Hong Kong Has a Passion for Politics

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When a population goes to polling booths to make a single demand—more democracy—it's a stirring event. When those people are more than 6 million citizens of the People's Republic of China, it's a day for the history books. That's what could happen Sunday when Hong Kong votes for a new Legislative Council (Legco), the closest thing it has to representative government. The candidates touring neighborhoods on bicycles and in sound trucks are giving the population a clear choice. One group's pitch is that Hong Kong has enough democracy for now and that any more will only irritate the mandarins in Beijing—in other words, vote for us not to rock Hong Kong's boat. The other camp has ideals and chutzpah: it's demanding the power to directly elect Hong Kong's chief executive and all the seats in Legco as soon as legally possible, proposals Beijing has already nixed. A strong showing for the democrats this Sunday would deliver a message Beijing is loath to receive, through a channel—free elections—it can barely tolerate.

The splendid irony is that a debate over whether Hong Kong deserves more political space has provoked more free-wheeling politicking than the territory has seen in its entire history—even by candidates opposed to the notion. The campaign has produced one troubling sex scandal, a couple of sticky-finger financial scams and a claim by a leading democrat that her house was broken into and possibly bugged by pro-Beijing forces. Both sides recognize that Hong Kong's destiny as a privileged bastion of freedom within China could pivot on the polls. "The future political structure," says Audrey Eu, a popular democrat who once ran the local bar association, "is going to be determined by this legislature."

The bad news is that Hong Kong's democracy is still immature, and it has shown. The candidates were civil, pragmatic, unwilling to waste time—the virtues that make Hong Kong great. The flip side of all that, however, was a tendency not to probe issues deeply, a certain lack of political seriousness. James Tien, head of the pro-business Liberal Party and textile scion, maintained that democracy really means affluence of the kind Hong Kong has come to expect and that the needs of the hour are stability and tending of the economy. "Does having one man-one vote give you that good life?" he asked. But when Tien was challenged at a public forum to state his top three proposals for the Hong Kong economy, he jovially admitted he had none—and asked for five minutes to come up with a few. Rita Fan, who served as president of Legco for seven years, took the same line: that the democrats' fixation with electing the chief executive and Legco in its entirety was a false definition of democracy, which she compared to a counterfeit designer purse. Hong Kong people, she said, "want the real thing—the real LV bag."

The democrats had the white-hat issue, but they also provided the campaign's biggest pratfalls. Candidate Alex Ho was last month allegedly caught with a prostitute on the mainland, which led several democrats to accuse Beijing of orchestrating a dirty-tricks campaign against their camp, though that has not been proved. The scandals have been noticed. "People are asking us: 'Why should we vote for you if you can't keep your pants on,'" mourns Fred Li, Ho's running mate.

Most importantly, the campaign's obsession with Beijing's control kept candidates from discussing how the territory should deal with the pressing questions facing Hong Kong.

For example, Shanghai and other Asian cities are now competitors with Hong Kong for investment and talent. And Hong Kong has yet to find a way of working with the authorities in Guangdong province, which belches eye-stinging pollution that, on a bad summer day, can choke the city.

Of course, it's not really fair to blame Hong Kong's politicians for arrested development: Legco was designed for political midgets by Hong Kong's British colonial rulers. Half the chamber's seats will not be elected by neighborhoods but rather by industry groups, which has produced such fascinating challenges as the oral surgeons vs. the doctors for the medical seat. Nor, perhaps, should Hong Kong's people be criticized for concentrating their attention, this year, on the existential questions of democracy and their relationship with Beijing. But for Hong Kong to take genuine steps towards true democracy will require more than Beijing loosening its grip. It will also need a class of fledgling lawmakers who are prepared to deal with the issues facing their city. That's the real LV bag.