The facts
The Associated Press reported that Hong Kong held a state funeral Sunday for Tung Chee-hwa, the city’s first post-colonial leader. Tung served as chief executive from 1997 to 2005, following the handover from British rule, and died on September 8 at age 89. Chinese officials from Beijing joined Hong Kong political leaders at the service, which was the third state funeral in the former colony since 1997. Politburo member Shi Taifeng delivered a eulogy, describing Tung as a close friend of the Communist Party and a contributor to the one-country, two-systems framework, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency. The AP noted that media were not permitted inside the funeral service. The South China Morning Post reported that around 200 people were invited to the ceremony. Members of the public had the opportunity to pay their respects at three separate venues. Tung’s time as chief executive encompassed the Asian financial crisis, the 2003 SARS outbreak, and large public protests against a proposed anti-treason law. The government eventually shelved the proposed law, and Tung later resigned, citing health reasons. He subsequently took on the role of vice chairman of China’s top political advisory body.
Our take
Hong Kong held a state funeral for its first post-handover chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, and the whole affair was so tightly choreographed by Beijing you could smell the incense from the Politburo. About 200 handpicked mourners got to watch Politburo member Shi Taifeng praise Tung as a ‘close friend’ of the Communist Party, while the actual press and public were kept the fuck outside where they belong. It’s the perfect metaphor for Tung’s tenure and the ‘one country, two systems’ fantasy he helped prop up: a performative ritual for the elite, witnessed only by authorized personnel.
They gave the man a state funeral, the third since ’97, which is the bureaucratic equivalent of a gold watch for a lifetime of loyal service. His big achievements? Steering the city through a financial crisis and a deadly disease outbreak, then getting his ass handed to him by massive protests until his own government had to shelve a treason law because even they realized it was political suicide. He ‘resigned for health reasons’ and got promoted upstairs to a fancy vice-chairman gig in Beijing. What a fucking hero.
Now they seal the legacy with a closed-door ceremony. No messy journalists, no unscripted moments, just a neat, state-sanctioned goodbye for a man who served as the acceptable face of Beijing’s rule until reality - in the form of pandemics, protests, and panicking markets - interrupted the propaganda. The public got to bow at three designated altars, like paying respects to a statue in a museum of failed autonomy.
It’s a funeral for the idea of Hong Kong he was supposed to represent. The coffin might as well have been draped with the Basic Law, because they buried that shit with him. The party line is secure, the history is written, and the doors are locked. All that’s left is the faint, bitter smell of the bullshit they’re using for flowers.
