My Take | Hong Kong protest movement is more populist than pro-democracy
- The goals and methods of today’s protesters are nothing like those of traditional activists; rather, they are violent, exclusive and anti-Chinese
The protest movement in Hong Kong is almost universally described as “pro-democracy” in mainstream Western media. However, it’s more accurate to describe it as populist.
There are several reasons for this. First, foreign governments and news media groups tend to focus on what the movement is against – the “puppet” government in Hong Kong and the communist central government in Beijing.
Since the West’s natural instinct is against communist “tyranny”, our protest movement must be pro-democracy.
This is intellectually lazy and ideologically opportunistic. By any objective standard, Beijing’s behaviour in Hong Kong cannot remotely be described as tyrannical. The very fact that the protests and riots have been allowed to continue for more than six months is proof enough that “one country two, systems”, whatever you think of it, still exercises institutional constraints on Beijing.
If foreign commentators focus more on the actual beliefs and behaviours of local protesters and rioters, they may understand better. This can be done by comparing the current situation to the local pro-democracy movement of the past, and to populist movements overseas.