So, let me start off with the fact that I am not ever informed when it comes to politics. Sometimes it’s because I don’t like the bias running rampant in the news and other times it’s just because I don’t care that much. Whatever the reason may be, I don’t investigate much.
Earlier this summer, Hong Kong sparked my interest. I started researching in the early stages of the protests and wanted to make sure I was educated on what was happening. I looked up many different articles and news sources to get as close to the actual truth as possible. Now that I have done so, I want to share a very brief rundown with others who might want to know.
With that, here are the top five things you need to know about the protests in Hong Kong:
1. It all started way back in history when China and Britain were getting angsty about who owned Hong Kong. I’m not going to get into all the information about it, so the important thing to know is that Britain had HK for a while and China was not pleased about it. In 1997 a new treaty was formed saying HK could stay partially separated from China for 50 years. It was called the “One Country, Two Systems” policy.
2. Since then, China has been slowly putting laws in place to try and gain control of HK. The people of HK have noticed and are not happy about it. The trigger for this specific protest was a bill China wanted to enforce that would essentially let China bring Chinese criminals from HK back to China to be tried. This was called the “Extradition Bill”.
3. HK began peaceful protests and with police responses and a couple of extremists on the protestors’ side, the protests turned bad quickly. There have been many times where the police have exerted extreme force and tear gas, among other things, but there have also been protestors turning on each other and police with aggressive force. The protests have begun a massive movement for HK to show their desire for democracy and separation from China.
4. The majority of people on communist mainland China do not know what is happening in HK as the government is not telling them and they cannot access outside news. They do not have access to Facebook and other primary news sources. While mainland China is slowly starting to learn about the protests that have been occurring for months, the Chinese government is starting to circulate cartoon propaganda that makes HK seem like the villain and China seem like the hero.
5. Many people, who don’t even live in HK, are siding with the HK police. The people of HK are very angry at those who do not support them as they feel their right to democracy is being threatened and attacked. In fact, the actress playing Mulan in the upcoming Disney movie has sided with the HK police. She is Chinese-American as she was born in China and moved to the US when she was only 10 years old. Her stance for the HK police has sparked a hashtag of #boycottmulan and has caused many people in HK to feel belittled and unsupported.
So, there you have it, folks! Those are the top five important things to know about the HK protests. I left a lot of information and details out to encourage individual research.