Coss Posted June 12, 2019 Report Share Posted June 12, 2019 Hong Kong protests: Tear gas strikes the heart of the city as people defy extradition law Protesters flooding downtown Hong Kong to stop the Government's proposed extradition law effectively presented the city's leaders with an ultimatum: back down, or risk violent clashes that could be worse than the Occupy movement in 2014. Thousands of demonstrators gathered in the heart of the financial hub overnight, and some battled with riot police to prevent lawmakers from debating the bill. Overwhelmingly young, many protesters wore surgical masks to hide their identities and plastic goggles to ward off pepper spray, which police fired sporadically throughout the day, along with tear gas, rubber bullets and bean-bag rounds. "This is the end game for Hong Kong, it is a matter of life or death. That's why I come," Rocky Chang, a 59-year-old professor, told Reuters news agency. "This is an evil law." Hong Kong's Government, led by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, says it has no intention of giving in to the protesters' key demand: scrapping the proposed law that would allow criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China, among other places. Lam has argued the bill is a necessary measure to update the city's rules for dealing with individuals facing criminal charges elsewhere. "I've never felt guilty because of this," she said in an interview with local broadcaster TVB, her voice cracking and her eyes appearing to well up as she insisted she would never betray Hong Kong..... https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12239960 Oooer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted June 13, 2019 Report Share Posted June 13, 2019 The PRC is not going to tolerate democracy, no matter what HK thinks. The arrangement was never going to work out very well. That's why so many left when the PRiCs took over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted June 16, 2019 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2019 'Two million' march: It's a sea of black as Hong Kong protesters fill the streets 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted June 17, 2019 Report Share Posted June 17, 2019 I wonder if the people will ever rise up against the People's Republic. Probably not, but then the USSR did collapse eventually ... to be replaced by Putinocracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted June 17, 2019 Report Share Posted June 17, 2019 China and HK were supposed to have a two tier government per what I read. Of course China will never allow HK to get too crazy and since HK is such a cash cow, China has to move carefully... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted June 18, 2019 Report Share Posted June 18, 2019 "Too crazy" meaning allowing freedom of speech and all those other so-called "human rights" ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted August 17, 2019 Report Share Posted August 17, 2019 Protests won't get HK independence. China will take more control eventually. Same with Taiwan but the people there will always have a rebellious spirit. They wont win over "hearts and minds" but they will control it. Similar in other places. Catalans and Basque in Spain, Scotland in the UK, one of several places in Russia, parts of India. Not saying all of them are equal in animus and independence mindset but all consider themselves "different" than the government and have or want a certain degree of autonomy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted August 19, 2019 Report Share Posted August 19, 2019 On 6/17/2019 at 5:40 AM, Flashermac said: I wonder if the people will ever rise up against the People's Republic. Probably not, but then the USSR did collapse eventually ... to be replaced by Putinocracy. I don't think you will see a western style revolution in China. Has there ever been? The USSR ended under the weight of its own fragile economy. There are countries and cultures where democracy simply doesn't work. Never has lasted and I think never will happen on an ongoing basis. The Chinese as well as the Russian peoples seem to prefer a strong, autocratic leader instead of shouldering their collective selves with governing via electing someone. Both cultures seem to admire strong, people who take leadership. Both countries were ruled by Emperors/Monarchies who had supreme power and communism was supposed to be governance by the people and both ended in strong, autocratic, totalitarian leaders (Mao and Stalin) who basically had similar powers to the monarchies they had historically. And still do. Russia has elections but its a joke. The people see in Putin a leader who will restore Russia's pride and they seem to accept that he has supreme power. Hong Kong, while under British rule technically were given a lot of autonomy and the people felt as if HK was their own loosely governed 1000s of kilometers away via a Brit governor. The HK Chinese had a fair amount of freedom under British rule and built a few generations of people who only knew semi autonomy and that isn't easy to give up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radioman Posted August 22, 2019 Report Share Posted August 22, 2019 Large numbers of those now protesting know nothing of life under colonial rule. I can only imagine it is the grasp of embers or some perceived idea of how it was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cavanami Posted August 22, 2019 Report Share Posted August 22, 2019 Went thru Hong Kong airport yesterday and various counters were unattended. I had to walk a bit to find what I needed but my flight departed on time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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