On China's Mainland, A Less Charitable Take On Hong Kong's Protests
A woman walks past umbrellas with pro-democracy slogans written on them at a protest site near Hong Kong government headquarters on Saturday. Wong Maye-E/AP hide caption
A woman walks past umbrellas with pro-democracy slogans written on them at a protest site near Hong Kong government headquarters on Saturday.
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong have impressed people around the world with their idealism, politeness and guts. But in mainland China, the view is different.
Because the Communist Party controls the news media there, many in China don't know that much about the demonstrations. And those who do are likely to see the protesters as spoiled troublemakers.
To understand how many Chinese have viewed the protests, it's worth considering how different Hong Kong, a wealthy, cosmopolitan city, is from mainland China.
The former British colony is more like New York than Beijing. It enjoys far more freedoms than the mainland, including free speech and an open Internet. So when protesters took to the streets to demand electoral democracy, some on the mainland saw them as asking for too much, too soon.
People like Mr. Hua, who works at Shanghai's prestigious Fudan University, and who refused to give his full name or job title because he was afraid of getting in trouble with the authorities.
"I think Hong Kong people should be rational and return to reality. They can live a very good life within the embrace of the mainland," he says. "Why pursue an elusive, so-called democracy? It's silly, right?"
For many mainland Chinese who are following this, this feels like a personal rejection a rejection of the mainland.
- David Wertime, editor and China analyst
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On China's Mainland, A Less Charitable Take On Hong Kong's Protests