Since March 2019 Hong Kong has been a turbulent year in terms of both politically and economically due to the controversial ‘Extradition Law Amendment Bill’ that the Hong Kong Government wanted to pass with the influence of China.
This un-democratic law meant that the local citizens would be forcefully extradited to Mainland China if they were considered as criminal fugitives.
If this bill was made into a law by the current ruling Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, things would have been very bad for the residents of this great tourist and business destination in the world.
In 1997, when Hong Kong was handed over to China by the United Kingdom, there was an understanding that there will be a system of ‘One Nation Two System Of Government’.
That meant democratic form of government will exist in Hong Kong where people get to elect their representatives.
But in the recent past, the Chinese Government under the current leadership of Xi Jinping has made it a point that there can be no separate rules and forms of governance in any part of the Chinese territory.
This thought comes from them could be for the fear that people from other parts of China like Tibet region, Taiwan and even from Mainland China can demand more representation in the Government that could slowly see ‘Democracy’ entering into China.
Why Does The Protest Will Continue in Hong Kong?
Though the Carrie Lam administration has removed the Extradition Bill, the protest has not died down because its citizens want an assurance that the democratic form of government will still remain and China won’t have any say in this.
It has been 22 weeks and there has been no sign of this protest settling down. In the past few weekends, we are actually seeing more violence taking place between the police forces and the protesters.
Also, there is unrest due to clashes between pro-democracy supporters and pro-Beijing protesters.
Keeping this in mind, I feel the Hong Kong protest will continue for the coming weekends because of the following reasons:
#1. People of Hong Kong are skeptical of Carrie Lam’s true intent. They feel she is a pro-China lobbyist. So, it is evident that the people completely don’t want any Chinese influence in their political process
#2. Secondly, there is no clear sign that Beijing is going to let go of this situation easily. After a certain stage, we might see an aggressive approach taken by the Chinese Government like sending their military forces to stop these protests completely. In doing so, this will force Hong Kong citizens to continue their non-violent protest.
#3. Due to police brutality against some of the protesters will again create more protests as the people might want justice to some of the victims of this.
#4. There will be a chance of seeing an escalation of these peaceful protests if there are any further delays by Carrie Lam’s government in bringing many democratic reforms as demanded by the protesters.
#5. Also, we have witnessed many people that are pro-Beijing supporters along with a few other groups that will organize separate protests and will provoke the pro-democracy protesters into violence.
Impact Of The Hong Kong Protest
The last seven months of Hong Kong’s anti-government protests during the weekends have triggered a major impact on Hong Kong’s law and order, business, economy, and tourism.
The failure on the part of the Carrie Lam’s administration in taking the right decision by accepting the legitimate demand of the people in removing the ‘Extradition Bill’, has caused some of the major impacts to Hong Kong:
#1. Economic downfall:
This on-going protest has severely impacted its economy. There has been a decrease in tourist influx, hotel bookings, shopping as well as other business transactions. Exports and imports have also decreased.
Many industrialists worry about the long-term impact of this unrest as it forces them to rethink investing their money in Hong Kong. Instead, there are other economic powerhouses like Singapore, Tokyo, and Seoul for investment.
According, to Goldman Sach’s report, it is estimated that about $4 billion dollars of investment might have been shifted to Singapore.
This protest also affected the Chek Lap Kok International Airport’s functioning as well. Because in the month of June and July, we saw even the airport staff and airline employees participating in the protest. As a result, several Cathay Pacific flights were canceled.
Also, there is news going around that due to this protest, the Disneyland estimates that their profit could reduce by $275 million dollars.
#2. A case of never-ending violence:
Now, that we are into the 23rd weekend of this protest, several residents of the city are reluctant to stop it and carry on with their daily routine.
Week after week, we are hearing more news of many protesters either getting arrested or injured due to tear gas shelling by the police or the death of one of their fellow protesters.
Any such incidents that have taken place so far, as only translated into more aggressive protests taking place and that leading to more violence, damaging properties, causing disruption to the MTR or any other public transport services.
For instance, one of their student protester, Chow Tsz-Lok, a 22-year-old student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology died on Friday after suffering brain injury during the protest earlier this week when the police forces were trying to disperse them. This has led to more violence and the college graduation ceremony also got disrupted as it turned violent.
#3. More political and social instability:
This protest has spiraled into an unstoppable political issue for which neither side, be it the Chinese regime along with Carrie Lam administration or the protesters are ready to tone it down.
If this continues for more weeks to come, then this will lead to further political and social instability in this region.
We are seeing protesters attacking university students that are from Mainland China. In the past few weeks, there were lots of protesters at the Polytechnic University attacking the police officers with Molotov cocktails, pepper spray, and other equipment.
#4. China will never back down:
China has so far been at the background pulling strings of their puppet, Carrie Lam in not letting the current government bow down completely to the legitimate demands of its pro-democracy protesters.
In the recently concluded local election, the pro-democracy group had won with a huge margin. Now, this doesn’t mean that China is going to let go of its grip on Hong Kong and let it become a full-fledged democracy once again. Instead, the Chinese government will become more aggressive on the protesters and will ask the local law enforcers to take stricter actions against them.
Last week, the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo had stated that the United States recognizes the Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protest as legitimate and the US has every right to impose sanctions on China, should there be any Human Rights violation against its people.
My Thoughts
I had the chance to visit Hong Kong in August 2019 during the on-going pro-democracy protest. I have been following this movement ever since it began in the month of April this year.
In what it had begun as a peaceful protest every weekend to oppose the controversial ‘Extradition Bill’ is turning out to be more violent with police brutality, some protesters attacking Chinese residents and more arrests of the protesters.
I feel Hong Kong deserves to be independent of China and remain a ‘Democratic Society’ with its people having the power to elect their leaders and enjoy freedom and prosperity.
My thoughts are for such a great country and one of the economic powerhouse in the world, the people of Hong Kong have every rights to safeguard their ‘Democracy’ by continuing their weekly protest until they are assured that the Chinese government will not interfere in the political system of Hong Kong.
I’m sharing with you the link to my YouTube video where I have spoken about this protest.
To conclude, the on-going pro-democracy protest in Hong Kong is a symbol of how ‘People’s Power‘ cannot be taken for granted by the administrations and it cannot be stifled by the brutal police force. This movement has surely attracted people from other countries like Bolivia, Chile, Iraq, Iran, and Lebanon to protest against their respective governments for better representation and to root out the corrupt system.