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Political Participation of Fujianese Interest Groups

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China’s New United Front Work in Hong Kong

Abstract

The Fujianese interest groups lobby the government, utilize the mass media and have members with shared interests. They have become increasingly active in the political arena of Hong Kong, supporting Beijing’s policies toward Hong Kong and the Hong Kong administration. The political participation of the leaders of Fujianese interest groups in the high level of politics of Hong Kong and mainland China is prominent, including the Legislative Council elections, the election of the Chief Executive, the election of Hong Kong members to the National People’s Congress and the appointment of Hong Kong members to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. At the grassroots level of Hong Kong politics, Fujianese interest groups have become an electoral machine for candidates from pro-Beijing political forces. The alliance between Fujianese groups and Chinese officials in Hong Kong is noticeable in their group activities. The active political participation of Fujianese groups in Hong Kong is undoubtedly a hallmark of the territory’s political development, demonstrating the depth and breadth of China’s united front work in the HKSAR.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “The 2016 Population By-Census,” (Hong Kong: Census and Statistics Department, 2016), in https://www.bycensus2016.gov.hk/data/16bc-main-results.pdf, access date: April 22, 2018, p. 51. There were 3.4% of the Hong Kong population in 2006 who spoke Fujianese, compared with 3.5% in 2011 and 3.6% in 2016. In 2016, the population of Hong Kong reached 7,336,585 people (p. 25). It is unknown how many Hong Kong people who have Fujianese ancestry do not frequently speak Fujianese, although some Fujianese community leaders in Hong Kong claimed that there are 1.1 million Fujianese in the HKSAR in 2017. For the assertion of 1.1 million Fujianese who are residing in the HKSAR, see Wen Wei Po, August 3, 2017.

  2. 2.

    There were a few anthropological and sociological studies on the Fujianese in Hong Kong from Gregory Elliot Guldin, “‘Overseas’ at Home: The Fujianese of Hong Kong,” unpublished PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1977. Also see Susanne Y. P. Choi, “Association Divided, Association United: The Social Organization of Chaozhou and Fujian Migrants in Hong Kong,” in Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce and Evelyn Hu-Dehart, eds., Voluntary Associations in the Chinese Diaspora (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006), pp. 121–140.

  3. 3.

    Newsletter of the Hong Kong Federation of Fujian Associations, January 1998, p. 1.

  4. 4.

    For China’s united work in Hong Kong, see Cindy Yik-yi Chu, Chinese Communist and Hong Kong Capitalists (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010); Christine Loh, Underground Front: The Chinese Communist Party in Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2010); and Ray Wang and Gerry Groot, “Who Represents? Xi Jinping’s Grand United Front Work, Legitimation, Participation and Consultative Democracy,” Journal of Contemporary China (2018), in https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2018.1433573, access date: April 22, 2018.

  5. 5.

    Allan Cigler and Burdett A. Loomis, Interest Group Politics (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 1998).

  6. 6.

    For China’s interest groups, see Michael Waller, “Communist Politics and the Group Process: Some Comparative Conclusions,” in David S. G. Goodman, ed., Groups and Politics in the People’s Republic of China (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1984), pp. 196–207, where Waller argues that interest groups in China exist “without pluralism.” Also see Victor Falkenheim, ed., Citizens and Groups in Contemporary China (Ann Arbor: Center of Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1987). For interest groups in Hong Kong, see Sonny Shiu-hing Lo, ed., Interest Groups and the New Democracy Movement in Hong Kong (London: Routledge, 2017).

  7. 7.

    Tan Yao Sua, Thock Ker Pong, Kamarudin Ngah and Goh Soo Khoon, “Maintenance and propagation of Chinese culture in a Malay state: the roles of the Chinese associations in Kuala Terengganu,” Asian Ethnicity, vol. 13. No. 4 (2012), pp. 441–467.

  8. 8.

    Hong Liu, “Old Linkages, New Networks: The Globalization of Overseas Chinese Voluntary Associations and its Implications,” The China Quarterly, no. 155 (September 1998), pp. 582–583.

  9. 9.

    Ibid., p. 589. For Tan’s historical background and business development, see Yan Qinghuang, Overseas Chinese Tradition and Modernization (in Chinese) (Singapore: World Scientific, 2010), pp. 189–192. He expanded his rubber plantation business rapidly from 1914 to 1925 (pp. 196–197).

  10. 10.

    Xia Yuqing, “Between the Family and State: Nanqiao engineers and the Nanyang Huaqiao society during the war years,” Southeast Asian Affairs (in Chinese), vol. 2, no. 166 (2016), p. 66.

  11. 11.

    Li Qirong and Xu Haoliang, “Tan Kah Kee’s Spirit of Patriotism and the China Dream,” Overseas Chinese Journal of Bagui (in Chinese), no. 2 (June 2016), p. 6.

  12. 12.

    Tan Kah Kee, “Tan Kah Kee’s speech criticizing the Fujian administration in the welcome ceremony of the Fujian tongxianghui (townspeople association),” November 24, 1940, in Fujian Huaqiao Archival History (In Chinese) (Fujian: Archive Publishing, 1990), pp. 1697–1703.

  13. 13.

    Ibid., p. 1703.

  14. 14.

    Shangguan Xiao-hong, “A Study of the Returned Fujian Overseas Chinese Associations in the Republic of China,” Journal of Overseas Chinese History Studies (in Chinese), no. 3 (September 2017), pp. 87–90.

  15. 15.

    A Special Publication on the Establishment Meeting of the National Returned Overseas Chinese Association (Zhonghua quan guo gui guo huaqiao lianhe hui) (Beijing: Gaihui, 1957) (no author), p. 54.

  16. 16.

    Ibid., p. 55.

  17. 17.

    In 1984, for example, Ye Fei was the honorary chairman of the National Returned Overseas Chinese Representative Conference. He was born in Fujian’s Nanan and was an overseas Chinese in the Philippines. See The Third National Returned Overseas Chinese Representative Conference (in Chinese) (Beijing: National Returned Overseas Chinese Association, August 1984), pp. 77–83.

  18. 18.

    Fuzhou city’s United Front Department, “Consolidating the work on the representatives from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and the overseas,” China’s United Front Line (Zhongguo Tongyi Zhanxin), August 2010, p. 40.

  19. 19.

    Chen Feng-lan, “Transnational Mobilization of Overseas Chinese Village Officials and Qiaoxiang Social Governance: A Case Study of Mingxi Village in Fujian Province,” Journal of Overseas Chinese History Studies (in Chinese), no. 1 (March 2017), pp. 19–28.

  20. 20.

    The name Fukienese is used in this paper when it adopts the official name of the group concerned.

  21. 21.

    See Newsletter of the Fujian Members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (Zhengxue Tiandi), vol. 7 (2017), p. 58.

  22. 22.

    Ibid., p. 58.

  23. 23.

    Wen Wei Po, December 27, 2017, p. A14.

  24. 24.

    Ibid.

  25. 25.

    Wen Wei Po, April 13, 2018, p. A13.

  26. 26.

    For the politics of guanxi, see Lucian W. Pye, The Spirit of Chinese Politics (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1992), pp. 207–217.

  27. 27.

    Remarks made by Lam Ming-sum, the FCC chairman, in A Special Commemoration of the 95th Anniversary of the Fukien Chamber of Commerce and Hong Kong’s 15th Anniversary of its Return to the Motherland (in Chinese) (Hong Kong: The Fukien Chamber of Commerce, September 2012), p. 19.

  28. 28.

    Ibid., pp. 54–63.

  29. 29.

    Chong Kwok-to, “Discussing the Features of the Fujianese Humanitarian Spirit and their Mercantilism,” in A Special Commemoration of the 95th Anniversary of the Fukien Chamber of Commerce and Hong Kong’s 15th Anniversary of its Return to the Motherland (in Chinese) (Hong Kong: The Fukien Chamber of Commerce, September 2012), pp. 89–91.

  30. 30.

    Xianggang Shangpao, April 10, 2018, p. A15.

  31. 31.

    Ibid.

  32. 32.

    Xianggang Shangpao, April 16, 2018, p. A12.

  33. 33.

    Ibid. Wen Wei Po, April 16, 2018, p. A25.

  34. 34.

    See the Facebook of the Quanzhou Association, in https://www.facebook.com/Hong-Kong-Quanzhou-Associations-Youth-Committee-893683283997735/?ref=py_c, access date: April 22, 2018.

  35. 35.

    Wen Wei Po, April 3, 2018, p. A27.

  36. 36.

    Newsletter of the Fujian Members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (Zhengxue Tiandi), vol. 7 (2017), p. 59.

  37. 37.

    Ibid., p. 59.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., p. 59.

  39. 39.

    Xianggang Shangpao (Hong Kong Commercial Daily), October 18, 2017, p. A21.

  40. 40.

    Wen Wei Po, August 2, 2018, p. A19.

  41. 41.

    See the websites of the school, in http://www.fms.edu.hk/, access date: April 26, 2018 and http://www.fssas.edu.hk/, access date: April 26, 2018.

  42. 42.

    Ta Kung Pao, January 18, 2018, p. A20.

  43. 43.

    Ta Kung Pao, January 19, 2018, p. B11.

  44. 44.

    Ta Kung Pao, December 21, 2017, p. B1.

  45. 45.

    Wen Wei Po, April 2, 2018.

  46. 46.

    Xianggang Shangpao, March 20, 2018, p. A20. Wen Wei Po, March 21, 2018, p. A15.

  47. 47.

    Wen Wei Po, April 24, 2018, p. A15.

  48. 48.

    Ibid.

  49. 49.

    Ibid.

  50. 50.

    Yip Tin-sang, A Collection of Materials on Hong Kong’s Elections, 1996–2000 (Hong Kong: Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2001), pp. 67–68.

  51. 51.

    Pingguo Ribao (Apple Daily), February 25, 2005, in https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/daily/article/20050225/4691844, access date: April 23, 2018.

  52. 52.

    Pingguo Ribao (Apple Daily), February 26, 2005, in https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/daily/article/20050226/4695264, access date: April 23, 2018.

  53. 53.

    See “Lo Man-tuen,” in http://www.cppcc.gov.cn/CMS/wylibary/showJcwyxtInfoWylibary.action?tabJcwyxt.guid=11W001877, access date: April 24, 2018.

  54. 54.

    For Lo’s biography, see http://www.hsmrt.com/luwenduan/column/2259/, access date: April 25, 2018.

  55. 55.

    See the mission of the Association in http://www.happrc.hk/tc/ourmission.php, access date: April 24, 2018.

  56. 56.

    See Lo Man-tuen, “Why does the central government not support John Tsang to participate in the Chief Executive election?,” Sing Tao Daily, March 24, 2017, p. A19.

  57. 57.

    For District Council elections, see Shiu-hing Lo, Wing-yat Yu and Kwok-fai Wan, “The 1999 District Councils elections,” in Ming Chan and Alvin So, eds., Crisis and Transformation in China’s Hong Kong (London: M. E. Sharpe, 2002), pp. 139–165.

  58. 58.

    Dongfang Ribao (Oriental Daily), December 12, 2012.

  59. 59.

    Wong Po-yan supported the NPC Standing Committee’s interpretation of the Basic Law over the speed of political reform in March 2004. Ming Pao, March 29, 2004, p. A6. Wong Yuk-shan supported the NPC Standing Committee’s interpretation of Article 104 of the Basic Law concerning the oath-taking behavior of two legislators-elect, Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung, in November 2016. Xianggang Xinbao, March 17, 2018.

  60. 60.

    “Fujianese give money and support in the anti-Occupy Central Movement,” in http://www.post852.com/, access date: April 25, 2018.

  61. 61.

    Pingguo Ribao (Apple Daily), August 17, 2014, in https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/daily/article/20140817/18834891 access date: April 25, 2018.

  62. 62.

    Ibid.; see also Ta Kung Pao, August 15, 2014, in http://news.takungpao.com/hkol/politics/2014-08/2674167.html, access date: April 25, 2018.

  63. 63.

    See the Alliance website, in https://www.sign4peacedemocracy.hk/index.php?r=index/index, access date: April 23, 2018.

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Lo, S.SH., Hung, S.CF., Loo, J.HC. (2019). Political Participation of Fujianese Interest Groups. In: China’s New United Front Work in Hong Kong. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-8483-7_3

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