John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE ON CBC NEWS
'Democratic tsunami': Hong Kong pro-democracy camp dominates local elections
“Some winning candidates say result was akin to a vote of support for protesters
"Record turnout for Hong Kong council elections amid calls for full democracy"
I am not sure that that interpretation of the council vote, although widely broadcast in the West, is valid.
Many sources of information during the height of the demonstrations suggested that Hong Kong’s main population – shop owners, ordinary families, schools, commuters, businessmen of every description - were sick of the violence.
There was vandalism in the subways, on the streets, at the airport – with great numbers of shop windows smashed and heavy use of petrol bombs on the streets and on facilities like bridges. It is said that the police, after the arrest of the bulk of those demonstrators occupying the university, discovered a horde of several thousand stored petrol bombs.
Shouting “democracy” while you carry on with such violence does not put you on the side of the angels. And the actual economy of Hong Kong has measurably suffered.
The calls for "democracy" have been effectively disguised calls for separation of Hong Kong from the Mainland. Unquestionably stirred covertly by America as part of that country’s increasingly large and vicious hybrid economic war against China.
China has been officially declared an American “adversary,” and that seems to justify almost anything short of open warfare.
China, and I believe the overwhelming majority of Chinese people, simply would never let the separation of Hong Kong happen. A long shameful history of British colonialism cannot be validated.
It is important also to keep in mind that most revolutions and uprisings are minority affairs. The American Revolution itself was distinctly a minority affair with only about one-third of the colonial population being “Patriots.” They simply rode roughshod over the rights of others, and, if their war efforts hadn’t been hugely supported by the French Army and Navy (the French Court trying to hurt its British competitors in world empire), they would have failed, to a certainty, because of the sheer lack of interest in the general population over the long course of events.
No one knows what the long-term evolution of government will bring in China, but I feel confident saying that the evolution will occur under a unified China, and that very much includes Hong Kong.
Democratic government is something which happens over time virtually everywhere once a society grows and thrives and establishes a large middle-class.
The actual percentage of the population who could vote in Virginia near the time of the American Revolution was very similar to the percentage of China’s population represented today by members of the Communist Party, the only people whose vote counts in leadership elections - on the order of one percent. Things do change.
