A battle between citizens of a land and the government is common in many countries and is an incident that quite often repeats in history. Some of these battles reach an extreme stage and yet receive no attention and support from the media. While, although some encounters do receive some awareness, it does not improve the issue. Whether it is popular in the media or not, every issue deserves acknowledgment. Each crisis is very much real and deserves the same amount of attention and support as the others. However, you might be wondering, how can awareness on an issue actually help the matter at hand? Well, this is the whole idea behind media and communications after all. It is to disclose the truths of the world in hopes of someone to reach out and aid. This should be the goal, nevertheless, some issues don’t reach the public as much as it should.
As previously mentioned, a conflict between citizens and an authority is quite common, and this concept is no stranger to the region of Hong Kong. What started off as a movement spiraled into something much more. Something much more dangerous and much more complicated, that is.
Thus, what is exactly happening in Hong Kong? Hong Kong is a special administrative region that falls under China. However, this region has its own currency, political system, and cultural identity. Due to this, many citizens of Hong Kong see themselves as Hong Kongers more than Chinese. Traveling back into history, this region was taken over by the United Kingdom for over 150 years until the British handed it over back to China in 1997. For this reason, Hong Kong has its similarities with the British system. Therefore, a policy came about stating it was one country with two different systems.
Under this policy, Hong Kong has its law known as the ‘Hong Kong Basic Law’ which ensures freedoms that are unavailable to Chinese mainlanders. These freedoms include the right to protest, the right to a free press and the freedom of speech. One of the tenets of this Basic Law is also that Hong Kong has the right to develop its own democracy. Furthermore, Chinese officials pledged that the central government of Beijing wouldn’t interfere with that. However, recently, Beijing has been repeatedly reinterpreting the Basic Law in which now they state that it has “complete” jurisdiction over Hong Kong. The Basic Law also stated that Hong Kong will “safeguard the rights and freedoms of the residents” for 50 years after the handover but it seems like China is already attempting to invade those rights. The invasion of Hong Kong Basic Law has led to numerous confrontations.
The protests in Hong Kong consisted of massive peaceful marches, widespread strikes from different professional industries, and a bit of vandalism. However, in early August, there was a violent outbreak in the Hong Kong airport. Protestors were fighting for democracy as they were handing out leaflets explaining the situation in different languages to the visitors. Soon after, the police arrived on buses and the protestors began to barricade against them. While a protestor snatched the baton from a policeman, the policeman then pulled out his pistol and aimed it to the crowd. Apparently, the police were trying to assist a visitor at leaving the airport safely.
The protests followed in different areas such as Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok, and Wong Tai Sin. More than 120,000 people attended the rally in Mong Kok according to the organizer. Policemen arrived to arrest two people but ended up being blocked by the protestors. They were outnumbered and attacked with fire extinguishers, umbrellas, helmets, and other objects. Some protestors moved on from Mong Kok and went to Wong Tai Sin’s police station. This is when the actual chaos began. Riot police used tear gas, pepper spray and batons on the protestors. While there were protests taking place in Mong Kok and Wong Tai Sin, there were conflicts outside the police station in Tsim Sha Tsui as well. As individuals were speaking up for this cause in front of the police station, things took a violent turn. As a result, a young female medic got shot in the eye with a rubber bullet. This almost blinded her and presented to the rest of the protestors another evidence of police brutality.
Soon after, many of the protestors used this lady as an icon for this revolt against the government. Individuals began to wear eye patches to represent her and speak up about police brutality. They also marched in their protests with umbrellas. Umbrellas symbolized protection from evil in the protestors’ eyes.
This political issue in Hong Kong still continues today although it has been months. We hope that this situation resolves and improves. Hopefully, the Hong Kongers are able to create the democracy they were promised. The protestors just display how important it is to stand for your beliefs even throughout the chaos. Their bravery is commendable and inspiring. Although we are just the “youth”, we all have the power within ourselves to fight for what we believe in and implement a change in this world. Therefore, we must stand strong until we achieve our goals.
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