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Hong Kong Protests Explained

2014-10-03 · explainer · Hank · 6:37 · watch on YouTube

Topic: World affairs · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook

Hank explains the Hong Kong protests through Hong Kong's colonial history and economic value to China, Beijing's need to look strong and stable, and its plan to pre-select candidates for Chief Executive, hoping China might yet find room for democracy.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Greeting; Sunday's Hong Kong protests and the police reaction that drew more protesters

  • ★★★ Hank says that last Sunday (28 September 2014) tens of thousands of people protested in Hong Kong, and the surprisingly intense police reaction drew far more people into the protests. — 00:00:01

00:00:18 — Brief history: Opium War cession, 99-year lease, democracy talk in the 1990s, 1997 handover; Hong Kong's separate identity

  • ★★ Hank says that in 1847 Hong Kong, a sparsely populated island off southern China, was ceded to the United Kingdom after the Opium War. — 00:00:21 · China, United Kingdom
    • a number in question (doubtful): "1847" — check against the recording
  • ★★ Hank says that in 1898 China and Hong Kong agreed to a 99-year lease of Hong Kong to the British Empire as a colony. — 00:00:28 · China
  • ★★ Hank finds it 'kinda hilarious' that in the 1990s Hong Kong's appointed governor began praising democracy after 150 years of colonial rule; China found it annoying, wanting to have its economic cake and eat it. (playful) — 00:00:37 · China
  • ★★★ Hank says that in 1997, after 150 years of British rule, Hong Kong became part of China, 'kind of', keeping its own dialect, judiciary, taxes, postal service, money and culture. — 00:00:58 · China
  • ★★ Hank says Hong Kong people are ethnically Chinese and feel connected to Chinese people but don't consider themselves Chinese; crossing into Hong Kong from China requires a passport stamp. — 00:01:10 · China
  • ★★ Hank says China and Hong Kong had separate teams at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, though they are the same country. — 00:01:23 · China

00:01:31 — Why Hong Kong as it is matters to China: capitalist bridge, stock exchange, currency; one country, two systems

  • ★★★ Hank says that at root Hong Kong as it is is great for China: running it under China's system would be very hard and also bad for China. — 00:01:31 · China
  • ★★★ Hank calls Hong Kong a capitalist powerhouse created as a bridge to the capitalist world, with the world's third largest stock exchange and the eighth most traded currency. — 00:01:47 · capitalism
  • ★★★ Hank says that for this to keep working Hong Kong has to be something China finds uncomfortable, free: the arrangement called 'one country, two systems'. (hedged) — 00:01:59 · China

00:02:07 — Chinese government's culture of control: weakness, doves, pride and vulnerability, stability, Xi's corruption crackdown; Beijing won't concede

  • ★★★ Hank says that in America mocking a politician on TV can make them seem stronger, but in tightly controlled China such criticism makes a politician look extremely weak; its culture accepts no derision. (hedged) — 00:02:10 · United States, China
  • ★★ Hank says that for China's National Day this week (week of 29 September 2014) 10,000 doves were released in Tiananmen Square, each cavity-searched for explosives. (playful) — 00:02:33 · China
  • ★★★ Hank says China's government mixes immense pride with vulnerability, a fear of falling apart that might be warranted since many areas of China don't want to be part of it. (hedged) — 00:02:45 · China
  • ★★ Hank says that with a weakening economy and a growing number of protests, Chinese politicians worry about losing stability, which they really like. — 00:02:58 · China
  • ★★ Hank says China's president Xi Jinping just did a massive crackdown on corruption, making enemies of officials who benefited from it. — 00:03:07 · China
  • ★★★ Hank says Beijing's leadership therefore wants to appear strong and in control and has no interest in conceding to the Hong Kong protests or even letting them continue. — 00:03:17
  • ★★ Hank says the protest probably hurts Beijing, though maybe less than it imagines, since Hong Kong and mainland people no longer get along well, partly over shopping excursions. (hedged) — 00:03:29

00:03:39 — The specifics: Chief Executive chosen by a business electoral college, Beijing's pre-selected candidates, Hong Kong's tradition of protest

  • ★★ Hank says he has not yet given the trigger for last Sunday's (28 September 2014) protests because, with all this background, the protest starts to feel inevitable. (hedged) — 00:03:39
  • ★★★ Hank says that since the handoff Hong Kong has been run by a Chief Executive elected by a weird electoral college made up mostly of business tycoons for mostly corporate constituencies. — 00:03:50
  • ★★★ Hank says Hong Kong's constitution, not really a constitution, eventually calls for the people, not a group of 1,200 sharing Beijing's interests, to elect the Chief Executive. — 00:04:07
  • ★★★ Hank says Beijing reads the law as letting Hong Kong citizens elect their Chief Executive only from candidates Beijing pre-selects, which 'of course, is not a democracy'. — 00:04:15
  • ★★★ Hank says Hong Kong has a proud history of protest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, so the police response may have scared people more than not electing leaders they never could elect. (hedged) — 00:04:28

00:04:48 — Outlook: testing ground for democracy?, state media and stability, little call for secession, hope for democracy in China

  • ★★ Hank notes some hope Hong Kong, a testing ground for China's capitalism, could test Chinese democracy, but says the cultural gap between China's control and Hong Kong's freedom may be too big. (hedged) — 00:04:48 · capitalism, China
  • ★★ Hank says the protests hurt Chinese leaders' image, but quashing them would hurt Hong Kong's prosperity; protesters avoid messing with Beijing and aim their ire at the Chief Executive. — 00:05:03
  • ★★ Hank says China's state media report on the Hong Kong protests as they did on the Arab Spring, focusing on the chaos and inconvenience the protests bring. — 00:05:16 · China
  • ★ Hank sarcastically voices the state-media message: what China really needs is to stick together and be stable ('Yay, stability!'). (satire) — 00:05:27 · China
  • ★★ Hank says that because Hong Kong's protesters protest in very calm and stable ways, there seems to be some agreement that stability is good. (hedged) — 00:05:33
  • ★★★ Hank says few call for Hong Kong to secede, though China may fear it; mostly Hong Kong wants to be itself, with a bit more control over its destiny for the first time. (hedged) — 00:05:39 · China
  • ★★ Hank says that in a country that checks pigeons for explosives, a seven-million-person region outside central control might be a completely foreign concept. (playful, hedged) — 00:06:00 · China
  • ★★★ Hank hopes that, as China found ways to allow actual capitalism within its borders, there may be a way for actual democracy too: a fantastic outcome. 'I guess we'll see.' (hedged) — 00:06:13 · China, capitalism

00:06:27 — Sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★ In the description Hank thanks Hong Kong Nerdfighters for keeping him informed and unnamed China experts who helped his research. — video description · Nerdfighteria, China

Mentioned

Central: China · democracy · Government of China · Hong Kong · Umbrella Movement

Also: People: Xi Jinping

Organizations: Chief Executive of Hong Kong · Election Committee · Hong Kong Police Force · Hong Kong Stock Exchange

Concepts: capitalism · colonialism · political corruption

Places: Beijing · British Empire · Tiananmen Square · United Kingdom · United States

Events: 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre · Anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping · Arab Spring · First Opium War · National Day of the People's Republic of China · Olympic Games · Transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong

Policies: Hong Kong Basic Law · One country, two systems

Also centred on democracy: Understanding the Primaries: Delegates, Democracy, and America's Nonstop Political Party · The Rigged Election

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