Book review

Citation

Hung, C.F. (2020), "Book review", Asian Education and Development Studies, Vol. 9 No. 3, pp. 417-419. https://doi.org/10.1108/AEDS-07-2020-192

Is the underground Chinese communist party effective in Hong Kong?

2nd Edition

Edited by Christine Loh

Hong Kong University PressHong Kong2018

This book written by Christine Loh was published in 2010 and its second edition was issued in 2018. In fact, the book provides an important story for our understanding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operation in Hong Kong from 1920 to 2018 with almost a hundred year of history. It is almost impossible to comprehend the functions of the CCP even though one is a party member or not. Loh has provided a historical overview of the CCP and offered observations on the party’s co-optation, lobbying and persuasion work in the Hong Kong context. Her analyses were mostly based on well-known secondary sources without primary Chinese sources. As she could not go through the more important Chinese materials of the CCP, some crucial questions were totally left out from her discussion. In particular, it was unclear whether the CCP was really effective in winning the hearts and minds of the people of Hong Kong. As such, readers should carefully understand the events that took place between her 2018 second edition and the first edition, because some hidden events were not commonly noticed by people. In the past few years, the united front work of the CCP has taken more aggressive and deepening work, affecting all levels of Hong Kong.

As the former Undersecretary for the Environment in the administration of Chief Executive C. Y. Leung, Loh was appointed in this key position in the Hong Kong government. It was doubtful if she really revealed the important content of the CCP. But actually the book had been published before she was appointed as a government official. After all, the first edition, and the second one, did not have any primary sources.

Loh could have discussed the Basic Law’s Article 23 enactment and its related pro-Beijing force’s mobilization, but she could not shed light on this event. Nor did she discuss the 2014 Occupy Movement in which the local communists were involved to act as a prominent counteracting force against the pro-democratic movement in her second edition. Recently, these pro-Beijing organizations have contributed heavily to the united front work as they facilitate the political propaganda of government policies and mass mobilization in elections, where the underground CCP has really expanded their influences in Hong Kong. For example, more details on the largest political party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, should be discussed because it play key roles in the political transition and mobilization in Hong Kong, and because it arguably represents an open face of the underground CCP.

It is also noteworthy that the CCP has controlled the Hong Kong media and the problems of media ownership are addressed in her book. Loh has agreed that the media landscape has changed enormously and that new technologies have created situations challenging the traditional media outlets. The cyberspace should and can be a new battleground for press freedom. The online media outlets, as a matter of fact, have emerged as a new platform of the news media during the period from 2010 to 2018. Some new online and cyberspace media were established, stimulating a new form of civil society counteracting the monopolization of the Chinese state-owned media. These new media embraced the Stand News, Hong Kong Citizens News and Hong Kong Free Press (an English online newspaper). They have successfully adopted a nonprofit model and yet checking the power of the government while providing critique of China’s policy toward Hong Kong. However, many pro-Beijing-owned news media were not mentioned in Loh’s work. These pro-Beijing media, as a machinery of the CCP’s united front work, have successfully acted as countervailing forces to oppose and curb the pro-democratic social-political movement, especially during the Occupy Central Movement from September to December 2014. Unfortunately, Loh’s book did not adequately mention all these media, such as SpeakOut Hong Kong, the HKG Pao and Wake Up Hong Kong. These pro-government and pro-Beijing media are, of course, not representing the whole civil society, which has remained deeply divided into pro-China and pro-democracy camps. These pro-Beijing media also adopt a nonprofit making model but obviously their capital has been heavily injected by some pro-Beijing businesspeople so as to achieve their political objectives, namely, winning the hearts and minds of more Hong Kong people and balancing the pro-democracy opinion in the Hong Kog society. Loh’s book has obviously neglected the new politics of Hong Kong where the cyberspace has witnessed the struggles between pro-Beijing and pro-democracy media.

Readers can question the necessity of a revised edition within such a short period of time if the book did not provide sufficient new materials and important transformations in the operation of the CCP in Hong Kong. Perhaps it was an editorial decision with an eye for market consideration rather than the content. Hong Kong from 2010 to 2018 witnessed a reverse process of democratization, human rights, social justice and the rule of law during this period, especially in view of a series of disqualification of elected legislators and young people running for local elections. From 2011 to 2018, Hong Kong also witnessed a critical moment of life and death, especially the youth who appeared to be perplexed by what they should do next. Social movement in Hong Kong during this period was relatively vibrant and active, representing how some Hong Kong people counter government policies, and how they see the government as following Beijing’s directives rather than listening to the demands of the Hong Kong people. Loh’s book has failed to touch on all these crucial issues – a serious gap in her second edition.

During this period from 2010 to 2018, the Hong Kong society became more politically divided, divergent and antithetical. Loh agreed that the birth of Hong Kong’s social movement could be seen, but she could have elaborated many key stories during this crucial period, such as the anti-national education social movement in 2012, the Occupy Central movement in 2014 and the so-called “independence” movement in 2016. The policies of the Hong Kong government and the central government were not addressed well under the umbrella of the “underground front” discussions. As such, Loh’s work was not in-depth in both the activities of the underground CCP and its countervailing and opposing political forces.

China’s united front work has made meticulous efforts at establishing and maintaining contacts with business leaders, enticing them with honors including political appointments as deputies of the National People’s Congress and as delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, thereby cultivating their political support and grooming their pro-Beijing descendants. Loh’s work did not say much in all these aspects, including how effective was political co-optation, and how money and honors were the useful instruments in the process of absorbing Hong Kong people into the CCP orbit. On the other hand, political control was best reflected by China’s autocratic interpretations of the Hong Kong Basic Law. These constitutional design and interpretations allow the mainland Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to dominate the process of political discourses. The series of interpretations were well designed and the CCP has concentrated its power of interpretations and designs into its own hands. The Hong Kong authorities are accountable to the Beijing government rather than to the people of Hong Kong. That is to say, the new content of the second edition did not probe all the sensitive and essential issues, perhaps reflecting Loh’s need to avoid any conflict of interest and role as a former government official.

It is more important to note that the CCP became more active and radical in dealing with Hong Kong’s social movements. Sometimes, the well-established civil society could propel the pro-democracy movements, which however were resisted and opposed by the underground CCP interest groups. During the period from 2010 to 2018, the CCP in Hong Kong, as suggested by Shiu Sin-bor (the former Director of the pro-Beijing One Country Two Systems Research Institute and the former head of the Central Policy Unit) utilized different strategies, mobilized different patriotic groups, actively countered social and political movements and stigmatized some pro-democracy leaders. The political demands of Hong Kong people, such as achieving universal suffrage, were blunted and frustrated by the government and its pro-Beijing forces during the C. Y. Leung administration, but unfortunately Loh has failed to point out the achievement pf the underground CCP in their organized mass mobilization.

The organization of the united front work orchestrated by the underground CCP in Hong Kong should ideally be addressed by Loh, but she did not do so. Since July 1, 1997, there has been more and more organizations and interest groups sprung up under the umbrella of the CCP in Hong Kong. Unfortunately, Loh basically did not dig into details of this part of the prominent and visible united front work in Hong Kong.

In short, this second edition was just harping on an old tune, namely the underground CCP was working, but the question of effectiveness was not really addressed. The stereotyped image of a persistent underground CCP is deep-rooted in Loh’ two editions, but there was little discoveries in her study. And her “run-of-the-mill” type of recommendations leaves much to be desired. It was extraordinary that the underground CCP remains extraordinarily active, but the book’s new edition clearly neglected its reality. From a critical perspective, Loh’s two editions, especially the latest edition, have treated the existence of the underground CCP as given without much new insights, new findings and detailed analyses of the intricate process of electoral and political mobilization.