Ex-politician Christine Loh deserves high marks for fearlessly tackling a taboo subject in a “politically sensitive” book, Underground Front, The Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong (2010, Hong Kong University Press, 360 pages). She earns extra accolades for being supremely insightful and informative.
In this pioneering, English-language book, Loh tells the story of ongoing Chinese Communist Party (CCP) activities in Hong Kong since the Party's birth nine decades ago. It's “an outsider's view of the ultimate insider issue...,” she said. “The reason I wrote this book is simply that I have always had a fascination for the CCP.
“In Hong Kong, supposedly the most developed part of China, the mighty Communist Party is at its most shy,” Loh added, calling the situation an “anomaly”. Where else does a national ruling party act like an underground organization?
Helped by a researcher, Loh did most of the writing in 2008 and 2009. Former journalist Ching Cheong, who has served prison time for offending the Party, calls Loh's book informative, “a marvelous job”, but not yet complete. He urges her to write a second volume.
“This topic's taboo in Hong Kong,” Ching said. “It's so sensitive that usually no one dares to put their fingers on it.” Yet “the Communist Party's so important. It affects our daily lives and our future.”
Seventy-three-million-members strong nationwide, the Party grew from humble beginnings. “The First Party Congress was held in Shanghai on 20 July 1921 with 12 delegates (including Mao Zedong) representing 59 party members.”
Now “the CCP structure is a well-oiled machine and a phenomenal piece of political machinery. Public life at every level in China is dictated by the party.
“From the time of the birth of the CCP, Hong Kong served as a very useful and fairly secure haven for party members and friends to stage revolutionary and political activities, including communications, propaganda, united front activities, fundraising and intelligence gathering.”
Once, the CCP offices in Hong Kong masqueraded as a wholesale tea company. Later, they disguised as a news agency. Now there's a deceptively modest-sounding Liaison Office.
Reliable estimates suggest the CCP has several hundred thousand members and dozens of affiliated organizations among Hong Kong's seven million people. Yet nearly no one admits to membership.
Most readers may focus on Loh's account of the events since 1997 when China took sovereignty over Hong Kong from Britain. Despite the CCP's solemn pledges not to interfere in Hong Kong's internal affairs, it does so constantly. Its efforts at manipulation never end, but luckily, they often fail or backfire.
“The wild card in the pack remains the Hong Kong community. The CCP's regime outlook and values are becoming clearer to the people, but they may continue to hold little appeal.
“Open government, good governance, respect for human rights and democracy are much in demand. The current HKSAR government will continue to be criticized for not doing enough. ‘Undemocratic capitalism’ or ‘managed democracy’ will not be enough to answer the demands of the new generation.”
No wonder Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang flails so ineptly. “Indeed, whomever is the chief executive of the HKSAR, he or she has the responsibility to Beijing to implement the one country, two systems policy in relations to Hong Kong even if that means in spite of the preferences of the Hong Kong community....”
Loh writes even-handedly. She's thoughtful and analytical far beyond the standards of daily news. As an outsider to the Party, she can't probe to the core of every issue. Inevitably, she relies on an array of past conversations, published sources, political documents and logical assumptions. But she's methodical and reliable enough that fair-minded readers will trust her assumptions.
Typically, Communist jargon baffles more than it enlightens, but Loh successfully clarifies that much of the Party's work involves “co-optation” and “persuasion”. Appendices, notes, a bibliography and even opinion-survey results (about Hong Kong attitudes to the CCP) fill more than 100 pages. “I needed those to convince readers it isn't imagination,” Loh said.
Her prose falls short of perfection. More proofreading should have banished the surprisingly frequent typos that may reflect the publisher's haste to finish the book.
A lawyer by training and long a local legislator, Loh directs a public-policy think-tank called Civic Exchange. In 1995, she attracted a storm of criticism from “patriots” by initiating a debate about the CCP in Hong Kong.
Underground Front leaves an impression that the CCP hides so much in Hong Kong due to dishonorable activities. In that sense, it resembles a triad society (Chinese crime gang) full of older-and-wealthier-than-usual members.
The author implies that the CCP might win more Hong Kong hearts and minds by stepping into the open. But that's not its style. Although operating more visibly elsewhere, it's a shadowy, sinister and ruthless organization in every province.
Approval rating: 91 per cent.
For more information: www.hkupress.org
(March 14, 2010)
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Christine Loh delves deeply in a taboo topic.
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