Us versus them: Hong Kong’s protests are fuelled by the same rage as the Trump presidency and Brexit

The current protests in Hong Kong are not about an extradition treaty. Any lawyer would agree that with a proper protocol in place, an extradition treaty is crucial to the maintenance of international law and order. Extradition is not the same as “extraordinary rendition operations” that the United States itself has carried out.

The current protests are also not about democracy. Any student of politics and history will recognise very few protests in history have truly been about such highbrow concerns as democracy. Rather, revolutions are most often the most pronounced symptom of the underlying disease of social inequality.

As a former Australian expatriate in Hong Kong, I lived in a glass bubble: I had a harbour-view flat, frequented the city’s glittering spectrum of restaurants and bars, and spent weekends hiking, cruising or flying across the region. Yet, I know many young locals struggle to seek education and employment, and thousands of elderly Hongkongers end their days in what are known as “coffin homes”. The current protests are, in part, a call for more responsive government – a government that can recognise and address the prevalent social inequality. Any government, democratic or otherwise, has the ability to respond.

The tragedy is that the current protests are fundamentally protests against China, fuelled by Hong Kong’s inherent (and ironic) hatred of China, a hatred borne of both fear and envy, and whipped into a wildfire by the international media that does not want to see, nor understand, the root cause.

Of all the places I have lived in as an international lawyer, never have I ever felt less Chinese than when I lived in Hong Kong. If I spoke Mandarin to a waiter, bank teller, sales assistant, or even my own secretary at work, the reception was glacial at best, hostile at worst. I will never forget the nights I was left stranded when I attempted to hail a taxi in Mandarin.

If I spoke English, notwithstanding my ethnic Chinese appearance, I was welcomed with smiles and even small bows. In Hong Kong, I therefore learned very quickly not to be Chinese. To many locals (but not all, of course), the Chinese from the mainland are guilty of driving up rents to astronomical levels, forcing the closure of family businesses and frequenting the international fashion stores that replace the mom-and-pop shops, and of having the temerity to eat in the same ritzy restaurants as the expatriates.

Do these sentiments — antipathy towards outsiders taking homes and jobs — sound familiar? These are the same sentiments that led to the re-election of Pauline Hanson in Australia, to the triumph of Donald Trump, to the quagmire that is Brexit. These are sentiments that are usually condemned in other countries. Why not in this instance?

Mevelyn Ong, New York