It’s the weekend of the Fourth of July – technically, today was the anniversary of the day that independence was declared, but that’s history for you – so a look-see for people around the world still yearning for freedom seems appropriate.
First off… Hong Kong, where the populace is getting restless about the way their autonomy keeps getting nibbled at: Hong Kong Residents Push for Democracy (Registration required)
HONG KONG, July 1 — Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in sweltering heat and humidity and marched through the valleys of Hong Kong’s gleaming skyscrapers Thursday in a bold and spirited protest against China’s refusal to expand elections in this former British colony.
Sweating through white shirts and carrying colorful banners, the marchers chanted slogans such as, “Return power to the people” and “Fight for democracy.” The immense but orderly crowd stretched more than two miles from a spacious downtown park to a government building in the city’s central business district.
The demonstration’s main organizer, the pro-democracy Civil Human Rights Front, estimated that 530,000 people participated in the procession, nearly a quarter-million more than expected. Police issued an early crowd estimate of 200,000 as people were still arriving for the demonstration, which lasted five hours on one of the hottest days of the year.
That’s about 3% of the city, by the most conservative estimate. I would very much like to say right now that I’m hopeful that they’ll succeed, but, well, I’m not. I don’t expect atrocities, mind you – the PRC’s leadership is clever enough to comprehend the fable about geese and golden eggs – but they will undoubtedly play the waiting game for as long as they can possibly manage. This administration is probably going to let them, too, just like the ones before it… and in all probability, the ones after it as well.
Gak. I deeply respect our British cousins on their own terms and merits, am happy to have them as allies and would expect our government to defend them as it would defend us – but if I was running the UK in 1994-1997 I would have had the administrators in Hong Kong passing out exit visas like they were Halloween candy – and if I was running the USA I would have set up a permanent emigre shuttle run. Which is probably why I shouldn’t ever be given a position of power (there are several important geopolitical considerations that I would have been ignoring), but still, surely we could have done something.
(Via Vodkapundit)
I used to spend weeks at a time in HK, and I was totally against the turn over. I’m still uneasy, but one guy I really respect there said at the time, “don’t worry HK will change China more than China can change HK.” To a certain extent he’s right, China can’t put the genie back in the bottle and Shanghai might be even more influentially rubbing the lamp…
…still I worry. Every one I’ve gotten to know well in HK, China or Taiwan have an innate desire for authority, yes they’d prefer benevolent authority, but still… hopefully, my subset isn’t universal, and there is desire for more self determination, but I wonder if a Singapore style government isn’t the best to hope for. Actually I just hope I’m wrong on my most pessimistic and some of my optimistic views.
Probably not making any sense here.
[Editor’s note: at Mac’s request I switched this comment over to the appropriate thread, although mostly because I was curious about whether I actually could. The answer? …Sorta. Not really too practical, alas.]
Nice work. Thanks. Was it difficult?
Mac:
My reading of Chinese history and culture would tend to support your conclusions. It makes sense when the greatest value is preserving order (one of my own misgivings about the situation in Iraq). Democracy is inherently messy. In turn preserving order sounds pretty good in a country with a population over a billion.