In the 25 years since Hong Kong's return to the motherland, the most significant political turmoil, apart from the turmoil over amendments to the law in 2019, the Occupy Central incident in 2014, and the march of 500,000 people in 2003 must have one seat.
This is the biggest tipping point of the campaign, because the Hong Kong government still promulgated Article 23 of the Basic Law despite the post-SARS economic depression in 2003 and the downturn in the property market and other livelihood issues, triggering public grievances.
Later, on the eve of the resumption of the second reading debate in the Legislative Council, the then Liberal Party chairman Tian Beijun suddenly defected and resigned as a member of the guild, which directly caused Tung Chee-hwa to shelve the legislation.
In an exclusive interview with "Hong Kong 01", Tian Beijun said that the main reason for opposing the legislation was that the business community was worried that legislative disputes would lead to political turmoil, which would be unfavorable for Hong Kong's business environment.
He believes that if no opposition was raised at that time and the government insisted on passing legislation, a political storm similar to the 2019 amendment bill would have occurred earlier in 2003, and the result would have been that foreign businessmen would "go away" and China would be sanctioned by foreign countries. China has not yet had enough economic strength to resist pressure from the West, and believes that the move on the day is helpful to the central government.
The 25th Anniversary of China's Return - Interview with Political Veterans No. 3
25 Years of Return｜Interview with Jasper Jasper: It takes time for society to recover from the pain of 19 years Resolve the premise and maintain national security for 25 years｜Interview with Yang Sen: There is still a turnaround for one country, two systems, the society seems to be stable, but the heart has not returned for 25 years︱Interview with Tian Beijun: governance model Connecting to the Mainland and missing a key point in history 7 years ago
Accused of "anti-bone" Tian: Only knowing "shoe-shine" is a sinner of the state
The July 1st parade in 2003 was the first large-scale parade since the handover, which gave birth to an active civil society, which indirectly led to Tung Chee-hwa's resignation two years later with a "sore foot". The incident also drove the central government to change its policy towards Hong Kong and participate more actively in Hong Kong affairs.
Li Pengfei, the late founding chairman of the Liberal Party, said in retrospect that if the Hong Kong government insisted on submitting the bill to the Legislative Council, the result would be "bloodbaths in Central!" which would lead to violent clashes.
Tian Beijun pointed out that the defection in the 2003 battle was caused by seeing 71,500,000 people take to the streets, which alarmed business leaders: "I was a representative of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce at the time. Of course, we should pay attention to their position. At first, the business community supported the legislation." But later the business community discovered The legislation has caused social turmoil and international attention, and Tian Beijun must reconsider his position: "The business world has always been in harmony to make money, and only stable can a good business environment."
He pointed out that if the draft was passed at that time, it would definitely lead to larger-scale political turmoil, which would not be less than the 2019 amendment storm.
"At that time, China couldn't afford it, and it was different from today. In 2003, where did Huawei, Tencent, and Alibaba Dad come? Where did 5G technology and big data come from? When the West stepped on it, how would the country respond? To speak up for the people of Hong Kong, Hong Kong citizens and the business community have such big opinions, so of course they must speak up for them. When it comes to 'anti-bones', those 'shoe-shine boys' who only understand flattery for their own interests are the sinners of the country."
Tian Beijun, Honorary Chairman of the Liberal Party.
(Photo by Luo Junhao)
Refers to someone who is "hard on the ground" and needs to understand the whole incident before criticizing
Tian Beijun rhetorically asked, if the Central Government and the SAR government felt that the legislation of Article 23 could be completed with conditions, after the Legislative Council re-election in 2004, and even after Donald Tsang became the Chief Executive, it could still be done, but in the end it did not, "If the government thinks that there are sufficient conditions, 2004, 2005, It was done early in 2006, but it just didn’t work. It will not be until 2019 when Hong Kong is like this that a national law will be used to enact the National Security Law.”
He also pointed out that in the past 19 years, when a group of senior pro-establishment factions talked about the controversy over Article 23, they only said that the legislation caused public concern and shelved it, not because of Tian Beijun. Therefore, he believes that some extremists criticized it. His behavior on that day was "betrayal of the central government", but he was just "unfortunate". He couldn't explain the political contradictions, so he arbitrarily found others to blame. Personally, I always disdain to respond to these claims. Those who really understand the whole incident have their own objective evaluation. .
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