https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X273GlPwqA
This video is in Cantonese but it captured how Hong Kong police arrested over 500 citizens for occupying central Hong Kong through a sit in civil disobedience.
https://news.yahoo.com/police-arrest-511-big-hk-democracy-rally-03481795...
A dramatic scene , it definitely sent a shiver down my spine..who knows how this will turn out, lets pray it doesn't become another tiananmen square 1989
Police said 511 people were arrested Wednesday for unlawful assembly and preventing police from carrying out their duties. They were holding an overnight sit-in after the rally.
Police said 98,600 people joined Tuesday's rally at its peak, while organizers said 510,000 turned out, the highest estimates in a decade. Hong Kong University researchers put the number at between 154,000 and 172,000.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/hong-kong-pro-democracy-clashes-escalate-in... Well, since I was born in Hong Kong. I want to keep posting about this.
This is ahistoric protest in Hong Kong. I am very proud of those who risk being arrested, losing their jobs and security in order to occupy the street.
Regardless of the outcome, its important to take a stand and they are doing just that.
I think the big difference with what happened 25 yrs ago at Tiannamen square is that it is a lot more difficult to keep Chinese people (whether in Hong Kong or the rest of China) from seeing imagine of what the police and gov are doing to the protesters.
I am sure Taiwan is watching very closely.
Amazing and inspiring. Solidarity!
The battle for Hong Kong’s future: there’s no going back
Hong Kong: Workers Strike in Support of Student Democracy Movement
What I'm getting from Korean news is the main driving force behind this is the people in HK are upset the Communist Party of China is trying to have it where (or now have it where) they get to vet all HK candidates whom run for office; even in local politics. It's not really an "independence from China" thing at all; it's more of a "stay the fuck out of our politics" thing.
According to one piece I read around the time of this year's 25th anniversary, most of the people interviewed said "yes we know it happened; so what?" in the same way that people here or anywhere else turn a blind eye to similar monumentous events.
Speaking of which, I noticed that anniversary passed here with no mention at all.
And yes, it will be very interesting to see what happens in Hong Kong.
Yes, one reaction begets another doesn't it? China has likely observed and analyzed all of the CIA backed colour revolutions around the world, and it reacts as expected in this instance with mass repression. Either way, the risk of having loose cannon politicians on the HK political scene, or having China's usual manner of engaging with dissent played out for the world, it amounts to a propaganda coup for someone I'm sure.
And while this is not even the biggest backlash in China, it is understandable that it would get more attention, given the history of Hong Kong, and the fact it is a world business center.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-26414016
But for all the differences between this and Tienanmen, I think those in the media talking about China's limited ability to respond and this being a turning point are engaging in wishful thinking . Perhaps it will be different, but there is no indication of that yet.
This is obviously going to end badly.
The Communists will crush these protestors like a bug, and as usual Canada will sit idly by doing nothing, because our cowardly leader Harper wouldn't dare lift a finger against someone his own size. And who do Canadian's think own our oil and gas deposits, and heaven-forbid that cash cow ever gets disrupted.
Agreed with a lot of that...but can we all please STOP calling the Chinese government "Communists"?
If you've got luxury hotels and bazillionaires in the police state you're running, it's damn sure stopped being "red".
The leadership in Beijing, like the leadership in Moscow, is a right-wing nationalist kleptocracy, and both should be regarded as such by the Left.
@ Ken
Yup. Also because it is a hackneyed old slur - one we hear way too much- about what is a broad ideology. I get visions of McCarthy every time I hear it.
And given how these protests are likely to be spun, I'd rather not go off the rails quite yet.
Communism is not the problem; the problem is right-wing élitism government. Capitalist democracies are no better that communist states, they all have totalitarian governments.
I think we can learn a great deal from those young protesters in Hong Kong, they want change and are not affraid to show it. Whether they succeed or not, the seed will be planted. China may remain under the same facist government for now, but eventually democracy will prevail.
Here is the full text of the Chinese Communist Party’s message to Hong Kong
http://qz.com/274425/here-is-the-full-text-of-the-chinese-communist-part...
If only Canadians were as concerned about democracy like the people of Hong Kong.
Inspiring to watch the people of Hong Kong work so hard for democracy. Heart breaking to think of what could happen. Let us all hope for the best.
To pay tribute to the people of Hong Kong, it be wonderful to have voter turnout increase to well above 70% in the next Federal Election. Canadians often take too much for granted as we have no recolection of having to work for democracy.
Let the people of Hong Kong be the inspiration.
Thing is, they didn't have democracy under British colonial rule either, and most sleepwalked through it. But I can see why they might be paying a bit more attention now.
Mass Protests Continue in Hong Kong - by Peter Symonds
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/10/01/hong-o01.html
"Thousands of protesters remained on the streets of central Hong Kong overnight in anticipation of far larger demonstrations today, China's National Day - a holiday in both Hong Kong and mainland China..."
Well said.
Hong Kong Is Ready for Democracy, but China Isn’t Ready for a Free Hong Kong
http://time.com/3447838/hong-kong-democracy-china-protests-anson-chan/
Hong Kong Stands Up
http://time.com/3453736/hong-kong-stands-up/
Occupy Hong Kong: Macro scale, micro-adaptations
https://github.com/cshirky/occupyhongkong/tree/master
China issues warning over Hong Kong 'illegal' protests
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29453490
Have the Commies blinked or is it a trap?
Hong Kong leader refuses to step down amid protests but opens door to talks
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/world/asia/china-hong-kong-protests/index....
"Commies"???
Really. I'd have to have to start hijacking this thread with hackneyed old 1950s American propaganda pics. I'd just hate it.
And no. No one has blinked:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/03/hong-kong-violent-clashes-r...
Protest Camps in Hong Kong Come Under Assault
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/04/world/asia/hong-kong-protests.html?_r=0
Protest group rejects talks with Hong Kong government
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/03/world/asia/china-hong-kong-protests/index....
These Commies sure are a class act
Hong Kong leader's daughter mocks protesters, thanks taxpayers for all her 'beautiful shoes'
NR..1950 called,they want their meme back.
The wider concerns of Hong Kong's protesters
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-29474746
Threatened Hong Kong Leader Offers Talks But Refuses to Step Down
Hong Kong’s chief executive has refused to quit but offered talks to pro-democracy protest leaders minutes before their deadline for him to resign at midnight on Thursday.
Student leaders had threatened to occupy government facilities if he refused to go, but they urged demonstrators to stay calm as thousands gathered around his office building in the Admiralty area.
Leung Chun-ying said in a press conference that he would not resign, but announced he had asked chief secretary Carrie Lam to speak to student representatives, as they had requested. He made it clear talks would have to be within the framework laid out by Beijing.
It was the first sign of movement in a stand-off that has lasted for days, with tens of thousands of protesters taking over a large area of downtown Hong Kong. The street demonstrations are the biggest challenge to Beijing’s authority in the former British colony since its handover to China in 1997.
Lam said she would seek to arrange talks as soon as possible, adding: “I hope both sides will be satisfied … Students had wanted a public meeting but I hope we can have some flexibility to discuss details.”...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/02/hong-kong-leader-offers-tal...
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/03/hong-kong-protestesters-dem...
Hired thugs attack student protesters. Its getting violent.
Terrorism and Turmoil: US Containment of China - by Tony Cartalucci
http://landdestroyer.blogspot.ca/2014/10/terrorism-and-turmoil-us-contai...
"With Hong-Kong's 'Occupy Central' fully exposed as US-based sedition, readers should be aware that this latest turmoil is but one part of a greater ongoing campaign by the United States to contain and co-opt the nation of China..."
Why Hong Kong Matters
quote:
Needless to say, the pro-democracy section of Hong Kong’s population – a clear majority – saw red. In the past, opposition to such undemocratic moves in Hong Kong have been organised by political parties and groups. But this time students and academics under banners such as Occupy Central and Hong Kong Federation of Students have taken the lead in organising massive protests which initially met with – by Hong Kong’s generally polite standards in the arguments between agitators and the authorities – surprisingly harsh use of force. Riot police were perceived to have gone too far in using many rounds of teargas that caused injuries. (The politeness and orderliness of Hong Kong’s protestors – scraping wax off the ground following candle-light vigils, picking up every piece of trash, posting apology notes for “inconvenience caused” to the rest of the public for roads closed – has been winning global admiration.)
Clearly, the students and their sympathisers had concluded that Beijing and Hong Kong authorities had reneged on their promises.
Meanwhile, in parallel with the burgeoning pro-democracy upsurge, property tycoons, oligarchs and other monopoly capitalists of Hong Kong have made known their abhorrence of the pro-democracy protests and their loyalty to their Beijing principals. Because they know that what the students and other pro-democracy forces in Hong Kong are really demanding is economic democracy in addition to political democracy and an end to crony capitalism....
http://www.countercurrents.org/jayaram021014.htm
It's abundantly clear that the trajectory of the regime in China is not towards a "dictatorship of the proletariat." For lack of a better term, we still have to call them the Chinese Communist Party or CCP, but I agree with Ken, don't call them "communists" or "commies" - cuz they're NOT.
China's so-called leaders are part of the global plutocratic network, eroding labour rights and wages around the world. Another example of China's exemplary egalitarianism:
a good up-to-minute blog on the events on HK streets:
https://www.reddit.com/live/tnc30xhiiqom
Absolutely.
However, President 9% Ma (a nickname earned from his approval rating) represents the views of Taiwan tycoons who benefit from cheap labour in China. His rhetoric supporting democracy is showmanship, since his party the KMT, as bloody (I mean that literally) rich as it is, still needs to win votes in upcoming elections.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2014/10/05/2003601303/1
Taiwanese show solidarity via Taipei sit-in
Protesters storm HK office in Taipei in a display of solidarity
The claims above fail to attribute to Hong Kong citizens themselves the desire and the courage to act for democratic rights. They sound like the suspicions of a paranoid western left-wing radical or the fabrications of a CCP propagandist.
from Hong Kong’s “Occupy Central” is US-backed Sedition by Tony Cartalucci:
Alright, assume this is good information. I honestly don’t know enough about the HK leaders mentioned, but I would say they are people primarily fighting for a democratic Hong Kong. Martin Lee, Jimmy Lai, and Anson Chan have been at it for pretty much all their adult lives.
So HK democracy advocates have found ready allies and funders in US neo-con circles, who may in turn want to undermine China in multiple ways. This would give some justification to the CCP to raise its guard and react more strongly. I need to see more, though, to be convinced that the HK leaders mentioned subscribe to the full US neocon agenda.
What would be unfortunate is that the HK leaders did not seek to build alliances with more progressive (though perhaps less moneyed) supporters of democracy, who do not seek to destabilize China, for example: http://globaldemocracymanifesto.wordpress.com/current-signatories/.
Dear Children of Hong Kong - by Anonymous
http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.ca/2014/10/what-to-make-of-current-situati...
"Children of Hong Kong, what choices are you leaving for Beijing?"
Hong Kong Protesters To Lift Blockade of Government Buildings
http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/10/05/381122/hong-kong-protesters-to-...
"Benny Tai, leader of the Occupy Central movement, said during a major demonstration late Saturday that protesters should cede to a demand by Chief Executive Leung Chin-yang to clear access to the government headquarters.
'We only target CY (Leung), not other government officials. By opening a route, CY will have no reason or excuse to clear our occupation and spread foul rumors,' said Tai..."
UK must end all arms sales to Hong Kong
This weekend saw serious unrest breaking out across Hong Kong. A student-driven movement drew tens of thousands on to the streets of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, calling for a truly free election for the Chief Executive of the territory in 2017. The police used considerable amounts of tear gas on the peaceful protesters, in an attempt to disperse them. Sadly, it appears that some of the tear gas used in the attempt to crush the pro-democracy protests was licensed for export by the UK Government.
Images circulated by people on the ground in Hong Kong suggest that at least some of the gas used was provided by UK arms company Chemring, which has subsequently confirmed that it is a long term provider of tear gas to Hong Kong.
This isn't the first time Chemring weapons have been associated with oppression against pro-democracy protesters. There is evidence that they were used in Egypt during the uprising. There is also evidence of plastic bullets made by Haley and Weller (owned by Chemring since 1992) being used in Kuwait....
http://www.redpepper.org.uk/uk-must-end-all-arms-sales-to-hong-kong/
Hong Kong Protesters Defiant After Government Threatens Crackdown by Monday
"Umbrella Revolution" protesters in Hong Kong held their largest rally yet Saturday night, a defiant show of force following a threat by Hong Kong's chief executive that he would "clear the streets" by Monday morning.
Live streaming coverage here...
The chief executive of Hong Kong, Leung Chun-ying, said in a televised address that all entrances to government headquarters would be cleared by Monday. He said if the conflict would be “very likely to keep getting out of hand.” He accused the the Occupy movement of seriously impacting average Hong Konger’s lives, incomes and public services.
Chun-ying said “all actions necessary” would be taken to clear the streets of the pro-democracy protests. Police used tear gas in a failed attempt to break up the protest last week.
“Even after all these incidents, it shows that the more they suppress us, the more we will fight,” student leader Joshua Wong told Saturday night's rally.
“We know that every time they assault us, we resist harder,” Alex Chow Yong Kang, the secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told the crowd. “And we know we’re on the right path, otherwise the government wouldn’t have been so afraid of us.”....
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/10/04/hong-kong-protesters-defiant...
[url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/10/hong-kong-protests-faq/]Hong Kong Protests FAQ[/url]
Beijing, what choices are you leaving for the children of Hong Kong?
Yes, but although it did not start out as the former, and has been about the latter, independence is rising as a radical option. Independence has become close to impossible in Hong Kong’s case, but the fact that people now entertain the idea in this very pragmatically-minded place, is evidence of the growing frustration with Beijing’s rule.
At the time of the Sino-British Joint Declaration governing the handover, it was thought China would gradually liberalize and become more like Hong Kong. But in the 17 years since then, it has become apparent that wealthy PRC elites only view Hong Kong as a colony handed over from another colonizer.
This is 20/20 hindsight, but it was unfortunate that the British colonizers did not implement true democracy in Hong Kong before handover negotiations even began. I would have regarded that as some restitution, given at least to the hard-working people of Hong Kong, for the "unequal treaties" that humiliated China at the gunpoints of racist opium pushers. I don’t wax romantic and give the British credit for creating a great jewel in the "fragrant harbour" — they didn’t finish the job by making it, if not independent like other commonwealth territories, then self-ruling and democratic. Instead the British kept it as a subjugated colony right up to the handover.
So it would be quite disingenuous for the British government to berate China for not upholding democratic values in Hong Kong. A firmer basis for a truly democratic Hong Kong is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, rather than the Joint Declaration and HK Basic Law. Such being the case, it’s up to the world, not only the British, to support Hong Kong's democracy movement, and to encourage Beijing to allow it to develop peacefully.
Demonstrations/occupations still going on at a low simmer. Students have drawn back to let businesses and schools function. A mid-semester break is coming up for university students, it may heat up again then. (From the feed I posted above.) Protester demands: that Chief Exec. CY Leung resign and that full democracy be instated for the 2017 CE election.
Allegations that HK police themselves acted as agent provocateurs.
I started listing grievances above (post #44) to show that these demonstrations are not founded on mere ideology, but on how things are tangibly run in HK vs. China. Another example, which may sound trivial but illustrates the type of thing that could grow: infant formula. Due to poor controls over food quality and lax monitoring of unscrupulous profiteers who sell substandard foodstuff in China, mainland shoppers swooped down on HK to buy up infant formula.
Hong Kong Is Now Jailing China's Baby Formula Smugglers (Mar. 2013)
another one: Mainland Chinese Flock to Hong Kong to Give Birth (Feb. 2012)
Hong Kong: Now The Hard Part, Kick US Out, Build National Consensus
When protests in Hong Kong exploded, knowledgeable people looked for US involvement. It was not hard to find. The overt intrusion of the US is available in budgets, documents and websites; the covert involvement has not yet been uncovered but is no doubt there. What does US involvement mean for the credibility of the protest movement and the future of Hong Kong? How should Hong Kong activists respond?
The issues raised by the protests, lack of democracy and an unfair economy, are very real. But so are the concerns of Beijing for economic growth and continuing to lift people out of poverty, something China has done remarkably well. Those who seek to transform governance and create a more equal economy now have a more challenging task than protests, they must build national consensus on their issues in Hong Kong and in China’s leadership. The Chinese People’s Daily quoted a Chinese-American author who wrote the Occupy Central leadership, Yin Haoliu, said: “Democracy is a step-by-step process that cannot be approached in haste, otherwise it will bring about troubles.” How quickly those steps advance depends, in part, on how well the democracy movement organizes.
Now that the US has been exposed, it needs to be removed. US goals are very different than the people in Hong Kong. The US is in the process of encircling China militarily and economically. It sees China as a competitor, a nation that can undermine the US as the single world superpower. Conflict between Hong Kong and Beijing would serve US interests but undermine the Hong Kong economy which is tied to China. The protest movement has already begun to separate itself from people too close to the US. Hong Kong’s people and government need to go further and expel US influence, remembering the historic imperialism of the US in China and noting the current strategic goals of the United States....
quote:
Already there are signs that the Occupy Central and Democratic Party leadership, which has US ties, is not trusted. One participant on the ground reports “the dynamic the movement has taken on” its own energy and is now “the actions of ordinary people in their struggle for democracy.” “The movement can now be considered largely leaderless.” The author points to the protest beginning two days before Occupy Central leaders wanted and the refusal to follow their order to leave after police attacks last Sunday, instead thousands stayed. Revolution News reported how a group of students climbed over the fence of the Central Government Office Complex, remaining there and facing arrest the entire time, without the support of Occupy Central elders for the next 2 days. Thankfully students came to their rescue.
http://www.popularresistance.org/hong-kong-now-the-hard-part-kick-us-out...
'Another Tiananmen Square in Hong Kong - Would Be Victory for US'
http://rt.com/op-edge/193544-china-usa-hongkong-protests-confrontation/
"The US would love to break Hong Kong away from mainland China or to goad Beijing into overreacting to the demonstrations and that's what it actively seeks to achieve through NGOs, Dr Conn Hallinan, from Foreign Policy in Focus, told RT..."
a la Maidan...
Agreed. HK’s democracy movement ≠ US interests. I'd say it is within the reach of the leaders in Beijing to bring Hong Kong peacefully into the fold, but they will have to use their ears, not their arms.
HK "breaking away" is simply untenable. Not gonna happen. Beijing being goaded into over-reacting is a possiblility, appalling on the part of both goader and goadee.
My lament: That the greedy British colonizers did not establish more democratic institutions before the handover. HK could have had in 1997 the autonomy it now seeks, and Beijing would not be under pressure of having to be the authority that grants greater democracy in HK, while the rest of China looks on.
Still, the Joint Declaration may offer a way out. China can reaffirm that HK is undisputedly under Chinese sovereignty, but as a responsible world power that it will honor the provisions of this treaty.
If universal suffrage and open nominations for the 2017 election had been guaranteed in the first place, these protests would not have even occurred. There would not have been a peep about HK independence. What does Xi Jinping have to fear, when his party has control over China's media for now? Implementing these measures would defuse the situation, although CY Leung will have to take the fall for the about-turn - a small price.
more on Xi-Leung relations: Communist Party Factions Divided on How to Treat Hong Kong
So the CCP charade might end prematurely. The big problem with the "two systems" is that the smaller one threatens to be more popular and usurp the larger one, throughout the "one country". Over the long term this might be inevitable regardless of official policy, so the CCP would be wise to oversee a controlled, gradual democratization, instead of being overwhelmed trying to manage an unraveling in which foreign interests seize advantage of and exacerbate discontent and factionalism in China. That would be a messy situation.
Another piece on U.S. involvement in the Hong Kong protests
The Washington Hong Kong “Democracy” Project
The Washington neo-cons and their allies in the US State Department and Obama Administration are clearly furious with China, as they are with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. As both Russia and China in recent years have become more assertive about defining their national interests, and as both Eurasian powers draw into a closer cooperation on all strategic levels, Washington has decided to unleash havoc against Beijing, as it has unleashed the Ukraine dis-order against Russia and Russian links to the EU. The flurry of recent deals binding Beijing and Moscow more closely—the $400 billion gas pipeline, the BRICS infrastructure bank, trade in rubles and renminbi by-passing the US dollar—has triggered Washington’s response. It’s called the Hong Kong ‘Umbrella Revolution’ in the popular media.
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/10/08/hong-kongs-umbrellas-are-made-in-usa/
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