My Take | Beijing is right to demand housing solution in Hong Kong
- If the government wants to diminish people’s electoral rights, it needs to give something back by improving their living standards and housing conditions
Correlation is not causation. But Hong Kong’s post-handover housing woes have coincided with the rise of radical localism and youthful rebellion.
Han Zheng, senior vice-premier of the State Council in charge of Hong Kong and Macau affairs, is the latest state leader to call attention to the city’s housing problem, calling it deep-seated but saying it must be addressed, otherwise the whole community hurts.
He was addressing a group of Hong Kong representatives during the “two sessions”. While the media have understandably focused so far on the announced electoral overhaul, Han may be throwing down the gauntlet to the Hong Kong government and local property developers that something has to give if the housing situation doesn’t improve.
Han is making a political point, not just a socioeconomic one, having tied the housing problem to the introduction of the national security law and electoral reform in tackling the city’s immediate as well as longer-term problems that have caused social malaise and unrest.
Certainly, if you believe a school of thought that claims a high level of home ownership has a stabilising effect on social order and political stability, Hong Kong has been doing terribly in the past decade.