Totally on the side of the protestors but having trouble figuring out what they want to achieve.

The Chinese strategy in Hong Kong has been to 'boil the frog', to gradually turn up the heat on democratic institutions and personal freedoms until they die away. And the strategy was more or less working until they got overconfident with the extradition law. So, now the frog has jumped out of the water and they're going to have to stab it to death to stop it. Which, unfortunately, I expect they will.

There are micro-arguments to be made about the ethics of some protester actions against the police: it often looks like the protesters are intent on goading them into violence. And up until very recently, security forces have been relatively restrained. However, the bigger picture is the encroachment of a fascist state on a disappearing democracy. Hong Kongers are right to resist and they deserve our support.

Don't agree with this conservative writer a whole lot, but his comments in this article (from 2008) are still current and worth reading.

http://www.aei.org/publication/beijing-embraces-classical-fascism/

However, the bigger picture is the encroachment of a fascist state on a disappearing democracy. — Baden

And the even bigger picture is how long must those in mainland China continue to suffer under fascism. There is something painful in watching freedoms being removed, but it's as painful to think about those who have never tasted it.

What is the leverage of those in Hong Kong? Does China care about world opinion?

The protests were initially focused on a bill that would have made it possible to extradite people from Hong Kong to China, where the Communist party controls the courts. Many Hongkongers feared the law would be used by authorities to target political enemies and that it would signify the end of the “one country, two systems” policy, eroding the civil rights enjoyed by Hong Kong residents since the handover of sovereignty from the UK to China in 1997. Millions of people joined street marches against the bill, paralysing the city. The protests have gone from weekly to almost daily.

What do the protesters want?

The extradition bill was suspended by the territory’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, in mid June, but protesters want it officially withdrawn. In addition to demanding Lam’s resignation, the protesters are calling for:

The complete withdrawal of the proposed extradition bill

The government to withdraw the use of the word “riot” in relation to protests

The unconditional release of arrested protesters and charges against them dropped

An independent inquiry into police behaviour

Implementation of genuine universal suffrage — Alison Rourke

It hasn't come as a surprise.

As the Communist leadership grew more confident of it's own position, it is absolutely no wonder that it would show it's true totalitarian face. With Hong Kong it just has been decades in the making. Soon it's going to be a quarter of a Century that has gone from the time when the British handed Hong Kong to China. And today for China the West isn't as crucial as it was still in the 1990's for the re-engineering and economic transformation. China has gone a long way in the last 20 years, hence the Chinese Communists can show their true face.

After all, now with computers an Orwellian surveillance state is totally possible to create.

The Hong Kong protestors are democratic heros, actual, real life superheroes, and what they're doing may just be the last gasp of democracy anywhere in the world. They deserve our support, if only because they know far better than 'us' what democratic politics looks like. We ought to support them because they can teach us, miserable students that we are. I look at what is happening there with sheer, untrammeled admiration. And I feel shame that we're so fucking useless in comparison.

Hong Kong is made of a lot of super rich people and a lot of incredibly poor people living in squalid conditions because the government owns the real estate and collects rent instead of taxes.

The protesters are doomed. They have no allies.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-49330848

And I feel shame that we're so fucking useless in comparison. — StreetlightX

What do 'we' have to protest about?

And the even bigger picture is how long must those in mainland China continue to suffer under fascism. — Hanover

As the Communist leadership grew more confident of it's own position, it is absolutely no wonder that it would show it's true totalitarian face. — ssu

Is it facism or communism?

China does care about brand China, which is why, for example, it actively denies the existence of these, but it cares even more about control and quashing dissent, so if it comes to a choice between suffering a dent in its image internationally but not appearing weak domestically vs looking good to Joe foreigner but losing public face at home, it will choose strength and crush the protests.

Is it facism or communism? — Evil

As Deng Xiaoping said: "No matter if it is a white cat or a black cat; as long as it can catch mice, it is a good cat."

I guess when a Communist accepts the capitalist system as a workhorse, you do end up with fascism.

Yet it is something else too: the fear of Democracy. That China could go the way of the Soviet Union, that democracy would lead not only the destruction of the power of the Communist Party, but also the disintegration of present day China. Tibet would go, Dzungaria from Xingjang would go. And what other place after that? That is the thinking of the Communist Party. The course was already decided in 1989 in Tiananmen Square and after.

And since you have after that the largest economic boom the World has seen, the Communist Party can indeed congratulate itself.

they deserve our support. — Baden

I totally agree, but I have not the vaguest idea what I can do that would amount to even the most gossamer support. I fear that Hong Kong's goose is cooked. (New entrée: Take a flock of protesting geese; execute, torch their feathers, draw, quarter, stir-fry in blood. Pass it around the restaurant as a warning to everyone else.)

It's modern East Asian state capitalism with a fascist smile (the PR term being 'socialism with Chinese characteristics'). The closest system is probably Singapore, a "democracy" which has had the same party in power, 'The People's Action Party' since 1959.

Emma Goldman's comment re Soviet Russia in the thirties is germane:

"Such a condition of affairs may be called state capitalism, but it would be fantastic to consider it in any sense Communistic [...] Soviet Russia, it must now be obvious, is an absolute despotism politically and the crassest form of state capitalism economically."

Ok, they deserve our support FWIW. Which probably isn't much. And let's face it, leaving us plebs aside, the wider world is very unlikely to do anything either. China is big enough to be approaching US style invincibility. In mafia terms, it's a made man.

Likely you, if no one else here, remembers the news of the Hungarian revolution of 1956.

I cannot, ultimately, understand opposition to freedom. In a free society, everything approaches being the best it can be, and more importantly, has reasonably good error-correction built in. And if I am correct, then opponents of freedom, whoever they are, however many they are, and wherever found, are truly enemies of the people, enemies of everyone.

Likely you, if no one else here, remembers the news of the Hungarian revolution of 1956. — tim wood

Before my time, but a very apt reference.

the Hungarian revolution of 1956 — tim wood

Only a 34 year wait then...

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This is the end.

Thanks for taking the time to present such a thorough explanation. The difficulty seems to me to be that the protest movement is not able to articulate a real political outcome or aim, beyond those three demands which look unlikely to be met. I am in total agreement with the movement but it seems to me to lacking in leadership and aim. Obviously the Communist party is treading carefully as HK is a huge commercial hub and intermediary between China and the West and a hamfisted crackdown could lead to enormous political problems. Agree that its a tremendously vexed situation - one of several.

Thanks for taking the time to present such a thorough explanation. — Wayfarer

Yes. An excellent in-depth, comprehensive piece of clear knowledgeable writing. Far superior to my quickie link to the Guardian article. Thanks Wittgenstein :smile:

Although there is something I feel impelled to say - which is that when the protest movement broke into and trashed the HK Legislative Assembly building a few weeks ago, my feeling was they had crossed a line from protest to civil insurrection. I am also wondering if this action at the International Airport has done the same. Yes, they have a righteous cause, but you have to wonder if the end justifies the means in these cases.

I say that, because one of the purported benefits of the 1 Country 2 System solution is that HK respects the rule of law in a way that the PRC does not. I was highly impressed by many statements to this effect that were made when the whole issue blew up. So if you praise the rule of law, then you need to walk the talk. There are many protest actions that can be made lawfully. But when you break the law in order to protest, then there’s a risk of trashing the very thing you say you’re trying to defend.

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The Guardian noted that a shortage of remotely affordable housing was an underlying frustration of many of the young protestors. Granted that HK does not have large empty parcels on which to build a lot of affordable housing, many feel the HK government could do better than it has in the housing area. True? No?

How about that “renegade province” NE of you? Any thoughts on their future?

In 28 years, China will takeover HK and people in hk should start accepting their Chinese identity atleast as a step towards integrating with China. — Wittgenstein

Concerning national identity - I lack knowledge in this - how many identify with the Chinese way of life ?
I don't know that there should be a 'should' to accept a forced identity.

What do you think of this proposal ?

The UK should give Hong Kong citizens full UK nationality as a means of reassurance amid the current standoff with Beijing, the chair of the influential Commons foreign affairs committee has argued.

Tom Tugendhat said this should have happened to people in the formerly British-ruled territory in 1997, when it was handed back to Chinese control, and that doing so now would reassure Hong Kong’s people that they were supported by the UK. — Peter Walker

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/aug/13/uk-british-nationality-hong-kong-citizens-tom-tugendhat

The protesters are doomed. They have no allies. — frank

Frank, if you could hold your breath a little longer in predicting the final outcome of these protestors, I would appreciate it.
Though support might be scattered globally, I can tell you that these young people in Hong Kong are being watched by the young people around me here and not just in a supportive role of "their" desire for freedom, though that is where my energies lay but rather a possible playbook for their own future.
"We" the generations older than 30, are being watched by our children, many of us who believe in standing up for our flag because of indoctrination or genuine understanding and appreciation of the benefits of living in the United States, under our Constitution.
But that is where there is a growing divide, one that the politicians here are all too eager to exploit for their own personal benefit. Many people of college age do not believe in doing things the same way simply for the sake of stability but are looking to try and shape their future in the framing that appeals to them. And that future can and does look very different from the current reality we interact in and with whom. The protesters in Hong Kong have young backers here in the USA which is a concept that I just didn't have awareness of at the young age they do.
I must say my heart was touched to see the stars and stripes being raised in the name of freedom in the Hong Kong airport.

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