China Said to Pull the Strings in Hong Kong Crackdown
By KEITH BRADSHER and CHRIS BUCKLEY
OCT. 17, 2014
Protesters faced police in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong on Friday. Credit Ed Jones/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
HONG KONG — On many mornings throughout the pro-democracy protests that have convulsed Hong Kong, white Toyota Coaster vans with special black license plates have set out from city government buildings here to a tropical resort across the border in mainland China.
The drawn curtains of the speeding vans obscure Hong Kong officials, headed for the luxurious Bauhinia Villa in Shenzhen, where throngs of Communist Party officials from Beijing wait to plan details of the Hong Kong authorities’ handling of the demonstrations that have occupied major streets for nearly three weeks.
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The secretive commute reflects the intimate yet largely hidden role that the Chinese Communist Party leadership has played in the crisis in Hong Kong. According to interviews with six current and former Hong Kong and Chinese government officials, as well as experts in both countries, it is China’s leaders more than Hong Kong’s who have directed the broad outlines of the response here. With China’s needs foremost in mind, they have calibrated a careful balance between a steadfast refusal to give ground on the protesters’ demands for democratic elections and the need to avoid widespread bloodshed that would further destabilize the city, a global financial center.
Photo President Xi Jinping last month. Mr. Xi has been briefed at least once a day on developments in Hong Kong, according to two people involved in Hong Kong’s and Beijing’s decision making. Credit Feng Li/Getty Images
“Clearly, it’s Beijing that is dominating the decisions about this movement,” said Jin Zhong, the editor of Open, a Hong Kong current affairs magazine that focuses on Communist Party politics. “Of course, they wouldn’t admit that.”
The Bauhinia resort is owned by the Central Liaison Office, an arm of the Chinese government that has played a prominent role in Hong Kong during the protests here. President Xi Jinping of China, who is also the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, has been briefed at least once a day on developments in Hong Kong, according to two people involved in Hong Kong’s and Beijing’s decision making, one of many signs of Beijing’s intense interest and involvement.
“They treat it as a challenge to Beijing’s governing power in Hong Kong,” said Brian Fong Chi-hang, an assistant professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and a former city government official. “Because of this, I’m sure that the Chinese government has basically controlled the whole process.”
The Hong Kong authorities’ response to the crisis has been notable for its improvisatory nature, veering between forceful and hesitant, vaguely conciliatory and dismissively critical. Those shifts, which many have portrayed as the missteps of a confused local government, in fact reflect the dilemmas imposed by China’s rival priorities, said current and former officials as well as experts.
The Chinese leaders want to avoid bloodshed in Hong Kong that, even on a much more modest scale, could echo the 1989 crackdown on protests in Beijing, which left deep political scars. A large-scale assault on protesters in Hong Kong, under the glare of the international news media, not only would damage China’s reputation but could alarm Hong Kong’s lucrative financial community.
The Chinese leaders, however, are also deeply averse to concessions that could defuse the protests, fearing that the least sign of compromise could be taken as a sign of weakness that would embolden other challengers to their control across all of China. They have also indicated that they will not abandon Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, who is also known by his initials, C.Y.
“I suspect the central government’s line to C.Y. is: no compromise on political reform, but also no bloodshed,” said Joseph Wong Wing-ping, a former senior official in Hong Kong. “The central government doesn’t like any substantial sign which may indicate or may suggest that they are willing to be a little bit soft.”
So after initial measures, like the use of tear gas, provoked a strong public revulsion in Hong Kong, officials meeting in Hong Kong and at the Bauhinia Villa hammered out a “wait them out” approach to the protesters.
That strategy has put immense pressure on the police force.
“In a way, the government is asking the police to do a political job,” Mr. Wong said. “It’s a political problem which is not being solved politically.”
The cautious approach has been interspersed with occasional police moves to clear the protesters’ street barricades, as hundreds of riot police officers did before dawn on Friday in the Mong Kok neighborhood, loading steel and plywood barriers into trucks and, for the time being at least, reducing the occupation there to half a block of the southbound lanes on a single avenue.
On Friday night, protesters attempted to reoccupy a stretch of Nathan Road in Mong Kok, reigniting tensions as growing throngs of demonstrators and passers-by were held back by the police. Several people were taken away by the police, who linked hands in an effort to keep the crowd back.
While Hong Kong officials make frequent trips and phone calls to the Bauhinia Villa, as well as to the government’s Central Liaison Office skyscraper in Hong Kong, mainland officials try to give the appearance of keeping at arm’s length, reflecting the city’s special status as a separate administrative region of China. No mainland officials sit in on the daily meetings of the Hong Kong government’s interagency security committee, which officially sets policy on the protests, said a person heavily involved in Hong Kong’s decision making.
“They don’t have to,” he said. “They are in very close contact.”
The Hong Kong and Chinese officials interviewed for this article spoke on condition of anonymity, citing strict bans by both governments on any public discussion of Beijing’s role here.
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On the underlying political issue, the protesters’ demand for open elections for Hong Kong’s chief executive, both governments have been more transparent. Chinese officials have rejected the demand as unlawful and politically unacceptable in statements in state-run news media. Mr. Leung has stressed publicly that Beijing is calling the shots on setting rules for how his successors will be chosen.
When Britain returned Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, ending 156 years of colonial rule, China promised Hong Kong a “high degree of autonomy” and election of the chief executive by “universal suffrage.” But there have been signs of erosion of that autonomy, especially in the limits set by Beijing in August on who will be allowed to run for chief executive in the next elections, in 2017.
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Beijing has also warned publicly that the so-called Umbrella Movement of protests here not turn into a “color revolution,” a term it uses for anti-Communist uprisings said to be orchestrated by Western forces.
“Beijing has increasingly adopted a national security perspective towards Hong Kong issues,” said Mr. Fong, the former city official. “The overriding objective of the whole Communist regime now is how to preserve and stabilize Communist power. That’s the major agenda for the whole Chinese government. So because of this, they’ve changed their perspective towards Hong Kong issues.”
Beijing has pressed that agenda through its Central Liaison Office, effectively its representative in the city. Late into the night on Thursday, the lights blazed on several top floors at the Liaison Office’s skyscraper in Hong Kong.
Zhang Xiaoming, the director of the office for the past two years, has been more outspoken on Hong Kong policies than his predecessors. His critics here see his public stance as an affront to Hong Kong’s autonomy. In late 2012, Mr. Zhang argued in a paper that the central Chinese government must improve and regularize policies for Hong Kong officials to report to their mainland counterparts.
The Chinese government declined to comment on the role of the Central Liaison Office in the protests. “It is very natural that the central government is paying high attention to what is happening in Hong Kong,” a mainland Chinese official said.
Chinese officials have often used the Bauhinia Villa as a forward camp for dealing with bouts of political tensions in Hong Kong.
The resort stands next to a pristine reservoir in a wooded government reserve with tall trees to shield guests from the noise and dust of Shenzhen, a frenetic commercial city. With several hundred rooms, 10 villas, tennis courts and a large swimming pool, it is a comfortable though isolated place to spend time during the protests.
Only government officials and business leaders on a specially approved list are allowed to rent rooms, said a receptionist. The resort is fully booked right now, she said, adding that it is impossible to predict when a room might become available.
As the policies set there have been carried out by the local government in Hong Kong, the protesters have focused their ire on Mr. Leung, the city leader, demanding his resignation.
Despite what appeared to be an example of police brutality caught on video this past week, and allegations of possible financial impropriety that have also surfaced, Mr. Leung seems unlikely to lose his job.
On Wednesday, he won an unusually forthright endorsement from Beijing: a front-page commentary in People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s top newspaper. His handling of the protests has “won the full affirmation” of central leaders, said the paper.
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