Vigil: The Struggle for Hong Kong

"Vigil is a great, snappy introduction to how Hong Kong got where it is today. Whereas many Sinologists focus on the exceptional qualities of Xi Jinping’s China, Wasserstrom, a historian, looks at Hong Kong’s troubles through a comparative lens. He reaches back into China’s past, as well as looking around the world, to help the reader make sense of events in Hong Kong. Rather than offering a chronological account of the protests and crackdowns, he offers a series of thematic snapshots of key moments and their impact, from the successful attempt to oppose national security legislation in 2003 to the abduction by Chinese agents of the Causeway Bay booksellers in 2015. The problem for anyone writing about Hong Kong these days is that events are moving so fast. Much has changed since the book was written last year. But Vigil is still a useful guide to the broader forces pulling Hong Kong apart. Wasserstrom highlights several intriguing paradoxes. Although many activists look to Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law, to defend their rights, the document is deeply contradictory as it also enshrines Beijing’s right to exert total control over Hong Kong’s system. Beijing’s pledges about human rights were meant to secure a compromise deal with the British and dissuade Hong Kongers from fleeing en masse after the handover in 1997. Beijing never intended to uphold them. But it inadvertently stoked hopes for democracy, like a parent who, as Wasserstrom puts it, “drives a child crazy by promising candy that he never delivers”. While it is surprising how hard Beijing has cracked down on Hong Kong in the last few years, it is also surprising that the Communist Party left the city alone for so long. As the last colonial governor, Chris Patten, told Wasserstrom: “When the snow starts melting, it melts quickly.”"