Why Hong Kong’s protesting students are more than just dreamers | Asian Correspondent

Why Hong Kong’s protesting students are more than just dreamers | Asian Correspondent
 Michele Penna Oct 16, 2014 

Pro-democracy students work on their studies at their occupied intersection in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong, Wednesday. Pic: AP.

Students taking to the streets in Hong Kong have been widely described as ‘too idealistic,’ ‘too radical’ or ‘wanting things too quickly.’ A lot of adjectives and, unfortunately, they are mostly wrong.

Among those who have claimed that students should pay closer attention to the real world are some notable figures. In a video interview with Bloomberg, Regina Ip, the city’s former security chief, contended that people should “engage the government in a rational and pragmatic manner.” Protesters, by not doing so, are obviously not being ‘realistic.’ (Speaking of which, Ms Ip stated in the same interview that the protest would go on for a couple of days, and that was on Sept. 29.)

Movie star Jackie Chan weighed in too when he called on people to “return to rationality.” “Hong Kong’s bright tomorrow requires everyone’s support and hard work,” he said, arguing,“I am willing to work hard with everyone and return to rationality, to face the future, love our country, love our Hong Kong.”

Students might not attach too much importance to Mr. Chan’s words, since he has recently gained quite a bit of fame for being a supporter of Beijing’s policies. But even less notable figures sometimes see the protesters as detached from real politics. Mr. Fong, an old businessman we happened to meet over lunch, said he did not support the movement because, while not wrong in principle, it was too radical: “You have to take Xi Jinping into account, what will he say of this?” He also told us that “the students want their goals realized right now, but that’s not politics.”

All of this hardly reconciles with what people tell you at sit-ins and rallies. “No, I don’t think the government will accept talks,” a student told us a couple of days ago. “Maybe in front of the media they say they want to, but it is not true. They do not want to talk to anybody.” Why, then, was he protesting? “Because we want to tell everyone what we want. I think our focus is to increase awareness in the world.”

Last Friday, during the rally, Jason Lam – the media artist who uses a projector to screen messages of support for the movement on Hong Kong’s streets – took a very minimal approach: he thought that if the government were to agree to a meaningful dialogue it would be a ‘true success,’ but he said he did not too much hope for that to happen.

Ms. Map Tang was even blunter: “It’s a lost battle, we all know that.” Yet, she did not have any intention of leaving her plastic mattress and her yellow ribbon – the protesters’ badge these days. Ms. Tang also showed realism when it came to the students’ decisions. She argued that she believes the movement would make mistakes. “There is no true freedom without errors,” she pointed out, quoting Gandhi.

At the end of the day, what most people told Asian Correspondent is that their main goal is to let the world know that Hong Kongers do have an issue with their political system and that they care for, well, more than just money, as the stereotype goes. From that perspective, it would be hard to look down on them as dreamers. They have already won the battle, conquering the front pages of international newspapers and forcing themselves into pundits’ discussions.

Sure enough, some do believe that the government will cave at some point and that Beijing will somehow close both its eyes on the city’s flagrant defiance. Experts and pretty much everybody else think they are wrong. But most also believed that a communist party could not maintain its rule and have a capitalist economy – and look at what has happened in the People’s Republic. And, in any case, isn’t hope supposed to never die?

China stifles dissent at home amid Hong Kong protests | Asian Correspondent

China stifles dissent at home amid Hong Kong protests | Asian Correspondent
 Michele Penna Oct 03, 2014

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters gather at Hong Kong’s Mongkok district Monday evening. Pic: AP.

“The Chinese authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those detained for peacefully showing support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.” Amnesty International delivered a tough message on October 1 – China’s National Day, marking the anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic – but it shed the light on a sideshow of the protest in Hong Kong: what is happening to those who support the protesters from the mainland.

According to the humanitarian organization, “at least 20 people have been detained by police in several cities in mainland China over the past two days for posting pictures online with messages of support for the protesters, shaving their heads in solidarity, or for planning to travel to Hong Kong to participate in the protests.” Another 60 had ‘tea with the police,’ as questionings by authorities are informally called.

Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a coalition of Chinese and international human rights non-governmental organizations, reported similar news: “the occupation of several areas in Hong Kong, including parts of its financial and political center, has inspired many Chinese on the mainland and encouraged them to speak up for democracy, with many photos appearing on social media of activists holding signs in support of Hong Kong and demanding constitutional democracy for the territory. Police in China have harassed and warned activists in many cities, concerned that they may try to travel to Hong Kong or take to streets to protest.”

Among those who have been detained, the group wrote, are activist Luo Yaling, who reportedly “was taken away by police on September 30 after she expressed support online for the protests in Hong Kong,” and Wang Long – arrested on the charge of creating a disturbance on September 29. Chinese Human Rights Defenders also reported that on September 30, Guangzhou police “seized dozens of activists and citizens who gathered in the Martyr Memorial Gardens to show support for the Hong Kong protestors.”

The practice of arresting activists for a brief period of time whenever a sensitive event takes place is certainly not unknown, and it was perhaps to be expected at a time when Beijing is confronting a challenge to its leadership. People, and especially students, have marched in their thousands to protest against the central government’s decision to prevent the free election of the city’s Chief Executive.

That is not only an implicit declaration of hostility toward the ‘one country, two systems’ which has been the official policy invented by Beijing to manage the integration of the city back into the People’s Republic of China. It is also a show of defiance which could inspire others on the mainland, turning a local event into a much larger one.

In the eyes of the government, mainland activists must appear as dangerous fifth columns of the protest, the carriers of a virus which could spread northward from the former British Colony. For, if William Nee, one of the Amnesty’s own researchers, is right in saying that “the rounding up of activists in mainland China only underlines why so many people in Hong Kong fear the growing control Beijing has in their city’s affairs,” it is also true that the arrests expose why the turmoil in Hong Kong rattles the central government. And, while differences certainly exist, the protest is bound to remind both its supporters and its antagonizers of those fateful days in June, 1989, on another square, with other students.

Hong Kong protestors wait for Beijing’s response | Asian Correspondent

 Hong Kong protestors wait for Beijing’s response | Asian Correspondent
 Cormac McCartan Sep 30, 2014

Student activists sleep in the shade of umbrellas in Hong Kong Tuesday. Pic: AP.

As China prepares to celebrate the 65th anniversary of the establishment of the Peoples Republic of China, Hong Kong is in the process of attempting to overthrow that very same political and social order. Already into day three of the Occupy Central campaign, tens of thousands of pro-democracy protestors continue to hold Hong Kong city centre at a standstill, forcing bank branches to close in the downtown area to close and prompting Hong Kong stocks to fall 1.9 percent in the campaign’s first day. All the while the authorities keep their distance.

The aim of the Occupy Central campaign is to bring about political reform by shutting down Hong Kong’s financial district. Although the campaign previously lacked public backing, the police’s excessive use of force in dispersing protestors over the weekend, with tear gas and pepper spray, has urged tens of thousands of protestors on to the city’s streets in support of the movement. Now occupying key districts of the downtown area with angered and determined protestors behind their cause, Beijing cannot afford to tolerate the campaign for a sustained period and must decide on a course of action. Protest organizers issued Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung with an ultimatum Tuesday, saying he has until October 1 to respond to meet their demands and step down.

“At this time, the authorities are re-thinking their options. They realise it is counter-productive to take a hard-line approach [as they did during the weekend] against the protestors,” said Joseph Chang, a political-science professor at City University in Hong Kong and convener of the Alliance for True Democracy, a coalition of democratic parties supporting Occupy Central.

(LIVE UPDATES: Hong Kong pro-democracy protests continue)

The use of force in quenching the movement would not only be a PR disaster for the Communist Party internationally – drawing comparisons with the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989 – but would likely instigate more public support and further cement opposition against Beijing and the Hong Kong police.

“People acted spontaneously [on the weekend when joining the protests]. They were not following the call from pro-democracy party leaders, but were angry by what they saw from the police and took to the streets themselves to vent,” said Chang, who was also detained for 12 hours by police for protesting, which he could be later prosecuted for.

If the use of force is an unlikely deterrent against the civil disobedience movement, then Beijing’s remaining options in reclaiming the city centre seem limited. The authorities can hold out and hope the movement runs out of steam over the coming days, with many suspecting that Hong Kong workers are not willing to lose their jobs for the cause.

However, the students announced Monday that they have extended their class boycott indefinitely, and the Occupy Central campaign has being preparing for the occupation for some time, arranging food supplies, portaloos and electrical power outlets. This would suggest that the occupy movement could be a prolonged affair, and crowds were growing again on Hong Kong’s streets on Tuesday afternoon.

Another option, and the least likely, is that Beijing will negotiate with the protestors, grant them their demands for the resignation of Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s, and possibly allow Hong Kong the power the elect its own candidates for the 2017 election as previously promised. But the Communist Party yielding to the demands of mass protests, which are illegal in mainland China, would be an act of weakness that an already fragile and deeply insecure party would never permit.

Only hours away from the National Day on October 1, the holiday in Hong Kong is expected to bring more supporters to the streets which will only reinforce the pro-democracy movement and further back Beijing into a corner, where they could be forced to lash out.

Hong Kong students ‘savvy and bold’ in pursuit of democracy | Asian Correspondent

Hong Kong students ‘savvy and bold’ in pursuit of democracy | Asian Correspondent
 Cormac McCartan Sep 26, 2014

Students carry a defaced picture of Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying during a protest outside his home Thursday. Pic: AP.

While US Vice President Joe Biden claims the US will chase ISIS to the gates of hell, on Thursday evening nearly 4,000 Hong Kong students chased democracy to the gates of the Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s mansion in the hills over looking the city.

Holding pro-democracy signs, banners, and a giant head of Leung complete with vampire fangs, the students chanted “CY Leung step down” and demanded that he come out and address the crowd. But not for the first time this week, the Beijing-backed chief executive avoided the confrontation.

In the four days since the week-long boycott of classes got underway, the student movement has shown the potential of employing civil disobedience in taking the fight to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who recently refused Hong Kong universal suffrage for the 2017 election. In contrast to the more ‘pragmatic’ pro-democracy supporters in Hong Kong, the students are adopting a more assertive approach in challenging for universal suffrage, organising unauthorised marches, mobilising large crowds and challenging public figures such as Leung.

“They (students) defeated the introduction of ‘patriotic’ education into the Hong Kong school curriculum in 2013, so they have a taste of success and some know-how in how to go about achieving it,” said Kong Tsung-Gan, a pro-democracy activist and Occupy Central volunteer who spoke to Asian Correspondent earlier this month. “They are much more savvy and bolder than their older counterparts.”

On Monday, over 13,000 students from 26 higher education institutions are estimated to have gathered in Hong Kong University Campus to initiate the student strike. Each day in Tamar Park in the centre of the city, the students hold public pro-democracy rallies, with over 80 Hong Kong scholars giving lectures promoting democracy to the thousands of students on strike.

(MORE: As students protest, Hong Kong’s mega-rich kowtow to Beijing)

“It was an amazing experience to give a lecture this morning (Thursday) at Tamar Park,” said Dr LUK Kin Ling, a lecturer at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “We discussed what “real democracy” meant, and I pushed students to think further on how democracy can be practiced in everyday life in gender and sexuality.”

The primary aim of the student strike is to gather support for the civil disobedience campaign and the Occupy Central movement from within Hong Kong. The students, along with the support of university professors, have organised public rallies where they can demonstrate a united and driven pro-democracy front to the Hong Kong public. However, as Beijing holds firm on their decision regarding the framework for the 2017 election, many Hong Kongers feel resistance is futile.

“Some Hong Kong people still feel pessimistic in facing China’s might, holding the view that the Hong Kong people are powerless and not able to resist China,” explained Dr. Benson Wong Wai-Kwok, assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, who also gave a lecture at Tamar Park.

By targeting Beijing’s appointed chief executive, the students are not only sending a message of resistance to the CCP, but demonstrating a weakness of the party in the minds of Hong Kong’s public. Leung’s refusal to meet with the protestors, and his failure to respond to the students’ actions, portrays weakness on his behalf, and exposes a lack of legitimacy on the part of the Hong Kong government which will find it difficult to govern effectively in the future.

“I don’t think CY Leung will make an appearance, as the government is lacking courage and an argument to face the ‘citizens,'” said Kin Ling. “Leung’s silence and unresponsiveness to the students’ demands will only mobilise more people to support the students and further consolidate the Occupy Central movement.”

Another three days remain before the student strike ends, with the baton to be passed to the Occupy Central movement and their October 1 occupation of Hong Kong’s financial district. Will the civil disobedience campaign have another unanswered call from the Hong Kong government, or are Leung and the CCP planning a resounding response?