"We are at the front lines between the great to dictatorship among human history, which is , and the free world," says "Sixtus" Baggio Leung, a controversial activist who emerged from the 2014 Umbrella Movement and made it into office before being disqualified for promoting Hong Kong independence during his swearing-in ceremony.
Hong Kong's peculiar "One country, two systems" governance model began when Britain handed over its former colony to China in 1997 on the condition that it be allowed to maintain its existing governance structure for another half-century.
Hong Kong's constitution, called the Basic Law, protects freedom of speech and assembly, but the city enjoys what's been described by a former British governor of the city as "Liberty without democracy." The government-including the city's chief executive-isn't entirely elected by the people.
"If you did this interview with me in 1997 and asked me, 'When do you expect that people in Hong Kong would get this universal suffrage?' I think most people at the time would say, well, maybe 10 years. That was almost like part of the promise in the Basic Law. But as time goes by, promises were broken," says Charles Mok, a Hong Kong legislator who supports universal suffrage.
As one journalist put it, Hong Kong's ruling class is "The result of collusion between Hong Kong's tycoons and Beijing's Communists."
"Largely because we are not a democracy, because the government is not elected, I think street-level protests-actually largely peaceful-are an important means for the Hong Kong people to protest government actions," says Ma Ngok, a political scientist at China University of Hong Kong.
Despite their doubts about the likelihood of the government granting them the what they seek, the movement's leaders say they have no choice but to keep fighting for liberty and democracy, or else Hong Kong will be subsumed into an authoritarian state.
https://reason.com/video/hong-kongs-fight-for-freedom-against-chinas-authoritarianism/
Hong Kong's peculiar "One country, two systems" governance model began when Britain handed over its former colony to China in 1997 on the condition that it be allowed to maintain its existing governance structure for another half-century.
Hong Kong's constitution, called the Basic Law, protects freedom of speech and assembly, but the city enjoys what's been described by a former British governor of the city as "Liberty without democracy." The government-including the city's chief executive-isn't entirely elected by the people.
"If you did this interview with me in 1997 and asked me, 'When do you expect that people in Hong Kong would get this universal suffrage?' I think most people at the time would say, well, maybe 10 years. That was almost like part of the promise in the Basic Law. But as time goes by, promises were broken," says Charles Mok, a Hong Kong legislator who supports universal suffrage.
As one journalist put it, Hong Kong's ruling class is "The result of collusion between Hong Kong's tycoons and Beijing's Communists."
"Largely because we are not a democracy, because the government is not elected, I think street-level protests-actually largely peaceful-are an important means for the Hong Kong people to protest government actions," says Ma Ngok, a political scientist at China University of Hong Kong.
Despite their doubts about the likelihood of the government granting them the what they seek, the movement's leaders say they have no choice but to keep fighting for liberty and democracy, or else Hong Kong will be subsumed into an authoritarian state.
https://reason.com/video/hong-kongs-fight-for-freedom-against-chinas-authoritarianism/
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