Hong Kong

Hong Kong Protests: Inside Occupy Central’s Tent City

November 13, 2014 Mark Hanrahan, www.ibtimes.com Petitions and Online Actions China, Democracy, Hong Kong, Occupy Central, Protests

Local police who may be planning to clear pro-democracy protesters from the streets will have a big job if they do. Aside from the demonstrators occupying roads around Hong Kong, a veritable tent city has sprung up with artwork, a café and a study center to support a relatively small but dedicated community of protesters. Though the number of protesters has fallen significantly since demonstrations began Sept. 28, there are now thousands of tents at the main protest site in the city's central district. A census conducted by the Occupy movement Tuesday estimated that there are 2,197 tents currently in the area around Hong Kong's government headquarters. As protesters prepare for a possible crackdown by police, student leaders are still appearing at what has come to be known as "Umbrella Square," the main stage at the central protest site, to encourage supporters.

Hong Kong Leader Compares Protesters To Slaves

October 31, 2014 Resist! China, Democracy, Elections, Hong Kong

Thousands have signed an online petition denouncing reported comments by an HSBC Holdings board member in which she likened Hong Kong protesters' demands for democracy to the emancipation of slaves. Laura Cha, who is also a member of Hong Kong's policy-making Executive Council, chairwoman of the city's Financial Services Development Council and a member of China's parliament, was quoted as making the comments at an event in Paris. "American slaves were liberated in 1861 but did not get voting rights until 107 years later. So why can't Hong Kong wait for a while?" the Standard newspaper on Thursday quoted Cha as saying, referring to demands for free elections in the former British colony. The comments triggered outrage on social media and nearly 6,000 people had signed the petition by Friday evening. The web site of the petition said it had been launched by Jeffrey Chan from Hong Kong. It only appeared to be in English. "We, the Hong Kong public, will not stand these remarks likening our rights to slavery, nor will we stand the kind of voter disenfranchisement her and her associates attempt to perpetrate on the Hong Kong public," said the petition to HSBC, that sought an apology from Cha.

Hungary: Protest Over Internet Tax, Warning To FCC

October 28, 2014 Deirdre Fulton, www.commondreams.org Resist! FCC, Hong Kong, Hungary, Internet, Net Neutrality

The Federal Communication Commission should be concerned when they see the video below of protests in Hungary over an Internet tax. People are throwing computer parts at the headquarters of the ruling party. Protests tend to spread rapidly in the Internet age -- note how the Hungary protests are similar to the Hong Kong students holding their lit cell phones in the air (they did so for non-Internet, pro-democracy reasons). Again the parallels are striking. The United States also has corruption and a crisis of democracy. How dare the FCC Commissioners not listen to 4 million public comments in the rulemaking process on the future of the Internet and ignore millions of phone calls, emails and petitions prior to the rulemaking process even beginning. Chairman Tom Wheeler, should feel particular pressure because of his background as the former top lobbyist for the industry, a history which carries the stench of the widespread corruption that defines Washington, DC governance. . . A protest in Washington, DC like the ones in Hong Kong and Belgrade where net neutrality supporters rally at the White House in the evening with cell phone lights and then march to the FCC holding their lit cell phones. This could be followed by a second protest where people throw computer parts at the FCC. Everyone probably has old computers and phones that no longer work. A protest throwing broken computers and phones at the FCC could also be quite effective.

Hong Kong Students Push Back Against Police

October 18, 2014 Joyce Ng, Gary Cheung, Peter So, Fanny W.Y. Fung, Timmy Sung, Chris Lau, Raquel Carvalho and Eddie Lee, www.scmp.com Resist! Democracy, Hong Kong, Occupy, Occupy Central

Just hours after police moved in to clear the Mong Kong Kok Occupy site, more than a thousand protesters poured back into the district, clashing with police. Fresh trouble broke out near the government headquarters in Lung Wo Road in Admiralty. By the early hours of this morning, a section of Nathan Road in Mong Kok was occupied by protesters as police moved to stop them blocking the junction with Argyle Street again. Riot police used pepper spray and batons in a bid to drive back the protesters and the clashes led to a number of arrests. Among them was award-winning international photo-journalist Paula Bronstein, who was detained after jumping onto a car to take pictures. Her arrest was later condemned by the Foreign Correspondents Club. The trouble flared after officials said earlier in the day they were looking for a way to secure a meeting between Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-Ngor and representatives of the Federation of Students - which has been tentatively set for Tuesday at the Academy of Medicine in Aberdeen.

How The Hong Kong Protesters Can Win

October 17, 2014 Maria J. Stephan, www.foreignpolicy.com Strategize! China, Democracy, Hong Kong, Protest

Don't think that this will be over soon. This is fundamentally a war of patience and a test of our endurance," 17-year-old Joshua Wong, student leader of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, tweeted on Thursday. For the past several weeks, the protesters have been putting on a clinic in organized, disciplined civil resistance: Tens of thousands of activists continue to throng the downtown streets and thoroughfares, demanding the resignation of Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying and threatening to occupy government buildings. Occupy Central, student coalitions, and other opposition groups have called for mass strikes while insisting that they will not back down until their ultimate goal of universal suffrage is achieved. Still, as momentum has slowed, the lingering question is, what next?

Hong Kong Chief Executive Calls For Talks With Student Protesters

October 17, 2014 Jonathan Kaiman, www.theguardian.com Resist! China, Democracy, Hong Kong, Protests

Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, said on Thursday afternoon that the government would welcome a dialogue with protest leaders, after two consecutive nights of violent clashes with police reinvigorated the pro-democracy movement, which has paralysed swaths of the city. During an afternoon press conference Leung said the government would be willing to meet with the Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the main protest organisers, “as soon as we can, and hopefully within the following week”. Yet Leung denied any possibility that officials would negotiate on any of the protesters’ core demands — that the government offer civic nominations and “full democracy” in 2017 elections, and that he step down. He added that the government has little tolerance for the protests, which have “created conflict with the public”.

Police Conflict With Hong Kong Protesters Increases

October 15, 2014 Jonathan Kaiman and Matthew Weaver, www.theguardian.com Resist! China, Democracy, Hong Kong, police brutality, Protests

Video footage showing a group of Hong Kong police officers beating a pro-democracy protester has galvanised the city, ratcheting up tensions in demonstrations that have paralysed large swaths of the city for more than two weeks. The Hong Kong television station TVB showed about six plainclothes officers in police vests leading the man, later identified as Ken Tsang – a social worker and member of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Civic party – away from a protest site, his hands bound behind his back. The officers took him to a dark corner behind a nearby building and threw him to the ground. Some kicked and beat him, while others kept watch. Pictures posted to Facebook showed Tsang in the aftermath of the attack, with cuts and bruises on his face and neck, and circular welts running down his back.

Class Antagonisms Of Umbrella Movement

October 14, 2014 ROAR Collective, www.roarmag.org Educate! China, Class, Democracy, Hong Kong

The result has been that Hong Kong’s so-called “left,” has for decades been dominated by a naïve discourse of “democracy” against mainland “authoritarianism.” Inspired by the Tiananmen Square uprising in Beijing and terrified by the ruthlessness with which it was crushed, most of Hong Kong’s radical students since 1989 accepted at face value the mainstream media portrayal of Tiananmen as a student-led movement for “democracy.” In Beijing, despite the widespread participation of non-students, the formation of the Beijing Autonomous Workers’ Federation, and the state’s decision to charge worker-participants with far higher crimes carrying much longer sentences than their student counterparts, it was the students who were able to dominate the messaging of the movement and appeal to western liberal audiences with calls for the liberalization of the political and economic system.

Students Ready For Return Of Police With Chain Saws

October 14, 2014 Alfred Liu and Jasmine Ng, www.bloomberg.com Resist! China, Democracy, Hong Kong, Occupy Central, Umbrella Revolution

Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters girded themselves for an anticipated showdown with police who earlier used chain saws and sledgehammers to clear barricades from a major road in the city’s business district. Protesters camped near the city’s main government offices in Admiralty reinforced makeshift barriers during the afternoon after their protest zone was shrunk by police. “This is our last line of defense. We can’t afford to let the police get through,” said Issac Chung, 21, a marketing student, as metal fences were piled up. “I don’t know when the protest will end, but I will stay as long as I can.” Student leaders urged protesters to maintain the blockades for as long as the government ignored their call for talks over China’s plans for city’s 2017 leadership election. Police said they would continue to remove barriers at protest sites including in the district of Mong Kok, north of the city’s harbor.

Will Hong Kong’s Umbrella Revolution Spark Uprisings In Mainland China?

October 13, 2014 The Real News Network, www.therealnews.com Educate! China, Democracy, Hong Kong, Protests

But then, in terms of the extent to which whether the Hong Kong protest will serve as, you know, the Western media's wish, in their wish that this will serve as the sparkle that will light up some kind of prairie fire of protest inside China, I think it's a big question, because I really think that the demands and the way the protests in Hong Kong is framed might not resonate with the lower social classes of mainland China. And these are the social classes, the laborers, the migrant workers, who have been on the forefront of social protest. But I think there's a huge gap between the protest movement in Hong Kong right now and the way it is presented through the Western media mostly and the social struggles of China's lower social classes.

Hong Kong Protest Turns To Beijing, As Protests Grow

October 11, 2014 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! China, Democracy, Hong Kong, Occupy

The Hong Kong Federation of Students and Scholarism published an open letter to President Xi Jinping which is reprinted in full below. In the letter they quote President Xi and tell him that the Hong Kong government has not been faithful to his claim that “We shall always listen to the people, respond to their expectations and ensure equal rights of participation and development, so as to maintain social justice.” They tell the president that Hong Kong’s “Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying is acting exactly contrary to your vision.” Further, they point out the allegations of corruption surrounding Leung’s administration. They make the point that “If the Central Government is confident of her governance, she need not be fearful of a Chief Executive elected by Hong Kong citizens.”

Hong Kong: Protesters Vow More Civil Disobedience

October 10, 2014 Jonathan Kaiman, www.theguardian.com Resist! China, Civil Disobedience, Democracy, Hong Kong, Protests

Hong Kong authorities have called off negotiations with leaders of the pro-democracy “umbrella movement”, accusing them of undermining efforts to break the impasse that has paralysed the city’s main commercial hubs for almost two weeks. Representatives of the protest movement Occupy Central with Love and Peace, the student groups Scholarism and the Hong Kong Federation of Students, and a group of pro-democracy legislators held a press conference on Thursday near the city government headquarters, where they vowed to begin a “new wave of civil disobedience”.

Hong Kong Protests Carefully Choreographed, Not Spontaneous

October 8, 2014 The Real News, www.therealnews.com Educate! China, Democracy, Hong Kong, Protests

First of all, it should be said that there is alienation from Beijing and from the People's Republic broadly among the citizenry of Hong Kong. They do not consider themselves, as polling shows to be, Chinese. At least 50 percent of them think of themselves exclusively as Hong Kongers. And add to that their grievances about the pushy mainlanders and excessive mainland control over the local economy and attempts to muzzle the media. And so there's widespread discontent, or, I should say, alienation. However, in terms of the specific political agenda of Occupy Hong Kong, the agenda is not broadly understood or supported, I believe, by the people of Hong Kong. This is going to be a long period of education and political salesmanship, I should say, in order to get the people who turn up for a rally to actually go out there and block streets in the service of that agenda.

Popular Protests: Success Is Measured In The Long Term

October 7, 2014 Yang Su, www.scmp.com Strategize! China, Civil Rights, Democracy, Hong Kong, Protest

Had he lived to this day, I wonder, what Professor Fang Lizhi, a beloved sage of China’s pro-democracy movement, would say. Accused by the government of being a “black hand”, Fang was one of the intellectuals whose initial call for democracy helped trigger the 1989 student movement. Professor Fang’s was a call to resist the temptation for an immediate victory and to recognise potential success in the long run. This wisdom is consistent with research findings about the outcome of social protest. It is very rare for any protest to have its demand immediately met – an unjust law changed, or a targeted official removed. In most examples, even defeated protests would surely help bring about the social changes the protestors fought for.

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