Canadians keep close eye on Hong Kong strife
After protests that gained world attention, what comes next for Beijing and former U.K. colony?
HONG KONG — Joseph Ng has been keeping something secret from workers at the garment factory he runs in Dongguan, a drab industrial city in mainland China.
Dongguan borders the New Territories, Hong Kong’s largest land base. It’s only a two-hour train ride from affluent Hong Kong Island, home to bank towers and five-star hotels, and now the scene of mass demonstrations, blocked streets, violence and threats.
For his factory workers, the distance is immense. Ng says they know nothing of the massive outdoor demonstrations and police confrontations that have gripped Hong Kong all this week and are grabbing attention around the world.
He has no plans to fill them in, either.
“It’s a sticky situation,” he says. “I hold my tongue and I’m careful not to share much information. Because the workers can’t speak about these things themselves. It’s really not tolerated anywhere in mainland China.”
It might sound paternalistic, especially coming from a 26- year- old Canadian- born entrepreneur.
Ng, who was born and raised in Regina, says he agrees with “90 per cent” of what the students and other protesters are doing in Hong Kong. He just doesn’t see the point of the news getting into his plant.
He usually spends his weekdays at the Dongguan factory, which makes men’s sportswear. On weekends, he travels to Hong Kong.
Even so, he knew little about concerns raised recently by students here about China’s heavyhanded control over local matters or the retaliatory student “strikes” launched two weeks ago.
Then came Sunday when, under orders from local authorities and with little provocation, police fired tear gas and pepper spray at demonstrators, injuring dozens.
Ng was still in the city. Once he learned what was happening, he ran outside “to see what I could do to help.”
He returned to the demonstration zones Wednesday night. He and some friends dropped off boxes of cookies at protest “checkpoints” and put up a poster in a public walkway.
“Stand firm and be proud, Canadians are among U,” it read. “Continue fighting for what rightfully belongs to U!”
Canadians are definitely paying attention to events in Hong Kong, their 10th-largest export market.
About 500,000 of them claim direct Hong Kong descent. Almost 300,000 Canadian citizens live in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the area returned to Chinese control in 1997, after 150 years of British colonial rule.
The protesters claim Beijing is reneging on agreements made then. Younger generations especially expect more political independence from Beijing. Instead, they see more of the same meddling.
In late August, the central government announced candidates for Hong Kong’s powerful chief executive position must be approved by a Beijing-appointed screening committee. The next election is scheduled for 2017.
“I know the Hong Kong culture, and that was seen as a hard slap in the face,” says Ng. “China was ignoring the wishes of the Hong Kong people again. We have minds of our own. People felt they had to get Beijing’s attention.”
They succeeded, but their actions provoked the authorities.
Beijing’s influence is not explicit; it has not deployed People’s Liberation Army troops, for instance. But it has condemned the demonstrations, calling them illegal.
The dissent appears to have “exploded as if from nowhere,” thanks to social media, says Bryan Druzin, a Canadian assistant professor of law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He points to the rapid spread of news after Sunday’s teargassing.
“Technology is playing a crucial role in sustaining these protests,” he says.
Among Hong Kongers themselves, opinions vary about the effectiveness of the protests. When asked directly, many say they think enough is enough. The protests have served their purpose, it’s time to clean up the streets and get back to regular business.
Many also see the protesters’ demands as unrealistic, especially their ultimatum that C.Y. Leung, the chief executive, step aside.
On Thursday he offered concessions but little more. After demonstrators threatened to storm his office, he instructed his deputy to hold talks with student protest leaders.
While no terms or dates were mentioned, the gesture was enough for demonstrators to call off their threatened occupation. Protest crowds were considerably smaller early Friday evening; however, there were scuffles between police and activists, and barricades remained up on some commercial streets on Hong Kong Island.
In Mong Kok, a crowded retail district in Kowloon, counterprotesters battled demonstrators who blockaded a key intersection all week.
Police arrived later in the evening but did not intervene until fights broke out between student demonstrators and people described by some onlookers as hooligans and gang members.
“There are 50 shades of protest right now, and 100 different views about them,” said resident Daniel Cheung, standing outside the government council building on Hong Kong Island.
“There are obvious divisions inside the movement. Things are not so black and white as some foreigners like to think.”