Beijing’s tightening grip is suffocating freedom-loving Hongkongers. It’s no wonder they keep rising up in protest

When your chokehold gets ever tighter, you either suffocate your target or it lashes out to survive. Hongkongers, especially the young, feel Beijing’s tightening grip is choking them. They are now lashing out like never before.

Call it the final straw. I call it a revolution Hong Kong-style – the vast majority preferring a peaceful show of people power, a minority believing civil disobedience is more effective, and a tiny radicalised faction convinced only violence can bring results.

This distinctly Hong Kong uprising astounded the world with images of millions marching peacefully, thousands surrounding police headquarters, and hundreds hurling bricks, attacking the police, and storming the legislature, unafraid of police tear gas and rubber bullets.

Bricks, sharpened poles, sieges, rubber bullets, and tear gas today. What next? Burning cars, bombs, shattered shop windows, and real police bullets in response? Let’s not even go there. But I have warned in the past of a slow-motion revolution.

This is what I wrote in January 2010 when youngsters rose up against the pricey express railway: “This has been a slow-motion revolution, something that’s simmered but been ignored for a long time … They’re leaderless, directionless and daring. And they’ve tasted the raw power of defiance.”

Leaderless, directionless and daring young people who have tasted the raw power of defiance – that’s exactly what we saw last Friday when thousands besieged police headquarters.

This is what I wrote in August 2016: “Revolution is in the air. Doubters need only open their eyes to what happened so brazenly close to government headquarters last weekend. Thousands converged on Tamar Park for Hong Kong’s first ever independence rally where leaders electrified them with talk of a revolution.”

Top officials from Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor down say they will humbly listen to the people after mass protests sank a proposed extradition treaty with mainland China. Isn’t it too late? Had they heeded the many warning signs over the years, they wouldn’t be where they are today – a sorry bunch with no authority left to lead.

Defiant Lam doubles down on refusal to kill extradition bill

Beijing’s grip began to tighten after the failed 2014 Occupy uprising for greater democracy. It interpreted the Basic Law to disqualify opposition legislators, used Lam as a proxy to expel a foreign journalist, ban a political party, and block opposition candidates from competing in elections.

Even as thousands blockaded police headquarters, Hong Kong authorities denied entry to a former Philippines foreign minister known for criticising Beijing. Weeks earlier, the authorities detained another Philippines politician for such prolonged questioning that she decided to turn back.

Are we now to ban people who use free speech to criticise China? What message does that send to the international community? How can the Greater Bay Area possibly succeed if foreign participants feel they must keep their mouths shut to do business? Hong Kong thrives on being an open city. If people who come here must now watch their words, then it’s the start of a slow-motion destruction of Hong Kong as well.

Adding to its destruction are people like Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng Yeuk-wah, Security Secretary John Lee Ka-chiu, and Executive Councillor Bernard Chan who slavishly backed the extradition law then slavishly shifted gears to survive. Do the right thing. Resign.

Beijing needs to reflect on why Hong Kong is so hostile towards it 22 years after reunification. Saying this doesn’t mean I’m anti-China. It means if Beijing wants to understand the true Hong Kong, it shouldn’t only rely on its lackeys.

Hong Kong worked fine in the early years after reunification. Beijing left us alone. The liaison office laid low. Things went awry when Hongkongers feared a loss of their autonomy with national security legislation, restrictive universal suffrage, and an extradition law.

They rose up every time. Beijing needs to understand Hong Kong is not Tibet or Xinjiang. Freedom runs in the blood of Hongkongers. To win them over, Beijing must loosen its grip. It needs to restart democratic reforms. We’ve reached a point where an iron fist will be met with even more audacious defiance.

Michael Chugani is a Hong Kong journalist and TV show host