Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong

Will Mainente, Staff Writer

Since September 26, thousands of students have taken over a courtyard in Hong Kong’s financial district.  These students are protesting their right to elect a government in Hong Kong without China’s government interfering on who is elected.  For 150 years, Hong Kong belonged to the United Kingdom.  During this time as a British Territory, Hong Kong became a thriving business center and booming metropolis being compared to New York City.  Then in 1997 the British gave control of Hong Kong back to China.

China’s government stated that Hong Kong would be granted some independence, the freedom of press, the right to assemble.  All of these privileges were prohibited in the rest of China and so this policy became known as “One Country, Two Systems”.  China also agreed that by 2017 Hong Kong could elect their own government.  This summer China went back on their promise and stated that only candidates chosen by China’s government can run.  As a result of this new guideline, this new unjust policy was met with protests.

So far, dozens have been injured and thousands have been tear gassed.  The protest has become known as the Umbrella Revolution because of the ubiquitous umbrellas the protesters have used to protect themselves from tear gas and rain.

A similar situation of unrest occurred in 1989, during the Tibetan Protest for Independence when China brought in the military and approximately a thousand protesters were killed.  China was criticized by the rest of the world for the way they went about handling the situation and today they are trying to prevent another brutal protest.  Therefor China’s law enforcement has mostly been peaceful.

Thousands of people in Hong Kong and the rest of the World have taken their support of the protest to social media.  But, China has blocked Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram so the majority of people in mainland China don’t know exactly what’s going on.  The little information they have gathered is mostly jumbled rumors.  This is because the People’s Republic of China has tried to cover this all up and refuses to adjust the new policy.  China has even warned countries like the US to not get involved in their problems.

The people of Hong Kong do have a fair reason to protest.  China went back on their word of allowing the people of Hong Kong to freely elect their own government.  Today, only 1 in 3 Hongkongers consider themselves Chinese.  The majority of them consider Hong Kong to be merely a territory of China.

People question why they chose to ratify the election of 2017 now but it appears it is because it is yet to occur.  China couldn’t change something that is already in place, like freedom of the press.  This would spark even more of a retaliation.  China is trying to get away with reshaping Hong Kong in the future, whether the people of Hong Kong like it or not.