The Fight for HONG KONG: Mass protests in Hong Kong reveal a clash between the territory's open way of life and an increasingly authoritarian Chinese government.

AuthorSmith, Patricia

As far as the eye could see, a vast ocean of people overflowed the wide skyscraper-lined avenues of central Hong Kong: young and old carrying signs, parents pushing strollers, students carrying phones to film the spectacle. The massive protest drew 1 million people--one in seven residents of the territory.

It was part of a series of protests that continued throughout the summer. In all of them, Hong Kong's youth were front and center. They say they're taking a stand for Hong Kong's autonomy.

"We cannot give up," says So Hiu-ching, 16, "because we won't win without even trying."

The protests began in June over a proposed law that would have made it easier to transfer criminal suspects from Hong Kong to mainland China. While Hong Kong is known for its independent courts, China's judicial system is controlled by the Communist Party and plagued by corruption. Critics worried that the law would force political opponents in Hong Kong to face trial in China.

More important, people saw the bill as a symbol of China's growing power over everyday life in Hong Kong, which is a semiautonomous region within the Communist country,

"There will be a moment that mainland China will completely take over Hong Kong," says Danny Chan, 25, who joined a recent protest. "As a Hong Kong citizen, the best we can do is postpone it."

In response to the huge demonstrations, Hong Kong's chief executive shelved the proposed extradition law in mid-June. But the protests continued and were still going strong in August.

'One Country, Two Systems'

Hong Kong is a complicated place. Although it's part of China, it's treated differently because of its unique history. For more than 150 years, Hong Kong was a British colony (see Key Dates, p. 16). Under Britain, it became a major international trading port and evolved into a Westernized society with a tradition of free speech and a vibrant press. The rest of China has been a one-party Communist state since 1949.

In 1984, Britain and China signed a treaty to return Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997. But Hong Kongers worried that the transfer would threaten the freedoms they'd long enjoyed.

As part of the handover, China agreed to a compromise known as "one country, two systems." Under this arrangement, Hong Kong would operate under different rules from the rest of China for 50 years: The city's capitalist financial system would remain in place, and freedom of speech, assembly, and religion, as well as a free press would be guaranteed.

There are no such protections in mainland China. Though economic reforms have led to three decades of explosive growth and made China's economy the second largest in the world after the U.S., the Chinese government denies basic freedoms to its 1.4 billion people. Political opponents are routinely imprisoned, and tens of thousands of censors--part of "the Great Firewall"--monitor chat rooms and block websites critical of the government.

Some fear the protesters in Hong Kong will meet the same fate as those massacred by the Chinese military 30 years ago while demonstrating for democracy in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. But others say China wants to avoid bloodshed in Hong Kong; Chinese leaders know that a crackdown would damage both China's reputation and Hong Kong's booming economy.

Some of the protests have turned violent, with police using tear gas on demonstrators and a small minority of protesters throwing bricks at the windows of government buildings. In August, protesters effectively shut down Hong Kong's busy international airport.

'Tightening Its Grip'

Five years ago, Hong Kong experienced another series of mass democracy demonstrations that became known as the Umbrella Movement, for the umbrellas the protesters used to shield themselves from the tear gas the police fired at them. Those protests paralyzed the city's commercial center but failed to win any reforms.

Since then, China's Communist Party has been gradually exerting more influence over Hong Kong. The pressure reflects a broader crackdown against dissent in China under the rule of President Xi Jinping since 2012.

"In particular, over the past six, seven, or eight years, we have seen Beijing tightening its grip over Hong Kong," says Anson Chan, a former official in Hong Kong's government.

Hong Kong's free press is already feeling the pinch. Executives at the most vocal pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, say the Chinese government has told large companies to pull advertising. Independent book publishers say they have run into roadblocks printing and selling books on politics and history in Hong Kong, which they attribute to pressure from the mainland.

"Hong Kong is still very different from the rest of China," says Scott Kennedy of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. "It's got an open civil society and a diverse, cosmopolitan culture. But China's been chipping away at Hong Kong's way of life, and folks in Hong Kong are quite anxious about this. "

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