Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

College and high school students in Hong Kong are occupying the Central district to demand greater freedom in this territory controlled by China.  I have mixed feelings about this.  On the one hand it is good to know there are idealistic young people in Hong Kong who are risking everything to advance democracy, not only in HK but perhaps in China.  On the other hand, if someone gets seriously injured or even die from this, I don't think this fight is worth it at this time.

First, the issue at hand is the election of the chief executive of HK.  Since China took over HK, the CE  has been elected by committee, in other words by those loyal to China.  There was no direct vote by the people.  By 2017, there is supposed to be direct election by citizens of HK for CE.  But word came out recently that the candidates have to be vetted by a committee.  This means that candidates hostile to Beijing will probably not be on the ballot.  This sparks the protest.  The problem as I see it, is that being a communist country, Beijing will not meet the demand of the protestors and will use force if needed.  The timing is also bad as the U.S. and the UK are all occupied with ISIS and Ukraine.  They need China, if not for support, at least do not veto any resolutions in the UN.  So far there is no words of support from the western powers to the protestors.  Given no international support, this is a road that lead to nowhere.  There are reports of injuries already, and given that any change of the mind of Beijing is extremely unlikely, it certainly do not seem worth the risk of life at this time.  At the very least, this election in 2017 is not a backward step.  People of HK can choose the less of 2 or 3 evils rather than have the evil handed to them by Beijing.

Interestingly, at the same time, Beijing was making overture to Taiwan about negotiation for reunification!  President Xi is promising the same one country two system of HK to Taiwan.  Not that Taiwan would have said yes anyway, but the timing of this with the protest in HK is peculiar.  Certainly Xi would not think that what is happening in HK would in anyway encourage Taiwan to come back to China!