Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

The Hong Kong protests are getting out of control.  I thought things went fairly well in June when the government backed down from the extradition law which led to the protests in the first place.  But the protesters were not satisfied.  They demanded the resignation of Carrie Lam, the chief executive.  They also demanded more democracy.  Since then the protests have turned more violent with government buildings and the airport being occupied.  Businesses came to a halt for many days since then. 

Recently a friend of my wife and her husband came to the U.S. from Hong Kong for a visit.  We sat down and talked about the situation in HK.  Now, I must admit we are all in our 60s so our views are quite different from the majority of protesters who are mostly in their teens or early 20s.  One thing that was brought to our attention by one of our friends in America was that some of the protesters were singing the American national anthem in some videos.  We understand that the U.S. is still consider a model of freedom in the world.  But most of the protesters, who were not even born when HK was handed over to China by Britain in 1997, have no idea how things were under colonial rule.

There was no true democracy under British rule in HK until a few years before the handover, when British knew they will not be governing soon.  There were protests and riots during the British rule.  There was never a response from the U.S. in support of HK protesters against the British back then.  It is easy for the U.S. to chide China for undemocratic stance in HK, although Trump seems to give Xi a bye on this so far.  But the U.S. never chided Britain for colonial behaviors in HK,  So for those young people singing the praise of the Britain and the U.S,, remember all countries back their friends and act mostly in their own self interests.

Speaking of those protests against the British, remember the actions of the HK police back in 1966 and 1967 vs the actions of the HK police today.  While the protesters are complaining the brutality of the HK police today, they should go back to history to see that the HK police under British command were much more brutal back then.  Now, to be fair, the 67 riots instigated by the leftists sympathetic to communist China were much more violent.  The majority of HK people wanted the police to stop them toward the end.  But the 66 riots were peaceful and most historians would say that the police acted more brutally than necessary.  Same with the beginning of the 67 riots.  The reaction of the police back then were over the top which contributed to the violence.  The British government, after the 67 riots, commended the police for its fine work putting down the rioters.  The brutality of the police under British command was not discussed openly.

So I think the actions of HK police is rather restrained today.  There is a picture in the LA Times today showing a protester swinging a bat against a cop.  In the U.S. that may have led to a shooting by the police.   But nothing happened.  Sure tear gas  and water cannons were employed.  But that would be the least response from any police force faced with people breaking into government offices and shutting down the airport. 

The future of HK is not bright.  China, of course, may take away all freedom at any time.  At the very least, China is less dependent on HK for its finances and will try to let Shanghai be the financial capital of the country.  Part of the problem that led to these protests by the young people is that their economic condition is much worse than those of their parents.  But with these protests turning violent, it may make HK's financial situation permanently worse.  A nephew of one of my friends who works for a big U.S. investment bank, said that with the instability in HK, his firm is planning on pulling out of its Asian headquarters out of HK and into Singapore.  Losses like that are going to be permanent.  My wife's friend and her husband agree with this assessment and fear for the future of their children.