4 ms·
It helps to know a little bit about what's been going on in Hong Kong, before you all decide to line up and take your daily dump on China. It all started a few
by UIZealot 7y ago
It helps to know a little bit about what's been going on in Hong Kong, before you all decide to line up and take your daily dump on China.
It all started a few months ago when someone committed a crime in Taiwan and fled to Hong Kong. To prevent HK from becoming a safe haven for criminals, the Chief Executive of HK proposed a new law to facilitate extradition of these crime suspects from HK to various jurisdictions in the region, including Taiwan and mainland China.
The proposed law even explicitly stated that it's not applicably to crimes political in nature. But some HK people were nevertheless concerned that it might be abused by China to target political dissidents in HK.
So they have taken to the streets to protest that law. As a result, the law was quickly suspended before it had a chance to pass, and a few weeks ago the HK Chief Executive officially announced the withdrawal of the law.
However, despite the concession from the HK government, the protesters pressed on, demanding four more concessions from the government, chief among them universal suffrage, or the direct election of the HK Chief Executive, who up to this point have been nominated from a narrow pool of Beijing-approved candidates, then voted on by a committee.
It's not entirely clear that China even had anything to do with the proposal of the law which started this ordeal. But the protesters have been shrewd to paint a picture, to great effect, of big bad China stomping on the poor helpless people of HK.
What I cannot stress enough, is the rampant violence and destruction from these protesters, which has done this great city, and many innocent citizens, unimaginable harm. Feel free to support their peaceful protests, but please don't simply pile on and encourage these violence and destruction.
If anything I said is untrue, please correct me. Use the truth to argue your side, don't be a coward and hide behind your downvote.
- roca 7y agoThat is a very one-sided summary. For example you omitted the important fact that Taiwan's government very early made it clear that they did not want the extradition law. You omitted any mention of police violence. You omitted how China pressured Cathay Pacific to identify and punish its staff involved in (peaceful, legal) protests. You decline to explain why the HK government refused to officially withdraw the extradition law for months after declaring it "dead". Etc.
- UIZealot 7y agoThat's the gist of it. Of course I omitted a lot of things, and not all of them are in the protesters's favor either. > You omitted how China pressured Cathay Pacific to identify and punish its staff involved in (peaceful, legal) protests. A pilot who took part in violent protests was barred from flying in China's air space. Some other employee who illegally leaked customer information where disciplined or fired. Please tell us how those punishments are unfair. > You omitted any mention of police violence. The police were never violent before the protesters got violent. They simply responded in kind. You think they should just stand still and take the beating/burning? > you omitted the important fact that Taiwan's government very early made it clear that they did not want the extradition law. > You decline to explain why the HK government refused to officially withdraw the extradition law for months after declaring it "dead". The chief executive officially announced its withdrawal about a month ago. How are you going to justify the continuing violence and destruction since then?
- 66543throwaway 7y agoIt’s a sad state when you are being downvoted for stating the facts. Ironically, I have Taiwanese friends in Hong Kong that have gotten hurt by the rioters because they were speaking Mandarin (there’s a bigoted response where the rioters target anyone they suspect of being Mainland Chinese).