Hong Kong’s debate about universal suffrage and the threatened Occupy Central Movement of 2014 has taken political center stage in Beijing and Hong Kong because of China’s concern about the spillover effect these developments can have.
Young activist protests have been a Hong Kong landmark of freedom of expression ever since on Christmas Day 1981, young activists took part in rioting sparked by a traffic accident in Central and 18 were arrested. Youth activism was renewed after the 1989 Tiananmen massacre in Beijing and became an annual protest calling card to commemorate those killed and demand more representation in government. The youth movement refused to accept the party line. They refuse to be Apathetic Maids.
Hong Kong’s youth have in many ways become the model of what youth worldwide should be ─ make that people of all ages. They have become a model for youthful disobedience challenging the status quo, not only in the Far East, but worldwide. Many of them were raised in America, Canada, Britain and Australia and not only appreciate the freedoms advocated by America’s Founding Fathers, but they put words into actions.
When artist-activist Ai Weiwei was released from jail in Beijing in 2011, he thanked Hong Kongers for their support and called the special administrative region a model for Chinese society. “I was aware that many people in Hong Kong have appealed for and supported my release,” he said.
The Occupy Wall Street movement in Hong Kong was one of the longest continuous Occupy movements – probably the longest. It ended in late August 2012. It had started 10 months earlier when the Hong Kong Occupiers decided to take over the public space on the street level under the HSBC bank headquarters that has a block of covered public space that rises several floors before the first floor of the building starts. As the 9 p.m. court ordered deadline approached on August 27 for the occupiers to vacate, they decided to party. They cranked up live music, sang and danced and periodically barked out chants of “We won’t go.”
Inspired by Occupy Wall Street in New York, protesters started Occupy Central as an anti-capitalist movement. They also advocated other local issues, such as condemning the “hegemony” of property developers and supporting residency rights for Filipino maids.
Hong Kongers’ approach to protest is not mob rule, as some politicians and editorials have suggested. It is true democracy in action as advocated by America‘s Founding Fathers. There are no dangers in people expressing their will against self-serving governments. There are more dangers of mob rule by uncontrolled politicians and their self-serving financial backers and bureaucrats than We the People taking to the streets peacefully.