TO: Sir Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of Hong Kong
FROM: Frank Ching
RE: Bringing Democracy to Hong Kong Without Losing Your Job

Ten years after the British handed over control of Hong Kong to mainland China, one burning question remains unresolved: Will the territory be governed by its people, or ruled from Beijing? Since you are embarking on a second term as Hong Kong’s chief executive, I have decided to send you some thoughts on what you ought to do—or not do—in the coming five years to resolve this issue once and for all. You have the unenviable job of having to thread the needle between the bureaucrats of Beijing and the democracy-loving people of Hong Kong. So far, you’ve done well, facing down a challenger from the democratic camp. Moreover, you have impressive credentials built over four decades in the government, not to mention a diploma from Harvard’s Kennedy School. As financial secretary during the Asian financial crisis, your plan to intervene in the stock market when speculators attacked the Hong Kong dollar worked brilliantly. You can speak to Beijing officials in their own Mandarin dialect, albeit not hiding your Cantonese roots, knowing that the vast majority of people in Hong Kong are behind you.

Photo: LUCY NICHOLSON / AFP

Now, about getting your job done. You know as well as I that the biggest challenge you face is how to deal with the demand in Hong Kong for full democracy—when and how Hong Kong will be able to choose its future leaders and the entire legislature through universal suffrage. Surveys consistently show that 60 to 70 percent of the people favor full democracy, so that they—rather than simply the 800 members of the election committee—can vote for the chief executive and all 60 members of the legislature.

This is a very delicate issue. Go too far and, perish the thought, the leaders in Beijing will cut your term short, as they did that of your predecessor, Tung Chee-hwa. Be too timid, and Hong Kong’s citizens will see you as little more than a Chinese puppet. The march by half a million angry demonstrators in July 2003 proved to Beijing that Tung was too unpopular to stay on. He’s now comfortably ensconced on his ceremonial perch as a “leader of the party and the state,” one of four dozen such people in China. Here’s my advice on how you can avoid his fate:

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