Speaking on Hong Kong independence, former Chief Executive Donald Tsang said that if it is real, then you will not be able to get rid of it. “Some things are fake and superficial – you don’t have to do anything and it will disappear on its own,” he added. Tsang spoke in the second part of an interview with local newspaper AM730.
The current government under Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has taken action against Hong Kong independence advocates, for example, asking prospective candidates who wanted to run in the Legislative Council elections to sign a declaration form stating that they will uphold the Basic Law, including that Hong Kong is part of China.
Despite the pressures on those who have pro-independence leanings, however, at least three localists and four pro-self-determination candidates were elected to the Legislative Council on Sunday.
Tsang did not want to comment on the current government, saying that he does not know the full picture and believed it was not fair to make a statement on the subject.
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However, he said that a challenge for societies today is extreme speech, and said that communication was helpful to Hong Kong’s development, adding that “sometimes it is not easy – you need objective conditions and environments to be able to do it.”
Relying on the mainland
Tsang also said that Hong Kong’s development has to rely on the mainland, and that “it would be really bad if Hong Kong misses the chance” while the mainland was developing at such a fast pace and becoming more open and free.
Hongkongers have to accept mainlanders, he said, if they want mainlanders to accept them. He also added that some mainlanders have a better ability to accept things than a small portion of Hongkongers.
