The Occupy Central Movement began on Sept. 28, 2014. Today is Dec. 9th, and the protests are still ongoing, blocking main city roads for more than two months. I will confess to not knowing as much about the protests as your average Hong Konger, because I fail to read the news everyday, and I don't know all of the ins and outs of the arguments. But, I wanted to be sure that I remembered that this happened while we lived here, hence this blog post.
The protests actually began while Drew and I were on our trip to Myanmar. We never thought that we would be more in danger going back home than staying in a place like Myanmar. We had so many people contact us asking if we were ok and safe in Hong Kong. (Thanks everyone!) They were seeing constant news coverage back in the States, and apparently things looked very violent. In actuality, I have never once felt unsafe being in Hong Kong while the protests have been going on. However, I have not been involved at all. We weren't there when the massive demonstrations took place, as seen in the photos below. And we, for the most part, avoid the areas where the demonstrations are being held. As a friend of mine said, "You can be as involved or uninvolved as you want." Day to day, the only thing that really changed was traffic. Many of the buses had to be rerouted as the protesters blockaded key roads throughout the city. The main areas are in Central, near the government offices, in Causeway Bay near Sogo (this section we see on a daily basis) and Mongkok on Nathan Road. Thousands of protesters came out to demonstrate that first weekend in September.
While I can't say much about the issues at hand here, I will give a general overview, and then invite you to do more research. Hong Kong was officially returned to China by the British in 1997, at which time China promised to not change anything in Hong Kong for 50 years, operating within a "one country, two systems" framework. However, lately they have begun meddling with lots of things in Hong Kong, the most obvious being the electoral system. Essentially, Beijing wanted to hand-pick who could be allowed on the ballot for Hong Kong governor, ensuring the governor would be someone who supported Beijing politics more than Hong Kong's. This, of course, caused major concern to the democratic supporters in Hong Kong, and thus the protests began. While there are many other issues that came into play here, this is the heart of it.
By the end of that first weekend, things seemed to be getting out of control, and the police used tear gas on the protesters to try to prevent them from forming a solid blockade. Instead of dispersing the crowds, it gave the protesters something to bond over, creating the Yellow Umbrella Movement as the informal name of their cause. Most of the protesters, in the beginning, were mainly university students. After the tear gas was used, many other Hong Kongers joined the protest to support the students, swelling the numbers drastically. The largest count was almost 100,000 people!
Eventually they did set up a formal blockade, and then they set up camp, settling down for the long haul. Again, this was mostly university students. They would attend class during the day, then return at night for speeches, discussions etc.
One of the secondary issues at stake here is loyalty. Because Hong Kong is, technically, a part of China, many fundamentally Chinese people believe Hong Kong should just listen to its overarching leaders and follow Beijing's guidance. However, fundamentally Hong Kong people think it should maintain its democratic and capitalistic values as long as possible. The front flag in the picture below is the Chinese flag, the second one is the Hong Kong flag. I got to discuss the protests with my language partner, and she, being from mainland China but living in Hong Kong, agreed that the protesters that only wanted to change some of the policies were right to argue. However, she did not agree with the protesters that wanted nothing to do with China.
Another interesting issue she brought up was why was the US helping the protesters? There were numerous claims that the protesters were receiving funding from the National Endowment for Democracy NED, a US nonprofit that receives money from Congress via the USAID. That was an interesting conversation. "Well, there are certain people in America who believe that democracy is the most important thing in the world, so when they can assist others trying to implement or protect democracy, they do so, regardless if it is their rightful place to do so." She didn't seem satisfied with my answer. It does bring up a good question though. Are other democratic countries obligated to help those who also want to uphold democracy? Many would say lots of wars have been fought over such an argument; others would argue that those same arguments were actually about resources, not ideals, but that's another matter. As long as there aren't human rights violations involved, should we get involved? But then, some would argue that being able to elect your own leader is the most important human right and should be protected at all costs. It's a touchy subject all the way around.
Another interesting result from the protests has been hearing about censorship of the protests back in China. Everyone knows censorship happens in China, but it was amazing to see how widespread it was. Reporters would interview mainland Chinese visitors asking about their opinion on the protests, and they would know nothing about them, saying they were just here to shop. There were also examples of Chinese media completely fabricating news, saying the protesters were gathered to celebrate Chinese National Day, which occurred the weekend the protests broke out. Shocking. Maybe there are basic human rights at stake here.
However, after over two months of demonstrations, the majority of the people in Hong Kong are now actually getting sick of it. They want their lives to go back to normal. They want the roads to be reopened. They want their commutes to be a reasonable length again. They want traffic to not be a nightmare. Me too. But it's sad, because I actually doubt anything came from these protests. Beijing would get into too much hot water if they allowed Hong Kong's protest to succeed. Imagine what the rest of China might do then! People suspect that the protesters who still remain are the super hardcore ones, and that they might put up a bit of a fight if they are forced to go. Newspapers claim they might get ousted this Thursday, but they have been making claims like this for several successive weeks. Just for safety, I'll probably stay away from those areas on Thursday, as you never know.
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