Over the last 17 years, China has slowly tightened its grip on Hong Kong through media control and political restrictions. These moves were small and subtle but for the 7.2 million people in Hong Kong, the breaking point came on August 31st when China decreed that only candidates "approved" by the Communist Party could run in the 2017 local election. This violated the 1997 guarantee for free, democratic elections and immediately students protested with a civil disobedience campaign - they boycotted school and college classes and held "sit-ins" in the downtown area.
The television images of the student protests touched many viewers both in Hong Kong and mainland China. It was reminiscent of the idealistic student protests in 1989 in Tiananmen Square, Beijing. The outbreak of dissent in Hong Kong shook the Communist Party leadership. They ordered in the police. Chaotic scenes of police using tear gas, pepper spray, threatening protesters with clubs and riot shields and dragging away students to paddy wagons were aired repeatedly on Hong Kong's television channels and news websites. Millions of Chinese on the Mainland also saw these images.
Today, tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents turned out in support of the students. One group, Occupy Central, is calling for a massive rally in the business district on Oct. 1st. This is a dangerous move - Oct 1st marks the anniversary of the foundation of communist China in 1949. Talk about tweaking the nose of the devil. What will be the government's response? Stay tuned for part 2.
BACKGROUND
Before the British government handed their colony of Hong Kong back to China in 1997, they negotiated an agreement to grant Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy. The guarantees included freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and a democratically elected local government. This deal was called "one country, two systems" and applied only to Hong Kong - the rest of China was ruled by the Communist Party in Beijing.
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