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Hong Kong protests
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Letters | Hong Kong protests have devolved into a knee-jerk anti-China movement

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A tourist hands her luggage to security guards as she tries to enter the departure gate at Hong Kong airport during a demonstration on August 13. Photo: AFP
Letters

I can understand the sympathetic tone that the Western media has taken when reporting on the protests in Hong Kong, just as they would with any other protest. There is always an attempt to look to the social inequality, repression, poverty or violence that has caused this entrenched resentment, inspiring people to take to the streets and fight the authorities and the elite with “people power”.

However, this is no longer the case in Hong Kong. Anger over the extradition bill is completely understandable, and the bill has since been effectively shelved. So the protests have turned into an anti-China movement with a worryingly violent anarchist element, threatening Hong Kong’s position as a stable financial hub.
Take the airport blockade, for example. The New York Times has suggested that the protesters took their movement to the airport to embarrass the authorities.Have these protesters spared a thought for the travellers who were prevented from departing because of flight cancellations and the blockade? What about Hong Kong’s reputation, which has been tarnished by these protesters though millions rely on it? They claim to love Hong Kong and to be standing up for Hong Kong’s values. Well, what about those whose lives have been disrupted and those who require the use of streets to make a living?

Hong Kong may not have the full-fledged democracy that the Western media judges to be ideal, but democracy for the sake of democracy cannot achieve anything in Hong Kong. Democracy is a good idea, but it’s also our job, as residents of any country or city, to work with what we’ve been given before coming to conclusions. Many of these idealistic young people fighting for democracy claim to love Hong Kong, but they are shooting themselves in the foot.

Life for all of us involves compromises. Many of these protesters’ knee-jerk aversion to China or communist rule is largely unfounded.

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