Hong Kong: a year of searing pro-Democracy protests
As a new year dawns, journalist and HK resident Steven Knipp deconstructs this complicated city’s political turmoil, reflecting on a troubled 2019 for its citizens.
For seven months now, massive protests have rocked the vibrant and beautiful city of Hong Kong. The city’s increasingly ferocious police (now disguising their faces behind Darth Vader-type masks) have fired 16,000 tear gas rounds, and arrested more than 6,000; the youngest 11, the oldest 81.
Those detained have included doctors and nurses, journalists and airline pilots, sales staff and dentists and librarians, firemen and college professors, first aid teams, and kindergarten teachers. This is not an evil criminal gang being taken down by a heroic police force. These people—an entire generation of the city’s best and brightest—are being arrested for purely political reasons.
For those living far from this shocking scene, the question is: Why are millions of Hong Kongers—previously the most patient and law-abiding citizens—now so willing to risk lengthy prison terms, gruesome injuries and even the loss of their lives?
The simple answer is, they want to live as a free people.
The Chinese Communist Party [CCP] has broken every promise made to Hong Kong, to the UK and to the United Nations in 1997. But Hong Kongers have made it clear, they won’t roll over and allow their freedoms to be stripped away.
Another point that interested outsiders need to understand is the brutal power of Beijing that Hong Kongers have fearlessly set themselves against. For many outsiders, China is automatically viewed as a thriving economic power, or an exotic film locale for the latest action movie.
Yet, beneath that purposely-polished veneer, there is another far darker reality, now exposed by events in Hong Kong. For 70 years, the Party has ruled China with an iron fist. Today this nation of 1.4 billion is the most powerful dictatorship on earth.
In China there is no Rule of Law. There is only the rule of the Communist Party. There is no true freedom of speech, press or assembly. And if you cross the will of the Party, you do so at your peril. Just posting the “wrong” opinion on social media can lead to serious trouble.
Should you find yourself offending the Party, in even the mildest way, when you are arrested, everyone in the court—from the judge and the prosecutor—and, yes, your defence attorney, too—will be loyal Party members. Their goal is not to seek justice, but to serve the Party. If your case is deemed embarrassing by Beijing there will be no media coverage. No family or friends are allowed in court. Your loved ones may not even be told where you will be imprisoned. What is China’s average annual criminal conviction rates? Just north of 96%.
The result of such unyielding repression is that Mainlanders do as they’re told. What choice have they?
The CCP, however, has badly miscalculated the Hong Kong situation. Born and raised in a free society, the 7.6 million Hong Kongers are savvy, highly educated and extremely well-travelled. They are audaciously opinionated free-thinkers.
There are some residents, a minority, mainly affluent expats, and millionaire locals, who bad-mouth the protesters or stay spinelessly silent. Yet, as Desmond Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
Less lofty, but equally passionate are the thoughts of 55-year-old Hong Kong taxi driver Edward Yeung. Asked by a reporter if he was afraid of what may happen to him if he persists in demanding democracy, he said: “If today I don't stand up, I will hate myself in future. Even if I get a criminal record it will be a glorious one."