Tuesday, October 7, 2014

The Burn Out Umbrella Revolution by Erick San Juan

As the old saying goes- " Promises are made to be broken." I still recall the turnover of Hong Kong to China by the British with the battle cry of "One nation, two systems. What went wrong?

Suddenly, thousands of yuppies and students have taken over the main streets of Hong Kong demanding promised reforms, want free, fair and not dictated elections plus a universal suffrage to select government officials. It was part of the condition before the handing back of Hong Kong to China.                                        

At the early stage of mass actions, there were two popular analysts-columnists that confirmed that the Occupy Central or the so called Umbrella Revolution won't spread and doomed to fail, namely, Zachary Keck of the Diplomat.com(MCT) and Adam Minter of Bloomberg.                  

Keck said that the Occupy Central is doomed to fail and the Beijing and Hong Kong's SAR will not accept the protesters demands. Beijing views free and fair elections a threat to one-party rule of China including it's satellite Hong Kong. It deemed the Occupy Central as illegal and cannot compromise on issues that it views as threats to its survival.                    

Keck added that during the time of Deng Xiaoping, China liberalized politically and economically but Deng viewed it as necessary to bolster the party against threats both domestic and foreign. Economic modernization became the guiding principle of Deng's regime and he encouraged the Chinese to learn from the west economically but not the west's liberal political model. Keck believed that Deng was also ruthless like Mao in silencing his critics. A violent crackdown would have a significant economic repercussions on Hong Kong and China but just like what happened at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, they have to arrest the students and sent the protesters in jail.          

While Adam Minter opined that the Chinese government will never take chances and have to clamp down the protesters. The Chinese authorities postponed the inevitable by refusing to address the legitimate grievances and used proxy to counter the 'yellow ribbon' of protesters with the 'blue ribbon' of pro Beijing supporters. The Beijing authorities also clamped down social media, blocked Instagram and regulated mainstream news.                                            

According to Minter, relations between the mainland and Hong Kong Chinese have been tense and complicated for several years now. The divisions are deep and widening.                                              

The People's Daily, China's communist party mouthpiece even warned that 'if matters are not dealt with according to the law, Hong Kong will fall into chaos.' Qiushi, a forthnightly magazine of China's Communist Party said that blindly copying western style democracy can only bring disaster just like what's happening in the middle east.                                    

Reuters reported that China is also facing separatists unrest in Tibet and Xinjiang. Beijing is fearful that calls for democracy in Hong Kong could spread to the mainland.                                          

Sudhir Shetty, World Bank's chief economist-Asia commented that the World Bank was closely monitoring the protests in Hong Kong which could damage its economy as well as China's. Paralyzing major streets for more than a week could lead to a stand off and slow growth.

China has been very suspicious of the Americans. Tony Carlucci of Global Research  confirmed such when he exposed that the US now admits it is funding "Occupy Central" in Hong Kong. He cited the US admission of masterminding the so called "Arab Spring", training, funding and equipped both mob leaders and armed terrorists to destroy Arab leaders perceived as corrupt dictators. It is now reportedly admitted that the US State Department through a myriad of organizations and NGO's is behind the so called "Occupy Central" in Hong Kong. Even the Washington Post reported that Hong Kong protests erupt as China tighten screws on civil society which Beijing suspected of carrying out the work of foreign powers.                                

The programmed collapse of China has been projected since June 2002. Gordon G. Chang of New Jersey  even wrote a book- The Coming Collapse of China. But why did the west won the Soviet disintegration through the chopping of the Berlin wall in November 1989 which I witnessed and seem to fail in Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution?                      

Soviet's Gorbachev during that time collaborated with the west which easen the unification of East and West Berlin and the downfall of USSR. While China is dictated by a hardliner President Xi Jinping who in pundits assessment will not give in to any challenge to his rule.

That made the difference....

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