Could The Hong Kong Pro Democracy Demonstrations Be Avoided?

Despite of the escalation of violence and demands that now include universal suffrage, could the Hong Kong pro democracy protests be avoided?

By: Ringo Bones

Despite projecting an “aura of efficiency” since the 1990s, it seems that the Beijing Government’s relatively unplanned action against existential political threats could well be the reason behind the escalation of the Hong Kong pro democracy protest marches that started as an opposition to the controversial extradition bill back in June 2019. If Beijing planned its operations against potential political unrest that it had dealt since the 1990s akin to that of Sun Tsu’s Art of War, the 10-week long Hong Kong unrests could have fizzled out like the 2014 Umbrella Movement and Joshua Wong would have been relegated as an obscure Hong Kong dissident rather than a global heroic activist who stood up to Beijing. And given that Beijing has since been wary of repeating the June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, a little planning could have done much good on the current situation.

Even though some eagle eyed operatives at Amnesty International cite that Beijing’s crackdown on ethnic Uyghurs in its “restive West” probably have started as early as the 1990s, the political exigencies of the post-9/11 world should have given the powers-that-be at Beijing to deal the situation with “refinement” – as opposed to forcibly sending Uyghurs to internment camps to undergo forced indoctrination in the name of quelling global Islamism. During the past few years, evidence emerged, via satellite photos and testimonies of Uyghurs now in political asylum in neighboring countries that what Beijing did to them was tantamount to ethnic cleansing, thus forming part of the raison d’être on the vehement opposition of a majority of Hong Kong residents on the controversial extradition bill.

Remember those staff at the Causeway Bay Books that were allegedly kidnapped by Beijing from Hong Kong to “black sites” in Mainland China? If Beijing didn’t execute this questionable action back in October to December 2015, the controversial extradition bill would have been approved into law while passing below the radar of ordinary Hong Kong residents without a peep. And Beijing appointed Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam would have carried out her rather “boring” and uneventful cushy job and the world at large would have been none the wiser. Too bad Beijing just have to flex its muscles like some bodybuilder overdosing on steroids.