Maybe don’t let Lam define the movement.
Elections yesterday, and the early votes show a strong surge for the pro-democracy/anti-Beijing side. Out of 160 seats to be declared thus far, the pro-democracy factions have taken 140 versus just 17 for the pro-Beijingers.
Edit: The numbers are apparently being continuously updated and changing in that article.
The elections aren’t going to matter for Hong Kong in the long term.
Do we know what kind of voting system was being used? Was there a paper record or was it all electronic?
I also wonder how they secured everything from the CPC’s prying eyes (or maybe they didn’t). Not so much that Xi would interfere with anything, more that the Chinese might be keeping track of who voted for whom.
A quick search wasn’t helpful.
I agree with octopus: I think Beijing will simply write this off as fake news and claim that HK has been corrupted by the US and UK.
AIUI, most if not all ballots are paper, and usually they are counted out loud, visibly in public, although in some precincts some cops tried to close off the vote-counting from public eyes.
I think this may be one of the first political threads on the Straight Dope in which everyone is pretty much on the same side. Good work, China.
They haven’t mattered much since July 2017.
“Now Hong Kong has returned to the motherland’s embrace for 20 years, the Sino-British Joint Declaration, as a historical document, no longer has any practical significance, and it is not at all binding for the central government’s management over Hong Kong…”
Two additional points to consider are the history of HK and U.S. interests (in terms of trade surplus and use of the area for legal and financial work).
Looks like China is going for broke:
The harder the people of Hong Kong protest, the more crushing will be Xi’s response.
I get that they are screwed in 27 years no matter what. But I am not sure that all of Hong Kong’s citizens will be willing to surrender their freedoms ahead of time. It’s going to get ugly, incrementally ugly, and with pandemics to worry about now, and god knows what in the future, no one outside Hong Kong will be able to do anything other than to wring their hands furiously.
What makes you think that communist China will be around in 27 years?
I remember quite some years ago we had a debate on what nation is "most free’ and Hong Kong was brought up. I pointed out that China could and would crack down anytime they wanted, and that made some HK fan get into a fit of gibbering rage. HK is exactly as “free” as China will let it be.
I was sure this was gonna happen- absent China itself becoming a free nation.
So the new security law has finally been implemented and it feels like the protesters have lost. I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this.
In response the UK is offering a route to British citizenship to 3m Hong Kong residents:
Yeah, looks like two-systems is pretty much dead. China can extradite critics to the mainland and jail them indefinitely.
For pro-democracy politicians and critics of Beijing, now’s the time to get that passport ready and get the hell outta HK.
It might not be obvious at the moment, but the failure to sustain HK’s democracy also has future implications on democracy everywhere. China will not be shy about pressuring countries to change their culture to fit their agenda, and they will have more muscle behind that pressure as time moves forward. We’re wrong if we think they’re going to limit themselves to HK and their own backyard.
Aye; China is increasingly seeing success with the tactic of “throwing our considerable weight around” and will prolly see much more in the coming decade or two.
No coincidence that they’re throwing their weight around at a time when its main competitor is increasingly feckless.
Hong Kong was once a home for critics of Beijing. Now they might not even be safe at the airport.
China has now passed a law that will allow them to arrest ANYONE who has criticized China, even if they only set foot in the Hong Kong airport.
Seriously, WTF?