Occupy Central in Hong Kong

[Hashi Lebwohl]

I missed this breaking story over the holiday weekend but both Democracy Now! and Al Jazeera America picked up on it.

Thousands of people are protesting in Hong Kong over upcoming elections. The chief executive political leader of the city is chosen by open election....but the National Committee, under the direct leadership and control of the People's Congress in Beijing, gets to approve which candidates make it onto the ballot. Beijing will never allow Hong Kong to have a leader which isn't under their wing or who does not adhere to their policies.

At worst, these protests might reach the level of Tiananmen Square but the end result will be the same--the tanks and troops will roll in and the protests will be dispersed.

You know....similar to the way the United States sends in heavily-armed police to break up protests.

[Savor Dam]

I've seen some very questionable things done in this country in response to protests. I remember Chicago and Kent State...both of which make the casual violence of macing Occupiers a couple years ago look mild.

However, I have not seen tanks used against protesters.
Against the SLA, yes, but they were hardly protesters.

[Vraith]

I saw the announcement of Beijing's official slapdown, and mentioned it in another thread as a short off-topic aside.
I don't know if it will come to something or not...but it could easily get very nasty. [and could easily be ignored by most of the media no matter how nasty it gets. Which is stupid.]
Right now, most of the majors are at least mentioning it...but only in little/minor blurbs.
No good numbers, just "thousands."

Interesting tidbit: apparently, the Hong Kong legislature has some power to resist. Beijing's rule needs approval by 2/3rd's in HK leg. and the folk who want to choose their own candidates have more than 1/3rd, so can effectively veto it...and have promised to do so.

So the democracy people have some, SOME, political pull.
That raises the stakes...but I'm not sure if it makes it more or less likely that Beijing will stomp down hard. Not sure if the boot coming down will stop or inspire protestors.
I don't think anyone knows/can predict.

[ussusimiel]

This looks like it is starting to escalate:

• - Hong Kong citizens urged to continue protests as police withdraw

Wednesday looks like it could be a potential flashpoint, especially if China try to infiltrate the protestors and cause trouble.

u.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

The article I saw said that most of the protesters are college students, which means they are too young to recall what happened the last time a major protest took place. The next crackdown on protesters won't be tear gas and pepper spray....

Beijing does not tolerate dissent.

edit: in other China-related news, [url=america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/28/taiwan-leader-rejectschinaunificationterms.html]Taiwan has rejected a 'one country; two systems' deal offered by Beijing. The important sentence in the article is that Chinese President Jinping stated that, with regards to Taiwain, "no secessionist act will be tolerated". Although directed at Taipei, a similar sentiment will likely apply towards Hong Kong.

[ussusimiel]

Seems the protestors have a theme song.

No sign of movement by the Occupy movement. Here's an interesting article on the leaders of the movement.

The protests seem to be winding down. There may be an upsurge in numbers this evening, but it look like this round is nearly finished. I don't think that this is likely to be the end of it though. The elections aren't until 2017, so more action is probably to be expected.

u.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Beijing can afford to be patient. By now they have what they want--the names and faces of the leaders--but they won't do anything about it for now. They'll wait.

[ussusimiel]

The protests have re-escalated, and the protestors seem to be digging in.

u.

[Morning]

bit.ly/1vhnl0k

[Hashi Lebwohl]

As far as I know, everyone in China venerates Wong Fei-hung and, yes, umbrellas can be used both for offense or defense if properly constructed and used; however, this is taking things a little far. I highly doubt the protesters are going to win fights against the police.

It takes balls to protest in China.

[ussusimiel]

This article says that the government in Honk Kong is now blaming 'external forces' for all the trouble on their streets. Funny how oppressive governments do that. The same claim is made in relation to the Maidan protests in Ukraine. It could never be that the government is corrupt and their people are angry

u.

[Hashi Lebwohl]

Blaming external forces is always a good way to deflect attention from what a crappy job the government is doing. We do it here, too, only those external forces only work against us overseas. Actually, I am surprised that some shadowy conspiracy hasn't developed here more fully than the flash-in-the-pan Tea Party that those on the Left tried to paint as ne'er-do-wells a couple of years ago. Not enough people bought into it so it got dropped.

[Morning]

hkcolumn.blogspot.hk/2014/10/wing-wing-her-beloved-hong-kong.html

[Morning]

m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1633832/after-occupy-beijing-pay-more-heed-two-systems-stress-one-country