Interpretation｜From Luo Huining's 2022 New Year's speech: Hong Kong needs practical reformers

Luo Huining, director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office, delivered a New Year speech titled "Let the Light of History Illuminate Hong Kong's Future" via the Internet a few days ago (January 26).

Many Hong Kong rulers expressed their welcome and support, and then repeated Luo Huining's words like a parrot, but did not see the key points.

Hong Kong must see clearly the general trend of the country's rise in the face of great changes unseen in a century, because it dominates our destiny.

(VCG)

The rise of the nation dominates the destiny of Hong Kong

Luo Huining said that in the past year, China's first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way has been achieved as scheduled, and it is now moving towards the second centenary goal. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation has entered an irreversible historical process."

This statement is obviously intended to tell Hong Kong people that they must see clearly the general trend of the country's rise in the face of great changes unseen in a century, because it dominates the destiny of Hong Kong.

Immediately afterwards, Luo Huining believed that the past year in Hong Kong was a year for the opening of a new situation of "one country, two systems". "With the in-depth implementation of the National Security Law for Hong Kong, the electoral system has been revised and improved," and "the principle of 'patriots ruling Hong Kong' has been implemented, and Hong Kong's weather has become one of the best. "New", "I personally experience everyone's gratification for regaining tranquility and their expectation for a better life."

He took this opportunity to once again warn Hong Kong separatism that "the delusional attempt of all anti-China forces to disrupt Hong Kong will never succeed."

Then, in the main part of his speech, Luo Huining talked about three concepts in the form of answering "someone asked": historical confidence, historical consciousness, and historical initiative.

Luo Huining, director of the Liaison Office of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a 2022 Chinese New Year speech.

(Screenshot of the video of the Liaison Office of the People's Republic of China)

Strictly administering Hong Kong is correcting deviations

Regarding historical confidence, Luo Huining said: "Some people ask, what do you think of Hong Kong's 'one country, two systems'? I would say that the extraordinary journey that Hong Kong has gone through since its return is enough to give us historical confidence in 'one country, two systems'."

In fact, historical confidence is a concept that President Xi Jinping has emphasized intensively in the past period.

"Hong Kong 01" earlier analyzed in the article "Xi Jinping's Intensive Emphasis on Historical Confidence "Five Confidences" is about to emerge, and said that "Four Confidences" are likely to absorb "Historical Confidence" in the near future and expand to "Five Confidences".

This time, Luo Huining mentioned "historical confidence" again, which can be seen as the concrete application of Xi Jinping's historical confidence in the history of Hong Kong since the return of Hong Kong.

In his speech, Luo Huining emphasized historical confidence, mainly to explain that the CCP will continue to adhere to "one country, two systems" as always. This is actually what the CCP has repeatedly stated, but because of different ideologies and positions, some people do not agree with this. They always criticize the CCP for "destroying one country, two systems" without missing any clues, but they don't know that the CCP is the founder and beneficiary of "one country, two systems" and has always been proud of proposing "one country, two systems".

It is true that in recent years, in order to combat separatism and radical forces in Hong Kong, the CCP has strongly adjusted its policy of governing Hong Kong. It has successively promulgated the National Security Law for Hong Kong and revised the electoral system. It is inevitable that some people will question the CCP's determination to maintain "one country, two systems".

However, from the perspective of the CCP, it is not difficult to understand its internal logic, that is, the operation of "one country, two systems" in Hong Kong must be within the range that is in line with national security and national development interests.

Therefore, for those who do not agree with the CCP at all, or who lack national security and development interests in "one country, two systems", the CCP is "destroying one country, two systems"; but for the CCP, it is actually conducting policy corrections. So that the "one country, two systems" principle can go a long way.

Since last year, the Chinese Communist Party has begun to "appear" in Hong Kong "openly".

(Photo by Liang Pengwei)

Correct the misunderstanding of Hong Kong rulers

Regarding historical consciousness, Luo Huining said: "Some people ask, what do you think of Hong Kong's development prospects? I would say that the future is full of hope. The key is to have historical consciousness that is firmly integrated into the overall development of the country." He described, "The opportunity for the world lies in China. , Hong Kong's opportunities lie in the mainland", "Those pessimistic sentiments lamenting the weakening of Hong Kong's role, and those indecisive foot-binding behaviors will only make Hong Kong miss opportunities."

This is not new to readers who often pay attention to the central government's policy toward Hong Kong, as officials at different levels have always reiterated it.

This just shows that it is the firm belief and consistent initiative of the central government for many years, and the purpose is to hope that Hong Kong "plays its own strengths and meets the needs of the country", so that Hong Kong and China can achieve a win-win situation.

Regarding the historical initiative, Luo Huining said: "Some people ask, what do you think about the realization of good governance and good governance in Hong Kong? I would say that the opportunities are unprecedented, but there must be a historical initiative to ride on the momentum and seek progress while maintaining stability." He believes that "good governance and good governance" It is a process, to realize this vision, there are still some systems and mechanisms that need to be established and improved, and many deep-seated contradictions and problems that need to be solved. I

will give up and let it go.

”

Different from the "courtesy" speeches made by central officials to Hong Kong in the past, these short words of more than 30 characters are quite a "spur" worthy of the vigilance of Hong Kong officials.

On the one hand, he has repeatedly emphasized that if Hong Kong wants to achieve good governance and good governance, it depends on the governance team to actively resolve deep-seated conflicts, and must not slack off or detour when encountering difficulties; on the other hand, it is obvious to point out that Some Hong Kong rulers have made a major misunderstanding that all problems in Hong Kong are political problems, and that with stricter control by the central government and the "Hong Kong National Security Law", everything will be all right, and they demand that they must face the contradictions and solve the problems.

The issue of land and housing in Hong Kong is extremely acute, and it is one of the sources of deep-seated conflicts in society.

(file picture)

Problem solving is king

"Hong Kong 01" has repeatedly reiterated that deep-seated contradictions are the key issues that need to be resolved urgently in Hong Kong, which are related to the acceptance of the new electoral system and the governance team, and are the basic conditions for the healthy and sustainable development of "One Country, Two Systems" in Hong Kong.

This deep-seated contradiction is not a simple political issue, but is caused by the unfair distribution of resources originating from the colonial period of Hong Kong and Britain. The specific manifestations are the polarization of the rich and the poor, housing difficulties, stratification, the lack of hope for young people, and the economic structure. Monolithic and deformed, with a certain characteristic of "Fuck Dad Capitalism".

After Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the management team has either been incapable or passive and inactive, resulting in the accumulation of deep-seated contradictions and hard to return, which has seriously hindered the development of Hong Kong.

This also explains why in recent years the central government has repeatedly asked the Hong Kong governance team to focus on resolving deep-seated conflicts and must give citizens a real sense of gain.

Regrettably, however, the SAR government has always made loud noises and little rain, causing the problem to be delayed again and again, making it difficult to see any hope of a solution.

Throughout the ages, the solution of difficult and major problems has relied on reformers who are skilled in their work.

Crawford Murray MacLehose, the Governor of Hong Kong in the history of British colonialism in Hong Kong, is such a person. He took active actions and carried out drastic reforms, effectively alleviating the sharp social contradictions reflected in the "June 7 riots", and promoting Hong Kong people. The recognition of the British Hong Kong government.

If a colonial governor can still do this, then it has been nearly 25 years since the return of sovereignty to Hong Kong, and the largest social unrest after the "June 7 riots" broke out in the "Amendment Bill Storm". Hong Kong, which is no longer "borrowed land, borrowed time", should do better than it was during the MacLehose era.

For Hong Kong today, if we want to do this, let Hong Kong realize the idea of ​​"one country, two systems" as Deng Xiaoping once said, "If anything needs to change, it must be better, and it will be more conducive to Hong Kong's prosperity and development." In order to achieve the return of Hong Kong people's hearts, we need reformers who are skilled in the "one country, two systems" framework, seize the opportunity brought about by the adjustment of the central government's policy on governing Hong Kong, promote structural reforms, and win the trust of the people with down-to-earth political achievements.