Rebel island

Hong Kong isn’t what it was. Under British rule it was meek and mild, careful not to rock the boat, forever nervous about its future under China. The rich bought property in Chelsea and Vancouver, put their children into good schools and universities in Britain and America, and did whatever it took to get another passport.

Nowadays Hong Kong fizzes with political radicalism. Last week mass student protests obliged the Chief Executive, C.Y. Leung, to cancel the introduction of mandatory ‘patriotism’ classes in schools — that is, lessons for children about the superior nature of Chinese Communism. And the following day, at the Legislative Council elections, the democratic groups won enough seats to make life a lot harder for poor old C.Y., as he tries to fashion a system of constitutional reform which will please the Beijing leadership without bringing the demonstrators out on to the streets.

Now 58, Mr Leung is an engaging and clever chap. At 30 he ran the Hong Kong branch of Jones Lang Wootton, and at 31, 12 years before the handover, Beijing put him on the Basic Law Consultative Committee. As a result, he has never shaken off the accusation that he became a secret member of the Chinese Communist Party. Earlier this year, the Beijing People’s Daily even referred to him as ‘Comrade’, tongzhi, a term used only for party members. You won’t find that reference on the People’s Daily website; it disappeared directly there was a fuss about it.

Who made the fuss? The democrats in Hong Kong. Not just the grand old British-educated stalwarts like Martin Lee, but young kids, Hong Kong-born, bred and educated, who tweeted and posted internet messages about it. The same kids who, often supported by their parents, won their remarkable victory last Saturday by forcing Mr Leung to drop his plan for the ‘patriotism’ classes.