Revolutionary Romanticism in Hong Kong

Commentary

The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) repression policy led to concerted efforts of burnism (mutually assured destruction) in Hong Kong, upsetting all sectors of the economy and ruining education and media. As rational Hongkongers who have lived in Hong Kong for decades, we have to ask: why do the communists commit such mistakes?

Part of the reason rests on the communists’ long-accustomed “revolutionary romanticism.”

The Great Leap Dream to Surpass UK and US

All the political movements in the history textbooks in China are represented in a revolutionary and romantic fashion. For example, the “Great Leap Forward,” launched by Mao Zedong in 1958, was a four-year campaign that sought to push the country to exponentially increase its steel production while collectivizing agricultural farming. The goal was to “surpass Britain in 10 years and the U.S. in 15 years.”

Slogans in the Great Leap Forward include “the size of harvest matches the degree of audacity; whatever imagined can be achieved; go all out, aim high; and achieve greater, faster, better and more economical results in building socialism.” It was a nationwide collective exercise in lying.

Exaggeration was taken as revolutionary, and one would be lagging behind and regarded as unpatriotic if one didn’t actively take part in the false, exaggerated, and empty business. The situation in Hong Kong today is no different from China at that time.

The result of the Great Leap Forward was national burnism, a man-made calamity euphemistically known as the three-year Great Famine leading to the unnatural death of up to 55 million mainland Chinese. It is only natural to cause massive deaths and national misfortune if a government truly thinks it can make up something out of nothing. In this case, targets were set, and the officials said that the targets were achieved but in actuality, they were not, leading to the depletion of food supplies and famine.

The above burnism in mainland China affected Hong Kong with the huge Chinese influx to this ex-colony, but the impact was relatively minor. However, to a regime that got used to burnism and romanticism, another catastrophe would not be far away.

The next would be the 1967 Riots. Hong Kong was in trouble.

‘Mao Zedong’s Red Book Is Invincible’

In 1967, as influenced by the China Cultural Revolution, the leftists in Hong Kong made up their minds to have their own riot against the Hong Kong government during British colonial rule. The then Hong Kong government had a hard time coping with it, to the extent that Britain thought of retreating from the colony.

In August 1967, the British Hong Kong government ordered the closure of three minor leftist presses, causing fear and rumours in the leftist camp.

The leftists, from Xinhua News (CCP mouthpiece) leaders to the revolutionary masses in general, were all in a frenzy, from which we have many stories of revolutionary romanticism. One comes from the memoirs of Kam Yiu-yu, former editor-in-chief of Wen Wei Po news media (CCP mouthpiece), as follows:

One day in September of that year, Huang Guangyu, director of Xinhua News’ propaganda department, summoned Kam to a meeting and told him that the riot squad would soon besiege Wen Wei Po. Huang ordered Kam to “resist resolutely,” build a fire on the rooftop, and call on support from the revolutionary masses nearby to fight against the riot cops.

Kam expressed his doubt about the scheme. Huang instructed that the Wei Wei Po staff “cut down a few riot cops with iron water pipes, hoses, and axes, and they will be scared; then you will be able to cut a bloody path and join the vast sea of revolutionary masses, who will immediately protect you and let you win the final victory!”

Kam was taken aback by Huang’s instruction. “The riot cops have guns, so what if they discharge them?”

Huang’s answer was in line with the CCP’s usual romantic style. “You have Chairman Mao’s Red Book in your hands, so how dare they shoot? You have Mao Zedong Thought, which is invincible!”

A modern communist cadre encouraged his supporters to be nineteenth-century boxers and believe in thought as an invincible weapon against deadly gunfire.

The Romanticism of Xi Jinping Thoughts

The romantic tradition lingers to this day and has spread to Hong Kong, as the Hong Kong regime now calls on Hong Kong people to learn Xi Jinping’s thoughts on his July 1 speech and the spirit of the CCP’s national congress. Another romanticism was to “rescue” Hong Kong from the hands of the British government.

As we can see, behind the CCP’s work is revolutionary excitement, not rationalism, inherited from the medieval renaissance. The CCP’s revolutionary romanticism will crush all rationality and logic. Therefore, the current government-led endeavours in Hong Kong will eventually burn Hong Kong and bring it back to a fishing village, as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution did to China.

Pragmatists Tell the Truth

Of course, we still have pragmatists. Xi Zhongxun, Xi Jinping’s father who was in charge of Guangdong affairs in the 1970s and knew a lot about the “Great Escape” to Hong Kong, once said, “Empty words are useless. The only way is to raise people’s living standards. Otherwise, they will vote with their feet.” Xi should listen carefully to his father’s words; otherwise, as ex-premier Zhu Rongji said, “If Hong Kong is ruined, the CCP will be the national sinner!”

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.