July 1st 1997 was the date that Hong Kong returned to mainland China. Till now it has been 20 years, since that day. Under ”one country, two systems” policy, Hong Kong was permitted by the central government to keep its own political system which was founded by its British colony and had run under the system for more than 100 years. After the hand-over, many in the west had bet that Hong Kong would, to a certain extent, influence mainland’s political system. Is it true? Despite the knowledge that conclusions shouldn’t be jumped into too quickly, at least 20 years later, the result seems not so optimistic as they previously predicted ----China still keeps a strong hold of its own formulation----a Chinese style of socialism.

Each and every single development should follow its own process or steps. It is a law of nature. Cutting its corner often backfires seen as a punishment by law. As a Child learns how to run, he or she must first acquire the capability of crawling, standing and walking from step to step. If they jumped a certain step, say, standing for example, they would never acquire the ability to talk, let alone knowing how to run. A country’s development falls in the same category. Those countries that ended up in success after having bypassed a certain step or steps were rarely seen. Even though a few have seemingly made their own success, they have to turn back to fill the gap.

China is no exception. Many people marvel at China’s fast economic development, but under the splendid success that China has made, some steps which should have been paid attention were neglected or bypassed .To those who don’t know or haven’t read Chinese history, I ‘d like to offer a hand. I’ll show you a comparison between China and the West in history, particularly at several turning points that the West reshaped the world and changed human’s history.

As the Great Charter seen as the cornerstone of constitutional monarchy was born in 1215, what was happening to China? Well, China was still in the Song dynasty, a feudal society that was very weak at the time. The territory was torn into equally two parts by two powers ----the south controlled by the Song dynasty, the north controlled by Jurchen an ethnical minority. And in the following years, China had been entirely under the rule of two ethnical minorities respectively: between 1272-1368 known as the Liao dynasty in the hands of Mongols, and between 1664-1912 known as the Qing dynasty in the hands of Manchu, both were minorities living in the very north of China. Unfortunately, these shifts of power from the top didn’t bring much to China. China was still pacing around the same position----a feudal society under emperor’s rule, when the world, especially on the west hemisphere, was taking up a huge step forwards, a step that was destined to change the world.

Later, the independence of America, and the French revolution in the late 18th century both had deeply influenced the world as well. However, China, in which the eastern civilization was born, was still sleeping on its laurels. The 6-centuries sleep almost led China into a western colony. It was eventually awakened by the shells from the warships of the Britain in the Opium War. The awoken China suddenly noticed that its power which was presumed by its rulers in a closed –door arrogance as sublime was in fact too weak to fight back the invaders’ attack. As a consequence, Hong Kong was ceded to Britain after the war. From then on, the Chinese people had realized their country’s less-developed situation , and started to search a way that could save it from being colonized.

Then history then came to a fork in the road waiting for China to choose. One was the pro-Capitalism road that led by Sun Yat-sen , a renowned revolutionist and pioneer, who valued the western political system and advocate China to establishing a republic country with checks and balances ; but his successor Chiang Kai-shek, sadly to say, had failed in realizing Sun’s idea and instead became a dictator. The other road was the pro-Communism one which was influenced by the October Revolution in Russia. After the second World War and China’s Civil War, eventually, history chose to take China on the pro-Communism road.

It was destined not a flat sail for a new China that, from a mere feudal society, plunged directly into a socialistic state. At the beginning mistakes were made, such as the Great Leap and the Culture Revolution, seen as backfiring. However, after turns and twists, China came to a new era in which China reformed its policy and opened its gate. The country along with its people was benefited by this great practice. China led by the Communist Party has made significant achievement, for instance: more than one billion people were lifted out from poverty, which no other Parties had ever achieved. Over recent years, China has surpassed Japan, becoming the second wealthiest country in the world with an annual GDP of 11 trillion dollars. Despite this, when this number is divided by 1.3 billion of its people, not much is left comparing with the figure of developed countries. That is why China is still a developing country. And like any other developing countries, China faces the same challenges.

Corruption, for example, is the chronic illness for any government around the world. The only difference is some deal with it better than others. For China the illness was bad as well if not worse. In the feudal society, rules for tackling corruption were usually weak and inconsistent. In socialistic China, the problem hadn’t been paid enough attention until recent years. Now it is currently fighting hard against corruption. The scenario of keeping power in cage was reiterated recently by president Xi. It is believed that with regulations and laws truly imposed onto the officials of all levels, power can be eventually put in cage. China has made the pledge, and is now on the way of forming such a system.

Second, it comes to inequality. Such as the inequality between rural areas and cities, the inequality between a developed western part and a less-developed eastern part, etc.. For the influence of opening up its gate, coastal cities in the east part of China took a more advantage . People there become the first to enjoy a relatively prosperous society. However, it is sure that they have made up their mind to deal with the issue. Policies were released, for instance: farmers on longer have to pay any taxes since 2006; the Development of the West Region was deployed too in 2000; China will eradicate poverty all over the country in the next few years. China is doing all they can to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

Third, it seems human right is being valued higher and higher recent years, as more and more people is entering into middle class. Some complaints were made, such as not having the right to vote. Protests were even made occasionally. That is an issue China must not duck. However, China has its own election system----The system of People’s Congress. They can definitely vote for their deputies to the People’s Congress who have the right to vote for the country’s leader along with other rights and obligations. But there is not much enthusiasm for voting for their deputies to the People’s Congress, at least from what I have seen. Many people don’t use the right, some don’t even know they have such right. That is partly due to the lack of practice. It is until recent decades that mainland China didn’t have such a voting system. There are not many ways to practice the right. That is the aspect that was neglected and should be paid enough attention now. As to Hong Kong, please don’t forget, before China took charge, there was a position called governor. Who can take the job? Hong Kongers cannot. It was well known that no Chinese person can take it, no matter how wealthy or how intelligent he or she was. After the handover, Hong Kongers finally have to right to choose their official leader. Now Hong Kong people are able to run Hong Kong. Based on that, they should be thankful, shouldn’t they?

Under the new situation that Britain leaves the EU, and that Mr. Trump proclaims “Americans first”, China will inevitably face not only opportunities, but also challenges which come both from the interior and the exterior side. What we’ve learnt from the history is there are always issues here and there coming out as civilization develops. Surely in the future, there will be some in the way, if not more. It is vital that solutions that tackle issues outpace the issues themselves. Or else, backlash would be made. Instead of shying away, China must face them and solve them. Despite noticing the rise of nationalism and anti-globalization, China should not change its attitude towards globalization and the related treaties. Instead, China should forge in the lead. “One belt, One road” initiative will definitely benefit the countries along the way. It is also a strong push for human’s civilization. Recently, some achievements were made, but the Chinese people should never sit on the laurels ever again. They should, according to their own issues, come up with relevant solutions, as there is no panacea for all issues.