Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/06/16/shorting-carrie-lam.html
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In the face of the uprising, the local government walked back the extradition proposal, with city leader Carrie Lam apologising for the government’s handling of the proposal and announcing that the bill had been delayed (but not scrapped).
Which likely means they’ll wait and try to sneak it through when nobody’s paying attention.
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The Chinese authorities have blamed the demonstrations on “anti-China lackeys.”
There are lackeys involved here, but they’re pro-China rather than anti-China. Not that a Hong Kong city administrator would be allowed to be anything else these days.
Ironic that China worked so hard to suppress the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square protests only to have a protest of this size in Hong Kong remind the world that authoritarianism of one sort or another remains a constant of the CPC leadership.
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we need a street scene like this demanding trump’s resignation
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Exactly what I’m terrified about. Push hard and the CPC may decide that the extradition treaty is simply not worth the effort (today - there’s always tomorrow). Push harder, and make the CPC feel existentially threatened, and you may see thousands killed and tens or hundreds of thousands imprisoned.
Given that overthrow of the CPC is essentially impossible, the biggest threat to the protestors is overreach causing massive reprisal.
The strategy when dealing with an opponent that can eliminate you at will is to make the cost of acceding to your requests less than the costs of destroying you. Most massacres occur when one side or the other forgets that rule.
From the CPC perspective, Tiananmen was an utter success and sadly means they’ll be much less reluctant to employ the same tactic again. The true irony (and irony is usually tragic) is that by burying the Tiananmen story that shows their willingness to massacre dissenters, the CPC has made it much harder for the protestors to understand the danger of of pushing beyond very limited, widely understood objectives.
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Unfortunately, communism and other forms of collectivist ideologies grab and maintain power by death and violence and fear. People want to be free and if China pushes too hard, the people will march. The government knows this all too well. Hard to get rid of communism by peaceful methods.
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We need quadruple this number at the White House at all times screaming resign 24 hours a day, and the same number in front of Congress being silent all holding signs saying we are watching you.
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Why the focus on only
“communism and other forms of collectivist ideologies”?
Besides, China today is communist only in name. The most infamous totalitarian state was Nazi Germany, a far-right fascist state. Totalitarian and authoritarian states can also be theocratic (Saudi Arabia, Iran).
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You need 42 times as many to produce a comparable proportion of the US population. Lets say 50 million people marching on washington.
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There is an annual commemoration of the massacre in Hong Kong. Presumably Carrie Lam didn’t think that ramming the extradition bill through immediately after the thirtieth anniversary might be a bad idea.
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I have the feeling that terror and fear for one’s life are only a force of supression of a small segment of potential opposition. Leaden feelings of powerlessness, however… That’s the spirit which keeps a political system running. Make the forces in power personified, on the one hand, in a leader or a small committee, and on the other make the apparatus completely faceless. Bureaucracy is the way. Kafka, anyone?
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Actually, the CPC was smart enough to ban all information in the mainland about these protests.
Despite one million on the street and twice this, the following week, absolutely no one in China heard about this. All Wechat post are automatically removed,
So loosing face here is not so much a big deal.
If they decide to release the new, they will have immediate support from the brainwashed population there and HK will disappear overnight.
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Hong Kong population is a bit more than 7 million, so it’s almost one third of it that was out…
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The problem you describe isn’t because of communism or socialism, it is because of authoritarianism.
We are convinced that liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; and that socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality.
Mikhail Bakunin - Federalism, Socialism, Anti-Theologism, 1867
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Wow, 2 million is very impressive.
And at least another third must support the marchers. Imagine getting two thirds of the US population to agree on anything to do with the future of their country.
Well, that would explain why the CPC was willing to back down. Odd to think that less effective censorship might well have resulted in thousands being killed.
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