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Violence and unrest in Hong Kong: Understanding the complexities between the PRC and a former British colony
This appeared in The Millennial Source
On November 11, over five months of Hong Kong protests culminated into an eruption of violence that left one person shot by police and another severely burned by protesters. Protests began in March this year after Hong Kong’s Security Bureau proposed a bill that would allow extradition to mainland China, something many Hongkongers view as an attack on Hong Kong’s autonomy.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam responded to the most recent violence in a statement: “If there is still any wishful thinking that by escalating violence the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Government will yield to pressure to satisfy these so-called political demands, I am making this statement clear and loud here: That will not happen.”
“These so-called political demands” refers to five demands set by protesters: full withdrawal of the extradition bill, an independent commission of inquiry into alleged police brutality, retracting the classification of protesters as ‘rioters,’ amnesty for arrested protesters, and dual universal suffrage (meaning for both the legislative council and the chief executive).
