纽约时报中文网 - 英文原版-英In Hong Kong Chinas Grip Can Feel Like Death by a Thousand Cuts
March 20, 2024 2 min 327 words
这篇纽约时报的报道以犀利的笔触描绘了中国对香港的深化控制。报道以“千刀万剐”的比喻，鲜明地展现了香港当前的困境。然而，我认为该报道在某种程度上过于悲观。香港，作为一座历史悠久的城市，有着深厚的文化底蕴和强大的生命力。面对困难，香港人民的韧性和创新精神不容忽视。报道的焦点应该更多地放在香港如何在困境中寻找出路，而非过度强调压力和困扰。这样，才能给读者提供更全面、更深入的视角。
Once one of Asia’s most high-flying cities, Hong Kong is now grappling with a deep pessimism.
The stock market is in the tank, home values have tumbled and emigration is fueling a brain drain. Some of the hottest restaurants, spas and shopping malls that local residents are flocking to are across the border, in the mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen.
“It pains me to say Hong Kong is over,” Stephen Roach, an economist and a former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia long known for his optimism about the city, wrote in a recent commentary in The Financial Times.
The government needs to revive Hong Kong’s economy and promote its global image, but it has instead largely focused on national security. It moved with unusual speed on Tuesday to pass a package of updated and new security laws aimed at curbing foreign influence and dissent with penalties like life imprisonment for treason and other political crimes. The legislation could deter even more foreign businesses, already a shrinking presence, from investing in Hong Kong.
The malaise hanging over Hong Kong is partly a consequence of its status as a bridge between China and the West, with the city’s growth dragged down by the mainland’s sputtering economy and China’s tensions with the United States.
But at the heart of Hong Kong’s troubles is a crisis of identity, as the city’s Beijing-backed officials push the once freewheeling city away from the West and embrace the top-down political culture and nationalistic fervor of President Xi Jinping’s China.
“People are very unhappy for all kinds of reasons,” said Emily Lau, a veteran pro-democracy politician and former lawmaker who now hosts an interview show on YouTube. “Of course, the authorities will not admit it publicly, but I think they know it.”