On January 24, 2020, the Munk School of Global Affairs invited Dr. Ching Kwan Lee, a Dr. Chung Sze-yuen Professor of Social Science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Professor of Sociology at UCLA, to present a lecture entitled “Hong Kong: Global China’s Restive Frontier.”
The lecture was chaired by Dr. Diana Fu, an associate Professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Political Science, and coordinated by Dr. Rachel Silvey, the Richard Charles Lee Director at the Asian Institute. This event was sponsored by the Asian Institute.
Dr. Lee is a world-renowned sociologist of labour who has been read and cited by generations of scholars of political science, sociology, and methodology. She has written three award-winning monographs on China on the topics of labour and the spectre of ‘Global China’ in Africa—the last of which won eight awards. Dr. Lee was born and raised in Hong Kong, and she has recently returned there to conduct research on the ethnographic perspectives of social movements in Hong Kong, focusing on the hearts and minds of the people.
Dr. Lee’s presentation focused on the concept of “Global China” and its relation to the Hong Kong protests that began in 2019. She maintained that the concept of Global China is essential to one’s understanding of current Hong Kong affairs. She stated, “if you do not understand Global China, there is no way you can understand what is happening in Hong Kong and the significance of the Hong Kong protests.” It is through grasping this concept that one can answer the questions: What are the forces at work in the movement?, Why did it happen at this time?, and What is the significance of the movement?
What is ‘Global China’?
While many people think of China’s global expansion as a geographical phenomenon (such as the development of roads and ports in various countries), Dr. Lee argues that looking at China’s expansion as merely geographic is not helpful: “I propose that we think of Global China not so much as a geographic phenomenon, but as a power phenomenon—a playbook of different power strategies that China has been using domestically but now exports abroad.” She then elaborated on the three main strategies in China’s playbook: economic statecraft, patron-clientelism, and mobilizing symbols and emotions.
Economic statecraft involves the use of state capital, usually in the form of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), to create institutions over which it has full control. She claimed that while establishing SOEs within China usually has the purpose of creating employment, when established abroad, its purpose is to gain political capital and commodity access.
Patron-clientelism involves the use of one’s social networks to yield an intended political result. She referenced China’s United Front as a form of patron-clientelism, as it had served to rally the support of non-party members of the Chinese population during the early days of the Chinese Communist Party. She said that, through associations like these, the Chinese government could co-opt leaders from various networks and influence local politics.
Mobilizing symbols and emotions involves promoting ideas of patriotism and generating Chinese sympathizers by controlling global media sources, staging elaborate visits for foreign dignitaries, and establishing international institutions such as the Confucius Institutes (which she views as tools to mobilize national learning).
Professor Lee stated that the Chinese government is under the illusion that its playbook strategies can be exported to the rest of the world and can attain the same successful results it has seen at home. In reality, however, this has not been the case: “Chinese attempts to attain power have resulted in very uneven patterns of domination as well as resistance and adaptation.” Hong Kong, has been an important case in Global China’s attempt to expand influence, as it has proven to be the most resistant to China’s power strategies.
China’s Playbook Strategies in Hong Kong
To illustrate China’s use of economic statecraft, she referred to a current example: the central government’s plan to use dredging to establish a new central business district in the city. The government’s reason for wanting to do this, she claims, is because the existing central business district is already dominated by traditional British business houses, international companies, and local tycoons. Thus, the central government cannot have full access to or influence over it. Chinese authorities feel the need to create a district where they can have direct control. “Of course we are opposing this plan,” she said, speaking on behalf of many Hong Kong citizens.
As for patron-clientelism, Hong Kong’s clans, which have associations in the mainland, are known to buy votes by distributing gifts (t-shirts, red envelopes, and dumplings) to voters. The clans, she explained, are funded by their hometown associations in the mainland, “and in return, they help local governments gain support for Beijing.” She stated that this method had been working until last year when Hong Kong citizens voted tremendously against Beijing-affiliated politicians.
The strategy of mobilizing symbols and emotions has also been at play in Hong Kong. Dr. Lee explained that the central government has attempted to alter academic materials within Hong Kong so that they have a more pro-China discourse. Hong Kong’s leading news broadcaster, ‘TVB,’ has also recently come under central government control.
She stated that Hong Kong has always been a primary target for China’s numerous and relentless attempts to gain control through power strategies; Hong Kong erupting in protest last June simply indicated a breaking point for the Hong Kong citizens.
She explained that the Chinese government has tightened control to the point where people do not feel that they can speak freely or control who they elect. “China has been excessive in its attempts to control Hong Kong, and we have reached a point where people feel there is nothing more to lose,” she said. “This excessiveness has triggered the radicalization of Hong Kong.”
We thus know the underlying reasons why the protests have occurred, but the following questions remain: How can we explain the protests’ length and intensity? What is Hong Kong’s leverage?
Hong Kong’s Leverage
One answer is Hong Kong’s value to China as a global financial hub.
“[In the Chinese economy] people recognize Hong Kong as an Asian financial centre where capital can be raised. Chinese companies most often use Hong Kong as a site for issuing IPOs. Seventy percent of Chinese corporations issue stocks in Hong Kong,” she said. “That is why it is a place that is very important to the Chinese economy.”
In addition, “there are many international investors in Hong Kong’s real estate, thus making it a place in which international property owners have a stake.” Lastly, she continued, “Hong Kong has many professionals, we have world-class information infrastructure. This is a global city that china really needs and wants. This is the reason why China has been trying to exercise its power, but it has held back from destroying the city.”
Another answer, she claims, is Hong Kong’s strong international networks.
For instance, she explained that the lobbying process for the ‘Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act’ has been successful due to Hong Kong’s international networks of sympathizers who occupy positions in parliaments and congressional offices around the world. “Because many people have come to stay in Hong Kong, we have made lots of friends and expatriates” she said. “That is why when something happens in Hong Kong it becomes front-page international news. This creates momentum for the Hong Kong people to lobby legislation.”
Linked to this idea of international support for Hong Kong’s struggle is one final dimension that she believes is important to explain the protests’ success: a widespread sentiment of reservation towards Global China.
Worldwide Aversion Towards Global China
She believes many countries fear the domination of Chinese corporations in global industries and therefore want to fight the spread of China’s influence.
“Once Chinese corporations dominate a certain industry, it is not just the market that gets dominated but the industry’s standard.” And she believes that this is the real target that China is after: it is not pursuing profit but the power to set engineering, computer, and 5G technology standards. For instance, she said, “by simply deciding how wide a railroad should be, this becomes the standard, and it affects a lot of businesses and markets down the road.”
These attempts to dominate industries and their standards have created unrest in countries across the world, but especially the US. She says that US corporations have recently been avidly lobbying legislators to push anti-Chinese legislation to defend against the growth and domination of Global China. “They are fighting against Chinese corporations that have grown big—ones they have helped to grow big—and that are now ambitious in dominating markets and controlling standards in high-tech industries and construction,” she said.
Dr. Lee believes that the success of Hong Kong’s protests is in large part due to these widespread sentiments toward China’s expansion, which compels numerous countries to sympathize with Hong Kong and offer it support.
“We have become successful in getting international support because we can leverage this moment in the global political economy where the US has targeted China as the enemy and is therefore willing to stand behind Hong Kong,” she said.
In attempting to control Hong Kong, China’s playbook has yielded unforeseen backlash when applied abroad. Hong Kong has demonstrated the strongest pushback, making it the most restive to Global China thus far. However, Dr. Lee suggests that Hong Kong might also represent the tip of a worldwide wave of backlash against Chinese expansion
Impending Worldwide Backlash?
She maintains that aversion towards Global China is alive throughout the world but not as evident as in Hong Kong. For example, she claimed to have seen many protests in Africa that were triggered due to China’s growing influence in the region but said that they receive little media coverage.
She also believes a reason why other countries have not yet mobilized against Chinese domination is a lack of resources. “Other places that have come under Chinese influence simply do not have the kind of capacity that Hong Kong has to fight back,” she said.
However, she believes more stories related to backlash against China will begin to appear in the media as China continues to apply power strategies abroad and trigger retaliation from local communities.
Hope for the Future
To end the presentation, Dr. Lee raised the point that China and Hong Kong are in a cycle: the more China tries to control Hong Kong, the more it faces resistance, and the more opposition China faces, the more it wants to gain control. While admitting she does not know how to break this cycle, she is hopeful about the fate of Hong Kong. “We have seized this moment and have used this international sentiment to our advantage,” she said, “and for this reason, I believe Hong Kong has a chance.”
Paulina Chan is the Event Reporter for Synergy Journal – East Asia section.
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