History is full of irony. Despite accusations of a British sell-out by some, Hong Kong people reacted with mixed feelings to the fate of the beginning of a countdown to British colonial rule in 1997 and a period of uncertainty thereafter following the sealing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984.
Since then, more than one million people had voted with their feet. Many have returned before or after 1997 with a foreign passport, dubbed as an insurance policy. The remaining millions of Hongkongers have resigned to the reality of communist rule under the then untried “one country, two systems” formula. Then, calls for self-rule, self-autonomy, self-determination and independence were largely unheard of.
Now, those once-taboo slogans have become the buzzwords in some quarters of the society, in particular in university campuses, three months to the 19th anniversary of the handover.
On Monday, a group of young people, mostly university students, have inaugurated the Hong Kong National Party (香港民族黨) , the first political party that explicitly calls for independence.
Full article:
http://www.vohk.hk/2016/03/30/words-of-hk-independence-turn-to-action-or-kind-of/
