Conservatism has deep roots in Hong Kong politics and society. Today, as a political trend, it is often reflected in but not limited to the current pro-Beijing camp, one of the two major political forces in Hong Kong, as opposed to liberalism, a dominant feature of the pro-democracy camp. It has also become a political view taken by some localist political parties.
Political conservatism in Hong Kong derives from the Chinese tradition of familism and Confucianism and was incorporated into the colonial government's policies by Governor Cecil Clementi in the 1920s in the wake of rising Marxism–Leninism and communism in general. The anti-communist sentiments continued after the Second World War when waves of Chinese refugees fled to the colony as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) swept across Mainland China in the renewed Chinese Civil War. At this time, Conservatives supported the Republic of China (ROC), and were pro–Kuomintang (KMT). After the de facto end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 when the ROC government fled to Taiwan and throughout the Cold War, Conservatives have also taken libertarian thoughts on economic policies.
During the transition period that began during the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984, the business elites were joined by pro-Communist traditional leftists in a strategic "unholy alliance" to resist the rise of the demand for democratisation and liberalisation, in order to secure continued political stability and economic prosperity while maintaining a good relationship with the central government in Beijing when the handover eventually happened in 1997. It has also broadened its popular support and become the backbone of today's pro-Beijing camp, which has been the major supporting force of the SAR administration led by the indirectly elected Chief Executive.
Early colonial period
Laissez-faireism
As the British free port of Hong Kong and taking advantage as the gateway to the vast Chinese market, Hong Kong merchants, the local Chinese elites so-called compradors, had taken the leading role in investment and trading opportunities by serving as middlemen between European and indigenous population in China and Hong Kong, in the principles of laissez-faire classical liberalism, which has since dominated the discourse of the economic philosophy of Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was previously rated the world's freest economy, a title bestowed on it by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, and was greatly admired by libertarian economist Milton Friedman.
Traditional conservatism
Hong Kong as a predominant Chinese society has its own cultural conservatism which could be found in the Confucian teachings. The conservatism of the Chinese elites was further protected under the British colonial rule in the early collaborative colonial regime between the Chinese elites and British colonialists. To facilitate its governance of the colonised, the colonial government helped consolidate the gentry's power to preserve conservative cultural values in the wake of progressive movements about Chinese nationalism such as the May Fourth Movement in 1919 and the subsequent New Culture Movement in the 1920s in China.
As Marxist and anti-imperialist movements strengthened in China in the 1920s, Hong Kong Chinese elitists sought refuge in traditional Chinese values and teachings and the British colonial government came to the defence of "Chinese traditionalism". During the Canton–Hong Kong strike in 1925–26 which was directed by the Kuomintang government in Canton, Chinese elites, including Legislative Council unofficial members R. H. Kotewall and Shouson Chow, actively advised and helped coordinate counterstrike efforts. Kotewall also addressed Hong Kong Governor Cecil Clementi about the European inspectorate of the vernacular schools and emphasised the need for the colonial government to carefully monitor vernacular education, as the schools had become "breeding grounds for sedition". Clementi directly intervened in the Chinese-language curriculum, stressing Chinese traditional teachings and endorsing "the ethics of Confucianism which is, in China, probably the best antidote to the pernicious doctrines of Bolshevism, and is certainly the most powerful course..." In 1927, the University of Hong Kong established a Chinese department which helped form the Chinese curriculum to be used in Hong Kong schools. The conservative Chinese curriculum was reaffirmed in the 1950s when the colonial government appropriated Chinese traditionalism to counter Communist influences.