High-speed rail: Hong Kong's ticket to political strife

Last Friday, the scene outside Hong Kong's Legislative Council was part rally, part festival as thousands of people gathered to protest a controversial HK$60 billion (US$8.63 billion) plan to build a high-speed rail link to mainland China. Food and hand-made crafts were sold from colourful tents to support the cause as protesters chanted anti-government slogans.

But the mood changed on Saturday after the government voted to approve the railway's funding. Hundreds of young protesters clashed with police as they tried to storm the legislature.

While the railway's opponents are angry over the projected cost of the 26-kilometre railway and the fact that its construction would involve the demolition of a rural village, observers say the outcry is a symptom of growing dissatisfaction with the Hong Kong government, especially among the young.

Many activists argue that the views of the Hong Kong people are not adequately represented by a government dominated by officials loyal to China's central government and in which only half of the seats in the legislature are democratically elected.

"It seems impossible that the government is spending so much money to build this railway when there's so many problems," said Yan Chung, 22, an art gallery employee who joined the protests last week.

She said the government hasn't properly consulted the public on the railway's cost or impact, including the demolition of Tsoi Yuen Village, a settlement of 3,600 people that stands in the way of the railway's path.

What concerns Chung and other railway opponents is the fact that half of Hong Kong legislators are elected not by the public but by members of so-called functional constituencies, which represent various trade and professional groups. A recent study revealed that, thanks to this system of corporate voting, less than one percent of voters elect one-fifth of legislators.

Jay Li, a member of Reform Hong Kong, a group established to promote democratic reform in the territory, said that many legislators support the high-speed rail link because they represent functional constituencies with vested interests in its construction.

"They take the government's side because they may have some stake in the railway," he said. "Thanks to the express rail, many people have started to realize that the legislators who represent functional constituencies have more power than those who represent the people."

The railway's supporters argue that its construction is necessary to ensure Hong Kong's economic vitality as it becomes increasingly integrated with mainland China.

More than 60,000 people commute between Hong Kong and the mainland every day, a number the government expects to rise to 100,000 by the time the railway opens. The rail link would cut the two-hour trip from Hong Kong to Guangzhou by more than half; a rail trip to Shanghai would take eight hours instead of 20.

It could also provide a boost to Hong Kong's flagging construction sector, which is currently suffering from high unemployment and an ageing workforce.

"We need the government to encourage investment in infrastructure construction so that our next generation could consider making construction as a career of their choice," said Conrad Wong, president of the Hong Kong Construction Association and one of the railway's supporters.

But that generation appears to be less interested in economic development and material gain than that of their parents. Young people have been among the most vocal opponents of the rail link, including members of the Post-80s Anti-Express Railway Group, a coalition of activists in their 20s that have played a major role in other recent protest movements, such as a recent campaign in support of jailed Chinese dissent Liu Xiaobo.

With the help of Facebook and other social media, the Post-80s group has been instrumental in generating opposition to the railway. Its protests have attracted significant attention in recent weeks, especially a series of performances in which participants walked around the city's universities and kneeled down every 26 steps to represent each kilometre of the rail link.

Ma Ngok, a professor of political science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that a generational shift in values began several years after 1997, when Hong Kong, a former British colony, became a semi-autonomous Special Administrative Region of China.

In 2003, more than 500,000 people took to the streets to protest against a security law that would have prohibited sedition, subversion and secession against the central government in Beijing. In 2006, thousands of young people protested the demolition of a beloved ferry pier in an attempt to raise awareness of Hong Kong's cultural heritage.

"People today care more about heritage protection, about protecting under-privileged people and that sort of thing," said Ma. "It's about protesting against the model of development that Hong Kong has seen in the past, which places a lot of emphasis on infrastructure, property development, economic development, as opposed to more sympathy for the underprivileged and more sensitive urban planning."

Even Donald TsangDonald Tsang, Hong Kong's pro-Beijing chief executive, seems to have recognized the shift in values. In an address to the Legislative Council in which he proclaimed the benefits of the rail link, he noted that the government also had a duty to understand the concerns of Hong Kong's youth.

"We really have to better understand young people, listen to their voices and understand their aspirations, visions and expectations towards society and the government, even when they have disappointment and grievances on some issues," he said.

The generation gap was evident over the weekend at the protests outside the legislature. Railway opponents, concentrated on one side of the building, were overwhelmingly young. On the other side of the building, a smaller counter-protest of railway supporters attracted a noticeably older demographic.

Among them was Denny Chan, a travel agent in his 50s. "These days, everything in Hong Kong is political and everything proposed by the government meets opposition," he said.

"I think the railway will help the economy and the travel industry. For the long term, the government should have more power -- if it decides something is good for Hong Kong, it should just go ahead with it."

But that seems unlikely to happen. Constitutional reforms scheduled for 2012 will only increase political strife as opposition political parties fight to increase democratic representation in Hong Kong's government. And railway opponents have vowed to continue their fight, even though funding for the project has been approved and the countdown to Tsoi Yuen Village's demolition has begun.

"We will never give up on Tsoi Yuen villagers," Mirana Szeto, one of the protest leaders, said on Sunday. She vowed to help villagers block the demolition of their homes.