View of Hong Kong's IFC tower as students mass in front of the Chief Executive's office on Oct. 2, 2014. (Ishaan Tharoor/The Washington Post)
HONG KONG -- Last Thursdayas tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators massed in Hong Kong's streets, a parallel rally took place 500 miles to the east in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Thousands of Taiwanese chanted "Go Hong Kong" in a public park and held up banners in support ofHong Kong's students seekingdemocratic reforms in the Chinese territory. One bannerread, "Today Hong Kong, Tomorrow Taiwan," echoing a larger fear among Taiwanese of what may happen to their island's democracy should it reunify with China in decades to come.
Hong Kong's protests may be fizzling out -- on Monday, crowds at the main protest site around the government's headquarters were sparse -- but their cause has resonated elsewhere in a region where Beijing looms large. "We know we're not alone," said Quincy Fung, a student protester in Hong Kong's Admiralty district, on Saturday night. "We know that there are many people nearby who have our same hopes for democracy and anger with the communists in Beijing."
Student-led protests for democratic reforms in Hong Kong subsided Monday, but a few hundred demonstrators are still camped out, vowing to keep up the pressure on the government. (AP)
The student-led occupations began after it became clear that China's rulers had no intention of allowing Hong Kong the right to full democracy. In 2017 elections, voters in the city will only be able to choose from a slate of candidates vetted in Beijing. The former British colony returned to China in 1997, but maintained its own political structure and civic freedoms under a pact dubbed "one country, two systems." Beijing's critics in Hong Kong fear it is trying to dismantle that understanding.
Hong Kong has long had an image of being a peerless financial center, a rock of stability and rule of law amid the corruption and political turmoil that exists elsewhere in Asia.While many of the protesters' demands have gone unmet, theirnon-violent uprising has signaled the emergence of a new generationof politicized youth in this bustling city of 7.2 million people.
And their efforts have been noticed. Unlike in mainland China, state media controlled byVietnam's authoritarian communist government published numerous articles about the Hong Kong protests, including an extensive profile of 17-year-old Hong Kong protest leader Joshua Wong. Relations between Hanoi and Beijing have been rocky, with the two governments sparring over longstanding territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
In the Philippines, protesters also rallied in solidarity with Hong Kong's demonstratorslast week and picketed the Chinese consulate in Manila. But the government soon issued a stern warning to the many Filipinos working in Hong Kong to avoid protests and potential arrest. Filipinos and Indonesians make up the vast majority of the city's more than 300,000 domestic workers, a workforce that remains, legally and socially, something of an underclass in Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong democracy protests illustrate a strange irony: Someof the students at occupy sites, fighting for democracy,have been raised by domestic workers who come from societies with far greater politicalfreedoms. "My boy is out there in the protest," said Jozy Subag, 38, a Filipina maid who spend a day off on Thursday with friends in a public park not far from the Hong Kong government headquarters, which was then blockaded by protesters.Subag was referring to the son of her employers. "I don't want to get involved, but I think it's good he cares so much about democracy," she said.
That sentiment was probably not shared by officials in Singapore, a city-state that is often likened to Hong Kong. A modest solidarity protest last week saw a few hundred people turn up in support of Hong Kong's protesters. Not long thereafter, reports emerged of Singaporean police questioning foreigners who attended the rally.It's hard to imagine Singapore allowing thetype of demonstrations that took place in Hong Kong.Its authoritarian government makes such mobilizations far more difficult and the city's civil society and media arefar more fettered than theirequivalents in Hong Kong.
Original post:
WorldViews: Hong Kongs protests cast a shadow across Asia