Hong Kong Is Part of China

(Letter)

25 October 2019

Dear Workers Vanguard,

I applaud your recent articles on China.

While the capitalist media depicts the rioters in Hong Kong as fighting for “freedom” and “democracy,” the facts say otherwise: we’re witnessing a reactionary uprising in the service of capitalism. Apologists for the protestors can claim that the literal flag waving for U.S. and British imperialism is coming from a minority of participants, but one of the most common slogans seen at the protests has been “Hong Kong is not China,” which is no mere “localism,” but an expression of both anti-communism and anti-Chinese chauvinism.

Hong Kong is not a nation. It’s ethnically, linguistically, and culturally a part of the Cantonese region of southern China that includes Shenzhen and Guangdong. But the border between Hong Kong and the mainland is also a class line, and it’s the elites in Hong Kong that have tried to cultivate a separate identity, to make permanent the special status of Hong Kong as a capitalist enclave.

In October 2016, two newly-elected members of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council used their swearing in ceremony to pledge allegiance to “the Hong Kong nation” and referred to China as “Chee-na,” (支那), which is a vile slur associated with the Japanese imperialist occupation. During the recent protests in Hong Kong, the “C-word” has appeared again in graffiti vandalism of stores and government offices, such as the attack on the PRC [People’s Republic of China] Liaison Office back in July. This is the true face of the “pro-democracy” uprising.

Opponents of capitalism should want these protests suppressed because they threaten what remains of the social progress produced by the 1949 revolution. I can share a personal perspective on this. My mother-in-law has lived through all these seventy years of the revolution, and her life represents just what millions of workers and peasants have gained. Born at the end of the civil war, mom grew up in a rural village near Putian, Fujian, to a small-scale merchant family. Her life was much better than that of her peasant neighbors, and yet her own mother was illiterate, and her family home had no plumbing. Fast forward 70 years and she has just used her significant savings to help her son, a postal worker, buy a fully modern apartment in the city. Mom can afford to spend this money because her husband’s pension as an electrician for the state-run rail road is substantial enough to pay all her regular expenses.

This progress was made possible by eliminating private property in the major sectors of the economy. The planned economy and the state that defends it are not the same thing as the government lording over them. The Chinese state is the equivalent of a labor union with a criminal leadership. Supporters of the working class oppose such a leadership, of course, but still defend the union. Despite the stupidity and numerous crimes of the Stalinist government, the Chinese state and its planned economy are still worth fighting for. Hong Kong is currently a front line in that fight.

B.D.