
Why are there protests in Hong Kong? - akbarnama
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-48607723
======
redwood
Hong Kong. Now Moscow. If you're out there and you feel abandoned by the world
remember that we're here with you in spirit; we're not being too aggressive
because we know your governments will turn that against you and claim that we
are responsible for your protest. In fact you are looking out for yourselves
and we commend you for that.

~~~
joelx
We need to really and truly do more than just send "thoughts and prayers".
Freedom is not the default state of world politics, totalitarianism is. If we
don't fight and help others with actual on the ground armies, then when our
freedom is taken no one will be left to help us.

~~~
beatgammit
Ever since Korea, US interventionism just seems to make things worse. We just
don't seem to have the will to do a good job, and I don't think we should do a
job unless we're going to do it right.

I don't think we want a was

------
noirchen
I think it really hard to say how many HKers identify themselves as 'Chinese',
because 'Chinese' is such a complex term. Even in Taiwan where many pro-
independence youngsters call themselves Taiwanese, many of the older
generation still consider themselves as Chinese, and they refuse to call their
country 'Taiwan', and use 'Republic of China' instead. People from Puerto Rico
may first identify themselves as Puerto Rican, and then US citizen.

~~~
RandomInteger4
Puerto Rican call themselves Puerto Ricans because (1) they're not yet a
state, and (2) the term defines both a region and an ethnicity.

There's little similarity between their relation to the U.S. and HK or
Taiwan's relation to China, especially since the U.S. and its territories are
all democracies.

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liuyao12
In the age of post-truth news cycle, it’s so easy to read only the reports (or
just the headlines) that you care about, and dismiss the other side. This type
of article should be on the front page every day.

If it’s difficult to keep up with current affairs, imagine to form an opinion
about something that happened 30 years ago. (Oh, the curse of year ‘*9.) If
they are protesting for Lam’s resignation, it’s still not too late for Beijing
to take a step down; if as they say they are demanding free election, no way
it will happen under Xi and it’s anyone’s guess how it will all end. My
opinion is that they badly need someone (all the ex chief executives and also
nonpolitical figures) whom both sides trust, just like some Republican elders
need to come out and stop/rein in Trump. Both are unlikely to happen.

If all this happened back in 2015/16 when the bookshop keepers were taken, it
would have been a clearer if not stronger message, and depending on the
outcome the discontent/distrust might not have risen so high as it is now.

------
tw1010
Part of me wonders if it's at all possible if the protestors represent only a
vocal minority of opinions in Hong Kong. I mean, maybe busy families around HK
would prefer to stay as part of china. I'm certainly not informed enough to
know if that's the case or not. If a small vocal minority in SF wanted to make
the city an independent nation, wouldn't you _want_ the US government to step
in to stop anything radical from happening?

~~~
clouddrover
> _wouldn 't you want the US government to step in with tanks and so fourth to
> stop anything radical from happening?_

No. I'd want a referendum.

Scotland had a referendum on becoming independent. They chose to stay in the
UK:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Scottish_independence_ref...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Scottish_independence_referendum)

Britain had a referendum on leaving the EU. They chose to leave the EU:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit)

So why not simplify everything and allow Hong Kong to hold a Chexit
referendum? Let the people of Hong Kong decide what they want for themselves.

~~~
throwaway1997
Chexit would never happen. We mainly want the status quo, preferably with
universal suffrage so that we can have a say in which policies are tabled and
so that our leaders are accountable to us rather than the central government.

~~~
clouddrover
The status quo won't get you what you want. One country, two systems was
always going to end in 2047.

