Beijing Is Directing Hong Kong Strategy, Government Insiders Say
Protesters faced police in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong on Friday.
ED JONES / AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
By KEITH BRADSHER and CHRIS BUCKLEY
OCTOBER 17, 2014
HONG KONG — On many mornings throughout the nearly three weeks of 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, bound for a tropical resort across the border in mainland China.
The drawn curtains of the speeding vans obscure the Hong Kong officials riding inside, headed for the luxurious Bauhinia Villa in Shenzhen, where throngs of Communist Party officials from Beijing wait to lay plans for handling the demonstrations.
According to interviews with six current and former Hong Kong and Chinese government officials, as well as a range of experts, it is China’s national leaders, more than Hong Kong’s, who have been directing the broad strokes of the response to the crisis. With Beijing’s needs foremost in mind, they have tried to balance a steadfast refusal to give ground on the protesters’ demands for democratic elections with the need to avoid widespread bloodshed that would further destabilize the city.
“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.”
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.
FENG LI / GETTY IMAGES
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.
“They treat it as a challenge to Beijing’s governing power in Hong Kong,” Brian Fong Chi-hang, an assistant professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and a former city government official, said of the national leadership. “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. Many observers have seen those shifts as the missteps of a confused local government, but in fact they reflect the dilemmas created by China’s rival priorities, experts and current and former officials said.
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 harsh crackdown under the glare of the international news media would damage China’s reputation and alarm Hong Kong’s financial industry, the core of its economy.
Yet Beijing is also deeply averse to concessions that could defuse the protests, out of fear that the least sign of compromise would embolden other challenges across China. They have also indicated that they will not abandon Hong Kong’s embattled leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, known as 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.”
Initial measures to forcibly disperse the protests, including the use of tear gas, provoked strong public revulsion in Hong Kong, so officials switched to a “wait them out” approach that has put immense pressure on the city’s police force, interspersed with occasional moves to clear street barricades.
“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.”
Mainland officials try to maintain the appearance that they are staying at arm’s length, reflecting the city’s special status in China. They do not take part in the daily meetings of the Hong Kong government’s interagency security committee, according to 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.
On the underlying political issue — the protesters’ demand for open elections for Hong Kong’s chief executive — both the city administration and Beijing have been more forthcoming. Beijing rejects the demand as unlawful and politically unacceptable, and Mr. Leung has stressed publicly that Beijing sets the rules for how his successors will be chosen.
Beijing has also warned publicly that the demonstrations in Hong Kong, which have come to be called the Umbrella Movement, must not become a “color revolution,” a term it uses for anti-Communist uprisings that it says are orchestrated by the West.
“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.”
Beijing has pressed that agenda through the Central Liaison Office, whose director, Zhang Xiaoming, has been more outspoken on Hong Kong policies than his predecessors were. 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 managing 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, if isolated, place to spend time during the protests.
Only government officials and business leaders on a specially approved list are allowed to rent rooms there, a receptionist at the resort said. She said the resort was now fully booked and that it was impossible to say 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, especially after video images became public this week showing what appeared to be police brutality. They have demanded his resignation or dismissal, but Mr. Leung seems unlikely to lose his job.
He won an unusually forthright endorsement from Beijing on Wednesday, in 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, the paper said.
Correction: October 17, 2014
An earlier version of this article misstated the status of Hong Kong. It is a special administrative region of China. It is not a country.
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