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Beyond ‘one country two systems’
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Protesters walk along a street during a rally in Hong Kong on August 18, 2019, in the latest opposition to a planned extradition law that has since morphed into a wider call for democratic rights in the semi-autonomous city. Hong Kong democracy activists gathered August 18 for a major rally to show the city's leaders their protest movement still attracts wide public support despite mounting violence and increasingly stark warnings from Beijing. (AFP/Manan Vatsyayana)
H
ow will China uphold its national prestige and sovereignty amid Hong Kong’s prodemocracy but violent demonstrations? The protests, which have stretched to 11 consecutive weeks in Hong Kong, reached its peak when the guerrilla tactics of demonstrators crippled Chek Lap Kok International Airport, the largest airline hub in the region, for two days.
Will Beijing supersede the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) under chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and restore law and order from what they see as acts of terrorism? How can an extradition bill triggered by a crime committed in Taiwan of a particular Hong Kong citizen morph into political disturbance across the former colony of Britain?
The demonstrations started in early June with an estimated 1 million people involved. This demonstration resembled the exact demand when the youngsters in their 20s spearheaded by high school students kicked off the Umbrella Movement in 2014.
The movement forced the HKSAR government to suspend a controversial national security bill. Now, the same Hong Kong millennial generation is expanding its demands to the withdrawal of the extradition bill and resignation of Carrie Lam.
There are growing fears that Beijing would interfere by sending troops from nearby Shenzhen to assist Carrie Lam’s government in restoring law and order in Hong Kong, not to let her drown in the abyss.
There are already reports that the People’s Armed Police, functioning as the military arm of the Communist Party of China (CPC), are in Shenzhen waiting for an order from the highest authority to enter Hong Kong.
In a snap, we recall how China suppressed a peaceful student demonstration in Tiananmen Square in Beijing 30 years ago. Many observers and China analysts believe that military deployment to Hong Kong will result in the same bloody tragedy as the event three decades ago.
