The political environment in Hong Kong has changed drastically after the legislative amendments. Among them, the Educational Association and the Chinese People's Front, two old democratic groups, have announced their dissolution due to political pressure this month.
Since the 1989 pro-democracy movement, the Stake Association has been holding June 4th rallies. The Standing Committee recently passed a resolution to dissolve it. It was even questioned by the police as a "foreign agent" and asked to submit information. The dissolution is probably only a matter of time.
After the "National Security Law" came into effect, the political circles, education, and the media were successively rectified. Until recently, many symbolic groups among the democrats have been criticized by the government and have been disbanded on their own.
The political circles are concerned about whether Hong Kong's "civil society" is facing disintegration?
Some scholars believe that the central government has not wanted to intervene for a long time, but in 2019 the Hong Kong political situation reached the point of turmoil and endangering national security. The central government had to take action. The implementation of the National Security Law also activated the determination of the SAR government to dare to use different legal weapons to deal with it. Opposition forces.
Some scholars also pointed out that Beijing hopes to take this opportunity to wipe out all the factors that may destabilize Hong Kong’s governance. The above-mentioned civil society groups have appealing power and are considered to be the reason why Hong Kong’s opposition forces continue to grow. Therefore, Beijing believes that it is necessary to eliminate the roots. It has no chance to stand up.
Civil Society and Democracy Road Series One
▼After 19 years of dissolution, the FDC has held many parades over the years ▼
+6
Civil society emphasizes "civil spontaneity" 2003 July 1st parade marked an epoch
"Civil society" is a term in Western sociology. It generally refers to organizations that are independent of the government, organized spontaneously by the private sector, and act on private interests, such as trade unions, professional organizations, community organizations, religious organizations, and student organizations.
The word "civil" is different from words such as "citizen" and "resident". It is more connected with freedom of speech, assembly, and association, and is accompanied by a series of social and political rights.
In Hong Kong, the "July 1st Parade" organized by the FDC in 2003 was considered the starting point for the awakening of civil society in recent years. People’s livelihood issues such as the outbreak of the epidemic caused 500,000 people to take to the streets, which eventually caused the government to shelve legislation and the then Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to step down two years later.
According to the past analysis by Chen Jianmin, former associate professor of the Department of Sociology at CUHK, the July 1 parade that year, together with the conservation wave in the following years, a series of social mobilizations made Hong Kong people aware of the buildup of civil forces, and they began to take over the supervision of the government in the absence of a democratic political system. Important role.
▼The Education Association lowered the threshold for dissolution▼
+7
Civil society in the context of Hong Kong: years of combined struggle for democracy and anti-government actions
It should be noted that although civil society is an important part of a democratic society, it does not necessarily involve politics. It can only promote some reforms in people's livelihood policies.
It's just that in the reality of Hong Kong, since 0371, the existence of civil society and the political movement for democratic universal suffrage and opposition to the government have actually been highly overlapped.
Since 2003, many themes put forward by the organizer of the July 1st parade (ie, the FDC) are all related to the fight for universal suffrage, such as the 2004 double universal suffrage in 2007 and 08, and the 2011 double universal suffrage in 2012. Down with the hegemony of real estate and the resignation of Tsang Yam-quan", in 2014, "Defend Hong Kong people's autonomy, without fear of central intimidation, direct nomination by citizens, and abolish functional constituencies", etc.
In addition, the vitality of Hong Kong's civil society also affects government governance to a certain extent, increasing political conflicts between the private sector and the Hong Kong government and even the central government.
For example, in the anti-national education incident in 2012, when Huang Zhifeng, who was only 15 years old at the time, appeared as the convener of the student organization "Student Thoughts", and together with several parent and teacher concern groups, he called on citizens to surround the government headquarters, which led the government to shelve moral education. And National Education Section Guidelines.
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences named Huang Zhifeng by name in the "2013 Blue Book of China's Social Situation" in the same year, and believed that the government should strengthen the regulation of online public opinion.
Acting as the "big stage" of the anti-government and democratization movement for many years
This kind of anti-government civil society groups have been considered to play the role of "big platform" in the democratic political movement since the return to the government for more than 20 years. They called on citizens and other non-governmental organizations to take to the streets. Their methods were relatively mild and seldom involved violence. .
However, radical forces emerged after the Umbrella Movement in 2014, and some actions began to involve violence. In the anti-amendment law incident in 2019, "peace, justice, and non-compliance" and radical forces even converged, and they refused to cut their seats with violent demonstrators.
With the promulgation of the "Hong Kong National Security Law", many political groups such as Hong Kong All-Youth and the New Democratic League have been dissolved; the core figures of the radical factions have all been arrested and imprisoned or fled overseas. The risk of violent street demonstrations has been greatly reduced, but "turn the chaos out anyway. The action has just begun.
Starting this year, the government has taken more active actions against large-scale democratic organizations. The police first quoted the "Ordinance on Societies" in May to require the FDC to submit information. After the convener Chen Haohuan was imprisoned and several member organizations withdrew, the FDC initiated itself in August. Disbanded; in July, the Education Bureau announced the termination of cooperation with the Education Association after the official media criticized the Education Association. The Education Association announced its dissolution one week later.
As for the "Taizhu" stake in the June 4th commemoration, since this year, its slogan "Ending the One-Party Dictatorship" has been repeatedly questioned by the establishment that it violated the National Security Law.
As of August, the National Security Office of the police again cited Article 43 of the National Security Law to request the Stake to submit information, suspecting it to be a "foreign agent."
It is reported that the Stake Standing Committee has passed a resolution on dissolution.
▼The stakes are on the verge of disbanding the Victoria Park candlelight rally may become history▼
+4
Liu Zhaojia: Hong Kong's "civil society" has anti-regime characteristics and the West will not allow it
Liu Zhaojia, the vice president of the National Hong Kong and Macau Research Association, reminded that in the context of a Western-style democratic country, "civil society" refers to some spontaneous organizations between the country and society, reflecting the interests of different social strata, supervising and checking the government, but the previous topic It is to identify with the current national constitutional order.
He pointed out that the "civil society" that Hong Kong people have noticed for a long time are all organizations that intend to challenge the existing political system, and even have close relations with Western countries. What is being dismantled at the moment is only the "citizen society" defined by the Western perspective. "Society", Hong Kong has always had many societies, including subsidized organizations, religious groups, groups concerned with industrial and commercial rights, and labor education-related groups. They cannot be used narrowly as anti-government groups.
Liu Zhaojia pointed out that for a long period of time, European and American countries exported their political ideologies to non-Western democratic camps, assisted new organizations locally through official or unofficial channels, and tried to establish Western-style democracies. This kind of reformation, even revolutionary, subversive, promotes the change of regimes and regimes. The goal of Western countries is to use these "civil society" constructions to launch mass movements and to destroy the regimes of other countries without bloodshed, which is the "color revolution". Script. Western countries themselves will not allow organizations that overthrow existing regimes to exist, right? But they have to promote them elsewhere. Therefore, for authoritarian countries defined by the West, such as Russia and China, for those under the banner of "civil society" The organization will definitely maintain fear and strict restrictions."
If the central government doesn’t make a move, the tail will be big
Looking back in history, Liu Zhaojia pointed out that the British government during the colonial period would also suppress non-governmental organizations that participated in anti-government actions. It was only on the eve of the reunification that Britain changed its past attitude and encouraged the activities of these anti-communist and anti-Chinese groups to maintain the legality of Britain’s own governance. Sex, and to create the perception of "glorious retreat."
After the reunification, such "civil society" groups have been causing trouble to the governance of the SAR, leading to the weakening of the government. In fact, there are problems, but the central government has not wanted to intervene for a long time.
However, in 2019, Hong Kong’s political situation reached a level of turmoil and endangering national security. The central government had to take action. The implementation of the "National Security Law" activated the determination of the SAR government to dare to use different legal weapons to deal with opposition forces.
"In the past, when the problem was not too serious, the central government did not want to pay a political price to clean up the "malignant tumor."
Cai Ziqiang: Beijing does not want to see a large-scale political mobilization in Hong Kong anymore
"At the end of the day, Beijing wants to "get it right once and for all." This has nothing to do with whether it is "reconciling justice and non-compliance" or participating in violent acts." Said Cai Ziqiang, a senior lecturer in the Department of Politics and Administration at CUHK.
He believes that the government's attitude towards civil society is lenient or tight. From this to the end, it is a political judgment. The common point of the Education Association, the Chinese People's Front, and the Stake is that they have a huge political mobilization ability and appeal.
Over the past period of time, the intensity of the opposition movement in Hong Kong has increased, political conflicts have not been resolved, and many large-scale demonstrations and rallies initiated by civil society have threatened the stability of the administration of the SAR to a certain extent.
As a result, Beijing also lost patience and abandoned the relatively loose line of civil society in the 20 years since its reunification, and did not want to see any major political mobilizations in Hong Kong.
Cai Ziqiang believes that after the anti-regulation incident, Beijing’s attitude was obviously very tough, and the subsequent "clean-up" actions far exceeded the scale after the Occupy Central movement. There are three main reasons: First, Beijing was not willing to make big moves against Hong Kong at first. However, it seems that the events of 2019 can be dealt with hard. Second, China-US relations in 2014 were not too bad, but in 2019 they are close to "total anti-Taiwan". Beijing wants to compete with the United States for influence on the international stage. Of course, I want to prevent Hong Kong from catching fire, so I have more motivation to wipe out all the destabilizing factors in Hong Kong.
Third, during the Occupy Central Movement in 2014, Beijing allowed the movement to perish on its own. However, these civil forces later "embrace the community" and form more civil society groups, which broke out again in 2019. Beijing even more hopes to "cut the grass and eliminate the roots." To avoid future troubles.
"At present, the government can still use the epidemic and the gathering restriction order as an excuse to ban all gatherings and demonstrations. However, the gathering restriction order cannot be maintained forever, especially since the Standard Chartered Marathon will resume in October. Now that the central government and the SAR government have put national security in the most important position in everything, their approach is to dismantle all the larger platforms and large platforms in order to "kill them all."
As a result, Cai Ziqiang believes that Beijing has a firm attitude towards Hong Kong's civil society and "reforms" Hong Kong society in all aspects. No one knows how far it will go.
Taking Macau as an example, he pointed out that since the 12.3 incident in 1966, the entire society has turned to the Chinese government, and that non-organizational forces are completely out of place. He believes that Macau may be a reference blueprint for Beijing to govern Hong Kong.
Disbandment of the Education Association｜Members who attended the meeting reluctantly passed the revision of the chapter to continue the dissolution process as soon as mid-September. It is reported that the Stake Standing Committee passed the dissolution and is yet to be voted by the General Assembly. Zou Xingtong: No response. Is the only option but not the exemption clause
01News
