Hong Kong's protests have been raging for over 100 days. At the front end, violence and lawlessness continue to escalate. Hong Kong's legislative council chamber was broken into and vandalized. Petrol bombs, hand catapults, metal rods, corrosive liquids, bricks, even military-grade bows and arrows and army knives are used or found. Barricades are erected to block roads. Police stations are surrounded and threatened, staff quarters included. Policemen's spouses and children are harassed. The International Airport was grounded to a halt several times. Mass Transit Railways offices and turnstiles are regularly ransacked. Some tactics and slogans are reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution.
The vast majority of protesters are peaceful but are ambivalent about their militant co-protesters. The protests have many ordinary citizen supporters in different walks of life. All harbour a deep sense of frustration, helplessness and anger against the Hong Kong government and Beijing. Many seem to think that One Country Two Systems has failed to deliver. The fear is that One Country is increasingly threatening to swamp the Two Systems. Democracy in the circumstances has no future. Hong Kong needs to be "liberated" with a "Revolution of Our Times", so go the protest slogans.
The protests were first triggered by an extradition bill (following a Taiwan murder case) that seeks to avoid Hong Kong becoming a haven for criminal fugitives from the Mainland and elsewhere. However, this was deemed to remove a crucial judicial firewall between Hong Kong and Mainland China. The way the government tried to bulldoze the bill through ignited a wildfire of fear, discontent and social anger. Anti-establishment legislators are having a field day, expecting big wins in coming elections, reversing fortunes in recent years.
Increasingly, protest violence is directed at symbols of Beijing's authority. The national emblem of Beijing's representative office building was defaced. Hoisted national flags are burned or thrown into the harbour. Recently some Hong Kong students were arrested in Tibet for unfurling pro-Hong Kong independence banners there. A video clip shows someone spraying Chinese words of "Liberation" and "Revolution" on an overhead signboard on a Mainland highway. Download WhatsApp Video 2019-09-02 at 7.58.24 PM
The United States is seen to be upfront in backing these protests. Star activist Joshua Wong met with senior US Consulate officials. Prominent activist Jimmy Lai, founder of influential anti-establishment newspaper The Apple Daily, was given unprecedented audience with US Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He is reported to have openly admitted that his aim is to topple President Xi, and that he is prepared to die for it! Click here Joshua Wong has also recently said that Chief Executive Carrie Lam's resignation won't change matters, only the downfall of the Communist regime. At US Congressional hearing on HK Human Rights and Democracy bill , Joshua Wong, Denis Ho and other activists said as much.
American NGO's like the National Endowment for Democracy and other international institutions like the Oslo Freedom Forum seem to have been involved in funding or training leading activists in civil disobedience and other protest tactics. Click here and here
Unsurprisingly, Beijing has come to the conclusion that these protests are no longer about the now-abandoned and declared "dead" extradition bill. With foreign instigators, the objective seems to bring down the Hong Kong government and provoke Beijing's intervention with the People's Liberation Army (PLA), a trap to ensnarl China and to arrest its rise. References are made to a "color revolution" with hints of "terrorism". Beijing has hardened its line.
Across the border, the PLA is on high alert, its local garrison standing ready. There are talks about invoking colonial-era draconian Emergency Powers to stamp out violence and restore law and order. In both camps, there is a divisive breakdown of trust in Beijing, the Hong Kong government, the police, and even the judiciary. Hong Kong is on the edge of a cliff. A sense of foreboding prevails.
Fake news and biased reporting abound on both sides. What are the real facts? Quo vadis, Hong Kong? The following may offer some perspectives -
100 Days of Protests - A SCMP multi-media chronical (Added on 17 September, 2019)
Download Hong Kong - the Place Where We Grew UP
Police raid at Prince Edward Station
Download UNDERCOVER IN HONG KONG (Undercover report on why some HK's young people turn to violence)
