Away from the media glare, China is silently imploding as the Hong Kong protests refuse to die down. The Chinese regime, true to its characteristics tried to curb Hong Kong’s freedom with an extradition bill and Hong Kong revolted against the Communist party. As the protests continue, worryingly for the Communist Party the people from Mainland China have now begun lending their support to the protests in Hong Kong which can have dire consequences for the Chinese Communist Party.
What started as a protest against the extradition bill has snowballed into a larger protest for freedom. The 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests are a series of demonstrations in Hong Kong against an extradition bill. If enacted, the bill would allow local authorities to detain and extradite people who are wanted in territories that Hong Kong does not have extradition agreements with, including mainland China and Taiwan.
Some fear the bill would place Hong Kongers and visitors under mainland Chinese jurisdiction, undermining the autonomy of the region and citizens’ rights. The protests, which began in March this year are still ongoing. The government has declared that the contentious bill is now ‘dead’. China has been encroaching upon Hong Kong’s freedom and is now resorting to indulging in bullying multinational companies for directly or indirectly contributing to the protests. Even if the employees of these companies participate as individuals in the protests, the companies are being threatened with dire consequences.
Recent protests saw clashes between Hong Kongers and police, with the latter brutally cracking down on the protestors. Such is the insecurity of the Communist Party that they have convicted a 12-year-old boy for his connection to Hong Kong’s anti-government protests. The boy was arrested while he was on his way to school with his sentencing slated be held next month. There have been more than 5,000 arrests since the protests started and a number of these have been children between the ages of 12 and 15, although this is the first time one of them has been convicted.
It is important to note that Hong Kong’s students have risen against the Chinese government with the Hong Kong universities at the epicentre of the protests as riot police have sieged Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The fact that people of Hong Kong enjoy the freedom and can protest is a thorn in the eyes of China where there’s no freedom of expression or protest.
The events taking place in Hong Kong are a spitting image of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. That was perhaps the first time the Chinese civilians rose against the oppressive Communist regime and unfortunately, the protest was crushed brutally. The Chinese troops killed scores of students and workers and wounding hundreds more as they fired submachine guns at crowds of people who tried to resist. Most of the dead had been shot, but some had been run over by armoured personnel carriers that forced their way through barricades erected by local residents.
The residents of Hong Kong had backed the pro-democratic protests which took place thirty years ago as it is estimated that about 1 million marched in support of the protests which was led by the students back then and now the residents of Mainland China want to show solidarity with their fellow brethren as now its the turn of Hong Kong to rise against the Communist regime.
The government continues to brainwash its citizens with fabricated stories as Chinese social media is full of messages and propaganda against Hong Kong and call for a brutal crackdown. However, it has been seen that many who identify themselves as mainland Chinese have secretly lent support to the people of Hong Kong and expressed their solidarity saying they can’t protest openly and it reminds them of 1989.
A Twitter handle by the name of @midwaydude has emerged as the voice of the oppressed citizens of Mainland China as they anonymously show their support to the anti-government protests. The handle revealed a thread of notes it had received via Twitter direct messages from mainland Chinese, now numbering 34 notes. In the messages, many say the sieges brought to mind the democratic student movement that began in April 1989 and ended in bloodshed less than two months later. “Hong Kong people, please forgive that we cannot stand with you openly, but we hope you will understand that we are not your enemies. I wish you could get the freedom that some Chinese students failed to get 30 years ago. May the glory be with Hong Kong!” said one person identifying themselves as a mainland Chinese student overseas. Another user said: “I have never imagined that I will see June 4 2.0. You are fighting with the whole authoritarian regime, and the only thing I could do is to pray for you quietly”.
Contrary to the beliefs that mainland Chinese are unaware or totally support the Communist Party regime is not true as these messages of support for Hong Kong people tell otherwise and this could be a worrying sign for China as it can further lead to an open backing for Hong Kong protest defying the Communists.
China could very well implode if the protests continue and that there are people from other parts of China secretly lending support to Hong Kong protesters, it may very well be that the authoritarian regime may face a threat from more protests in other parts of the country.