Hong Kong is burning, once again. After hundreds of thousands of yellow umbrellas accompanied protesters seeking greater rights inundated the city in 2014, the city is once again on lockdown, as some say more than one million people came out to protest the proposed bills allowing criminals to be extradited to the Chinese mainland. As businesses close down in support of the protests and 1 in 7 of the city's residents taking to the streets to demand the resignation of the Chief Executive Carrie Lam, the city seems to be at its political crossroads.
Perhaps that is not a fair description of the city's turbulent political environment in the past few years. In fact, the city has not seen much political calm at all, with a constant battle between Beijing's chosen governing elites slowly aligning the city with the mainland and plenty of people, both at the elite and grassroots levels, fighting against what they see as the city's loss of political independence stipulated by the governing principle of "one country, two systems." The latest protest is but the latest reincarnation of a much larger trend.
Yet, the massive size and composition of the latest protest show that even in that larger trend, the latest protest marks a new milestone that signals the great and increasingly irreversible extent that the Hong Kong youths have drifted apart from the governments of both Hong Kong and Beijing. Never mind what the protestors actually demand from the government; the very willingness that they are no longer go through regular political channels to voice their demands show that they no longer trust that there are real, effective, peaceful channels that they can use to get themselves heard.
Looking at a larger picture, such lack of trust on the part of the Hong Kong youths is highly justified. The youths of mainland China have not vocally voiced their support for the Hong Kongers, even as protests in support of Hong Kong were launched in multiple cities across the world. And so far, the Chinese government in Beijing has not even officially addressed the topic, pretending that the issue is one that is the internal affairs of Hong Kong, the city, with little implications and associations with China at large.
Of course, in reality, the demands of the Hong Kong protestors have everything to do with the Chinese government. It is, ultimately, Beijing's tacit support that is allowing Lam and her troop of pro-Beijing establishment legislators to push through the extradition law with little concern for the mounting opposition. Her belief in the unwavering support of Beijing has led her to ignore popular sentiments in the city in a way that made the massive gathering of street protestors inevitable and all the more necessary.
Those street protestors are then fuelled by the apathy of both the mainland Chinese government and people to their plight. Eyeing the mass detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the protestors know that the day is not very far when they can be subjected to the same treatment based on their political beliefs and actions unless they stand up and let their voices be heard. The unwillingness of the Chinese government and many mainland Chinese people to even acknowledge the concerns of Hong Kongers is only putting a bigger and bigger distance between Hong Konger and the mainland Chinese.
It is difficult to see, at this point, how that distance can be shrunk. Trust, originally based on the already tenuous belief of mutual respect for the way of life as well as political and economic systems have been broken time after time, with no apology from anyone whenever the breach happened. The mutual disrespect has only grown with more interaction among the authorities and peoples of both sides, cementing the belief among all of just how little divergent thinking on some issues are and how little common ground is found to resolve the issues amicably in "win-win" situations.
All that remains that can regain trust is capitulation by one side. Either the Chinese government can lose face and a sense of authority at home by yielding to the demands of the protestors, making unprecedented major concessions in order to demonstrate willingness to compromise, or the protestors will need to swallow their demands whole and accept Beijing's political and ideological hegemony over Hong Kong in a way that scraps the "one country, two systems" agreement. At the moment, neither side is likely to back down. So people will continue to stay on the streets, further destroying whatever positive impression people outside China have about the country.
Perhaps that is not a fair description of the city's turbulent political environment in the past few years. In fact, the city has not seen much political calm at all, with a constant battle between Beijing's chosen governing elites slowly aligning the city with the mainland and plenty of people, both at the elite and grassroots levels, fighting against what they see as the city's loss of political independence stipulated by the governing principle of "one country, two systems." The latest protest is but the latest reincarnation of a much larger trend.
Yet, the massive size and composition of the latest protest show that even in that larger trend, the latest protest marks a new milestone that signals the great and increasingly irreversible extent that the Hong Kong youths have drifted apart from the governments of both Hong Kong and Beijing. Never mind what the protestors actually demand from the government; the very willingness that they are no longer go through regular political channels to voice their demands show that they no longer trust that there are real, effective, peaceful channels that they can use to get themselves heard.
Looking at a larger picture, such lack of trust on the part of the Hong Kong youths is highly justified. The youths of mainland China have not vocally voiced their support for the Hong Kongers, even as protests in support of Hong Kong were launched in multiple cities across the world. And so far, the Chinese government in Beijing has not even officially addressed the topic, pretending that the issue is one that is the internal affairs of Hong Kong, the city, with little implications and associations with China at large.
Of course, in reality, the demands of the Hong Kong protestors have everything to do with the Chinese government. It is, ultimately, Beijing's tacit support that is allowing Lam and her troop of pro-Beijing establishment legislators to push through the extradition law with little concern for the mounting opposition. Her belief in the unwavering support of Beijing has led her to ignore popular sentiments in the city in a way that made the massive gathering of street protestors inevitable and all the more necessary.
Those street protestors are then fuelled by the apathy of both the mainland Chinese government and people to their plight. Eyeing the mass detention of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, the protestors know that the day is not very far when they can be subjected to the same treatment based on their political beliefs and actions unless they stand up and let their voices be heard. The unwillingness of the Chinese government and many mainland Chinese people to even acknowledge the concerns of Hong Kongers is only putting a bigger and bigger distance between Hong Konger and the mainland Chinese.
It is difficult to see, at this point, how that distance can be shrunk. Trust, originally based on the already tenuous belief of mutual respect for the way of life as well as political and economic systems have been broken time after time, with no apology from anyone whenever the breach happened. The mutual disrespect has only grown with more interaction among the authorities and peoples of both sides, cementing the belief among all of just how little divergent thinking on some issues are and how little common ground is found to resolve the issues amicably in "win-win" situations.
All that remains that can regain trust is capitulation by one side. Either the Chinese government can lose face and a sense of authority at home by yielding to the demands of the protestors, making unprecedented major concessions in order to demonstrate willingness to compromise, or the protestors will need to swallow their demands whole and accept Beijing's political and ideological hegemony over Hong Kong in a way that scraps the "one country, two systems" agreement. At the moment, neither side is likely to back down. So people will continue to stay on the streets, further destroying whatever positive impression people outside China have about the country.
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