The fight for liberalism is on the streets of hong kong | thearticle

Once upon a time prevailing Western wisdom was that China would evolve into a free trading global partner to the rest of the world. In the late 1970s, China introduced economic

liberalisation: it soon became the second largest economy in the world, as hundreds of millions of people were lifted out of poverty. It is one of capitalism’s greatest achievements. So, why

would China turn its back on such a successful formula? The opening up of the Chinese economy should not be confused with the state giving away personal freedom. China is still very

committed to communist authoritarianism. Yes, capitalism has been embraced, but the justification is that it’s a different type of capitalism: ‘state capitalism’. This theory is not

dissimilar to Lenin’s New Economic Plan of 1921, in which he stated capitalism was needed before socialism could be evolved to take over. For Xi Jinping, the leader of communist China, one

of the main ways of evolving socialism so it can take over from capitalism is through the ‘One Belt One Road’ project. It involves infrastructure development in 152 countries throughout the

world. It’s effectively a push for Chinese dominance in global affairs through a Beijing owned trade network; a direct competitor to global free trade which has dominated economic

development since 1945. The project has a completion date of 2049, which just so happens to be the 100th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. If this new socialist structure is to

succeed, Beijing will have to take back control of the Chinese institutions which have been developed to interact with the free trade system over the last 40 years. Since 1997, Hong Kong has

been the main hub through which China accessed Western high finance (or capitalism’s capital). What’s happening on the streets of Hong Kong, in other words, isn’t _just_ about extradition

orders to the Chinese mainland, but Beijing trying to retrieve control of its capitalist financial district. It is the ‘One Belt One Road’ communist model coming into conflict with

capitalism. On the eve of the G20 conference in Osaka, Vladimir Putin, stated liberalism has “come into conflict with the interests of the overwhelming majority of the population”. The

demonstrations on the streets of Hong Kong stand in direct contradiction to that statement. Most of the population in Hong Kong are standing up for liberal values, and many are willing to

give their lives to that cause. As Daniel Johnson wrote in the leading article on Tuesday, the rest of the free world can’t just stand around and let the protesters in Hong Kong get on with

it. It is good to see the international community taking some sort of action. However, it has taken too long and was knee jerk. If Western democracy is to survive and flourish it needs to

recreate joint values and vision as it did after 1945. China will be a threat to the democratic, liberal and capitalist agenda for many years to come and it needs to reboot itself so it can

face that threat.