Indigenous Communists in Hong Kong

The Indigenous Communists in Hong Kong (Chinese: 香港本土共產勢力; pinyin: Xiānggǎng béntǔ Gòngchǎn shìlì ; or 土共 (tǔ gòng) in short; or 香港親共人士) are mainly remnants of the trade unionists who flourished in the 1960s and united front officials operated by the Communist Party of China in Hong Kong.

They were once considered progressives and leftists; but as the consensus of Hong Kong politics moved, they appear to be ideologically conservative compared to the mainstream of Hong Kong. During the administration of Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten, the indigenous pro-communist parties suffered from his electoral reforms in 1995. After the Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong on 1 July 1997, the new HKSAR government changed the electoral system to Party-list proportional representation, in order to make the pro-communist parties to have safe seats in the geographical constituency, and prevent the Pan-democracy camp to have a Supermajority in the geographical constituency.

Ideology

Economically, most of the indigenous Communists insist on the 'birdcage economy' advocated by Chen Yun, which is a version of nationalized economy.

Politically, they are Maoists influenced by Hua Guofeng: They think that the Communist Party is the measure of all things; friends of the Party are worthy of support; enemies of the Party should be opposed at all costs. This hard-line thinking led to the occasional vandalism of Democratic Party political bulletin boards by the indigenous Communists.

Stereotypes of the supporters

There are several stereotypes of indigenous Communist Party of China's supporters.

The 'Victoria Park uncles': Though the 'uncles of Victoria Park' may not be trade union members, but they support the ideology of the indigenous Communists. A stereotypical image is the 'uncles' waving flags in support of the Communists during hustings in Victoria Park. They are seen as hard-line pro-Beijing patriots.

United front officials: Another stereotype of indigenous Communist supporters are united front officials sent by the Communist Party of China to work in Hong Kong trade unions, or indigenous Hong Kongers trained thereby.

'Patriotic' entrepreneurs: It is alleged that some businesspersons support indigenous Communists; further, that some of these supporters have been drug dealers or Triad members. Some of these accusations gave the motivation that after the handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China in 1997, supporting the Communists would give their businesses an advantage, furthering them into oligopoly. Opponents of this kind of association attribute the scandals in the media in Hong Kong to the closer ties between the businesses and the Communists (of all shades).

See also

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