Politics and Poverty in Hong Kong

A quarter of a century ago, the British were busy trying to head off demands for direct elections in Hong Kong on the grounds that its citizens had no experience of democracy and little appetite for politics. The fall of 2009 fall saw yet another bid to justify further delays in the introduction of universal suffrage when the city's current rulers launched a fresh campaign to persuade the public to back a revised political reform package.

These proposals still do not offer an early date for a directly-elected legislature because of continuing anxiety in Being and among Hong Kong officials and business leaders about the social and economic costs of universal suffrage. They fear that democracy will introduce irresistible demands for increased welfare and redistribution of wealth through increased taxation.