Jeffrey Meyer's Blog - Posts Tagged "hongkong"

For the moment, the extradition law, which sent 1-2 million people into the streets of Hong Kong, has been set aside, and Carrie Lam, the Beijing appointee who governs the city has apologized. It will likely be brought back again, at some time in the future, with some cosmetic changes, but probably not soon. No one doubts that the authoritarian government of the Peoples Republic will at some point absorb Hong Kong into its political order, at the latest in 2050. Perhaps it was the proximity to the anniversary of the Tiananmen massacre, perhaps the weakening of the Chinese economy and the tariff duel with the United States, perhaps its current standoff with Taiwan-- it was in any case a bit surprising that Beijing backed down. Beijing's authoritarian moves in Hong Kong in the past showed it was willing to exert its power on the small island government. But now we know that there are limits and that the government does care about public opinion outside of China.