Why should we have to “love our country”? What, in fact, does it mean to “love a country”. Does it mean to love a diverse population of millions of people, few of whom you have ever met? Does it mean to love a government? Does it mean to love some sort of ill-defined national identity?

These are questions that leaders should be asking themselves whenever they extol us to be patriotic. And the rules are being changed here in Hong Kong so that only those who fit Beijing’s narrow definition of “patriot” will be eligible as leaders. This is because the central government is scared that pro-democracy politicians may somehow get into power despite a system that is already prohibitively stacked against them.

So just what is it to be patriotic?

I was born in Britain but I don’t have any particularly powerful feelings of love for the place; it’s got some nice countryside and pubs and democracy, but I like Hong Kong a whole lot more. Hong Kong has been very kind to me, its people are fantastic, it has over 20 species of frogs and you can get spicy noodles at 1am. I am proud of this city.

Am I proud to be British? Not particularly. I’m proud of my parents, who gave me a great upbringing, and I like to think I’m a reasonably nice person. But none of this means I should have some special zeal about national identity.

Indeed these days it’s hard to define exactly what a national identity is. Should the United States be defined by Martin Luther King or racist, murdering policemen? Should Britain be defined by fish and chips or chicken tikka masala? Countries increasingly have more diverse peoples with different ideologies and cultures – you just can’t pin down a national identity, especially in a place as vast and diverse as China.

I’ve been to mainland China several times and it’s a pretty good place. In 1996 a friend and I spent a month going overland from Hong Kong to Gansu province in the northwest. We saw some amazing sights and met lots of friendly people. There’s a lot to like about China.

But should I be forced to “love” a place with an extremely repressive government, a government that incarcerates a million people based on ethnicity, a government that refuses to allow democracy in Hong Kong? I’ve got nothing against the people of China, but it’s hard to love such a repressive system.

Even the late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping said to be a future leader of Hong Kong didn’t require a love of a ruling party. In 1984, he wrote that to be a patriot, “We don’t demand that they be in favor of China’s socialist system, we only ask them to love the motherland and Hong Kong.”

Historically leaders who encourage or demand fervent patriotism turn out to be rather unpleasant. The names Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin spring to mind. Encouraging patriotism encourages nationalism, and nationalism isn’t good.

Good governments earn patriotism, only tyrants demand it. This is something our leaders would be wise to remember.

(Alex Price is a journalist who has lived and worked in Hong Kong for over 30 years.)

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