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Opinion
Opinion
by Dawn Brancati and Nathan Law
Opinion
by Dawn Brancati and Nathan Law
Hong Kong protests have taken the globe by storm. Now the world must stand up to China
- Unlike many pro-democracy movements, Hong Kong’s protests have garnered global attention and drawn support from foreign governments
- More international companies and organisations should follow the NBA in making it clear to China that money cannot trump democracy
Most democracy protests are short-lived, garner little international attention and are confined to state capitals. The ongoing protests in Hong Kong are exceptional, having endured for more than 22 weeks. They’ve spread to cities and college campuses across the globe, challenged international businesses, and attracted the support of foreign governments as well as politicians of contrasting ideological stripes.
Few protests have the potential to go global like those in Hong Kong. The latter have attracted global attention due to the large number of people from Hong Kong and mainland China studying abroad, the high level of foreign investment in Hong Kong, and the centrality of Hong Kong to China’s flagging economy.
Hong Kong students abroad have organised numerous protests, sit-ins, and rallies to raise awareness and demonstrate solidarity with the pro-democracy protests. They give lectures, flood social media with messages of support and erect “Lennon Walls”. They also attend basketball games in the United States, wearing masks and T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Stand with Hong Kong” and holding placards in support of the protests, human rights and democratic freedom more generally.
National Basketball Association games became a focal point of protest because of the backlash Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, received for tweeting a message in support of the protesters.
These events, like those in Hong Kong, have turned violent at times. Pro-China activists, seeking to disrupt the Hong Kong student events, have vandalised Lennon Walls, shouted slogans and exchanged punches with Hong Kong supporters. While Chinese diplomatic missions abroad have lauded the Chinese activists, universities where these confrontations have taken place have pledged their support for freedom of speech, and urged open, non-violent debate.
Last summer, Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne reminded foreign diplomats to respect the right to free speech and assembly in Australia after China’s consul-general in Brisbane, Xu Jie, praised Chinese students who disrupted a University of Queensland event by playing nationalist songs and chanting “China is great!”
The Hong Kong protests have also garnered the support of foreign governments. In 2014, when Hongkongers took to the streets to challenge electoral reforms, support from Western democracies was limited primarily to rhetoric. Now, however, with the United States embroiled in a trade war with China and support for Hong Kong serving as a pressure point, the US Congress has taken a much stronger stance.
In October, the House of Representatives passed the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act with bipartisan support. The Senate is expected to approve the bill. The act establishes a process to impose sanctions and travel restrictions on those responsible for the arbitrary detention and torture of Hongkongers, and more critically mandates an annual review of Hong Kong’s special status.
Losing this status would mean Hong Kong would no longer be treated as a separate economy but a part of China. This would have significant consequences for both Hong Kong and China: Hong Kong is a financial bridge between the mainland and the rest of the world. Hong Kong is currently the largest offshore yuan clearing centre in the world, the largest source of overseas direct investment in China and a leading destination for China’s foreign direct investment outflow.
Hong Kong’s financial industry is also important to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, providing loans and other professional services for the infrastructure projects. China has promised strong countermeasures against the United States if the senate approves the bill and US President Donald Trump signs it into law.
Hong Kong democracy bill sponsor claims ‘significant progress’ in US Senate
Hong Kong democracy bill sponsor claims ‘significant progress’ in US Senate
Ironically, China has tried to use other countries’ democratic freedoms to win over international public opinion and mitigate the economic effects of the protests. In September, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, chief executive of Hong Kong, wrote an opinion essay “I Am Listening” for The New York Times, explaining why Hong Kong remains a good place to do business and casting the Hong Kong protesters as hooligans.
The Chinese government has also beseeched the foreign media to report on events in Hong Kong in a neutral, objective and comprehensive manner.
Unlike the US government, many multinational corporations doing businesses with China have been cowed by China’s threats. Apple removed an app that Hong Kong protesters use to mark the locations of the police and inform protesters about street closures. Meanwhile, Google removed a pro-Hong Kong protester mobile game from its Google Play store.
Only a handful of international corporations have challenged China. Facebook and Twitter have suspended accounts described as associated with disinformation campaigns by the Chinese government against the protests. Twitter also barred state-controlled news media agencies from advertising on the platform. Neither action is particularly bold, however, since both platforms are banned in mainland China.
‘We must combat China’: US senators’ new bill to counter Beijing’s rise
‘We must combat China’: US senators’ new bill to counter Beijing’s rise
The NBA has taken the boldest stance in support of the Hong Kong protests and freedom of speech more generally. The NBA earns conservatively an estimated US$500 million dollars in revenue from China annually. China demanded that the NBA fire Daryl Morey for posting a Twitter message in support of the Hong Kong protests and refused to broadcast two Nets-Lakers games in China. Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, refused to fire Morey or discipline him despite a potentially heavy financial loss.
Public opinions polls in the US and Europe indicate that a majority of Americans and Europeans see China’s economic policies as a threat to their countries’ economic interests. China’s attempts to control corporations based outside China demonstrates that China’s economic power is not only a threat to economic interests, but also democratic values and freedoms. Action similar to the international boycott of the 2018 Saudi investment conference to protest the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi is required to signal to China that money cannot buy out democracy.
The people of Hong Kong are making tremendous economic sacrifices for democracy. Since the protests began, tourism has almost halved while retail sales have dropped by almost a quarter. International finance and real estate in Hong Kong are unaffected for now, but Hong Kong entered a recession last quarter for the first time in a decade.
Yet, even in the face of such negative economic news, Hongkongers continue to challenge China and fight for freedoms both in Hong Kong and abroad. Life in Hong Kong is deeply interwoven with the world at large, and the struggle for representative government that was promised by Beijing will continue to reverberate throughout the world.
Dawn Brancati is an associate research scholar at the MacMillan Center at Yale University and the author of Democracy Protests: Origins, Features and Significance. Nathan Law is a democracy activist and Masters of Arts student in East Asian Studies at Yale University. Reprinted with permission from YaleGlobal Online
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