Ibid.

  111. 111.

    Ibid., p. 157.

  112. 112.

    Ibid.

  113. 113.

    Ibid.

  114. 114.

    Ibid.

  115. 115.

    Ibid.

  116. 116.

    Ibid.

  117. 117.

    Gerry Groot, Managing Transitions: The Chinese Communist Party, United Front Work, Corporatism and Hegemony (London: Routledge, 2004).

  118. 118.

    Lam Wai-man and Kay Lam Chi-yan, “China’s United Front Work in Civil Society: The Case of Hong Kong,” International Journal of Chinese Studies, vol. 4, no. 3 (December 2013), pp. 301–325.

  119. 119.

    Jurgen Mackert and Bryan S. Turner, “Introduction: citizenship and political struggle,” in Jurgen Mackert and Bryan S. Turner, eds., The Transformation of Citizenship, Volume 3: Struggle, Resistance and Violence (London: Routledge, 2017), p. 3.

  120. 120.

    Ibid., p. 2.

  121. 121.

    Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, ed., Interest Groups and the New Democracy Movement in Hong Kong (London: Routledge, 2018).

  122. 122.

    Robert M. Press, Peaceful Resistance: Advancing Human Rights and Democratic Freedoms (Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2006), p. 28.

  123. 123.

    Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, The Politics of Policing in Greater China (London: Palgrave, 2016), Chapter 8, pp. 195–221.

  124. 124.

    Ronald Inglehart, Modernization and Postmordernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990).

  125. 125.

    Ibid., pp. 74–75.

  126. 126.

    See Lo Shiu-Hing, “Legislative Cliques, Political Parties, Political Groupings and Electoral System,” in Joseph Cheng and Sonny Lo, eds., From Colony to SAR: Hong Kong’s Challenges Ahead (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1995), pp. 51–70.

  127. 127.

    For concrete examples, like Eddie Chu Hoi-dick who was directly elected as a legislator in the 2016 Legislative Council direct election, see Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo and Jeff Hai-chi Loo, “An Anatomy of the Post-Materialistic Values of Hong Kong Youth: Opposition to China’s Rising ‘Sharp Power,’” in David Trotman and Stan Tucker, eds., Youth: Global Challenges and Issues of the 21st Century (New York: Nova Science), pp. 95–126.

  128. 128.

    Ronald Inglehart, “Post-Materialism in an Environment of Insecurity,” American Political Science Review, vol. 75, no. 4 (December 1981), pp. 881–882.

  129. 129.

    James C. Scott, “Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia,” American Political Science Review, vol. 66, no. 1 (March 1972), p. 92.

  130. 130.

    Ibid., p. 93.

  131. 131.

    Ibid.

  132. 132.

    Ibid., p. 94.

  133. 133.

    The exception is Bruce Kwong, Patron-Client Politics and Elections in Hong Kong (London: Routledge, 2009). Also see Lo, The Dynamics of Beijing-Hong Kong Relations: A Model for Taiwan?.

  134. 134.

    Harold J. Mackinder, “The geographical pivot of history,” The Geographical Journal, vol. 23, no. 4 (April 1904), pp. 421–444.

  135. 135.

    Ibid., p. 437.

  136. 136.

    For this Trojan Horse view of Hong Kong, see Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo, Hong Kong’s Indigenous Democracy: Origins, Evolution and Contentions (London: Palgrave, 2015).

  137. 137.

    David Shambaugh, China’s Future (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016), p. 125.

  138. 138.

    Ibid., pp. 138–145.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hong Kong, SPACE, North Point, Hong Kong

    Sonny Shiu-Hing Lo

  2. Education University of Hong Kong, New Territories, Hong Kong

    Steven Chung-Fun Hung

  3. Lingnan University, Tuen Mun, Hong Kong

    Jeff Hai-Chi Loo

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Lo, S.SH., Hung, S.CF., Loo, J.HC. (2019). A Comprehensive Framework of Understanding the Context and Content of China’s New United Front Work on Hong Kong. In: China’s New United Front Work in Hong Kong. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8483-7_1

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