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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 9-Dec-2019
9-Dec-19 World View -- Hong Kong holds massive peaceful pro-democracy demonstration

Web Log - December, 2019

9-Dec-19 World View -- Hong Kong holds massive peaceful pro-democracy demonstration

Protesters renew their 'five demands, not one less' chants

by John J. Xenakis

This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

Hong Kong holds massive peaceful pro-democracy demonstration
Protesters renew their 'five demands, not one less' chants
The CCP fights the democracy 'ideology' with the Patriotic Education Campaign

Hong Kong holds massive peaceful pro-democracy demonstration

Hong Kong November 24 election -- summary of results

Hong Kong November 24 election -- summary of results

Hong Kongers filled the streets on Sunday with a massive peaceful pro-democracy demonstration. According to organizers, the size of the protest was 800,000, although the police estimated 300,000. Unlike other recent protests, the crowd was filled with children and families, and there was almost no violence.

In previous recent demonstrations, protesters have vandalized public buildings belonging to the government or private buildings belonging to mainland businesses. The also blocked streets and shut down the public transit system. This has had the effect, since the protests began six months ago, of bringing Hong Kong's economy to its knees, as the protests became more violent each week.

However, Sunday's protests were like the initial peaceful demonstrations six months ago. Furthermore, activists had called for a citywide strike on Monday, but no such strike occurred.

Pro-democracy demonstrators were apparently placated by the November 24 local council elections, where pro-democracy candidates won a stunning landslide victory, as summarized by the chart above. More than half of the 452 seats switched from pro-Beijing to pro-democracy, giving pro-democratic forces control of 17 out of 18 district councils. The election also saw record high voter turnout with 4.1 million registered voters, a 71% increase since the last election cycle in 2015.

Protesters renew their 'five demands, not one less' chants

While Sunday's protests were peaceful, it was undoubtedly infuriating to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials in Beijing that many protesters were waving US flags and singing "Glory to Hong Kong."

The original protests were triggered by a proposed "extradition bill" that would have allowed any Hong Kong citizens accused of a crime to be extradited to China with no hearing, where they would be at the complete mercy of the CCP, and it's record of torture and indefinite jailing for anything deemed to be political opposition to the CCP.

Hong Kong's leader, Carrie Lam, took several months to agree to withdraw the extradition bill. Some people believe that if she had taken that step immediately, then the protests would have fizzled. But the long delays triggered increasingly strident demands, and the number of demands increased to five.

The five demands are as follows: withdraw the extradition bill completely (this has been accomplished); do not classify past demonstrations as riots; drop all charges against those arrested in relation to the protests; set up an independent commission to investigate the use of force by the police; and call for fully democratic elections for the Legislative Council and the chief executive.

The CCP will never agree to the last two of the demands. If the CCP and Carrie Lam were smart, they would find a way to agree to the second and third demands, as a way of reducing tensions. But as I've said many times, the CCP do one stupid thing after another, and you can be sure that whatever they do in Hong Kong will only make things worse.

The CCP fights the democracy 'ideology' with the Patriotic Education Campaign

Instead, according to news reports, Carrie Lam has found the solution: To increase patriotic education in schools, so that protesters will understand the advantages of Communism.

The fact that CCP leaders even think that this kind of reeducation program could ever work explains how stupid CCP officials are, and why they consistently get everything wrong. This is such an incredibly stupid idea, that only the CCP would think of it. It's like trying to end race riots in the United States by teaching black children in schools how to be more white.

CCP officials do not view "democracy" as a form of government. They view it as an ideology that is opposed to the communist ideology and can bring down the CCP, just as it brought down the Soviet Communist Party in 1991. The CCP view is that they must crush the democracy ideology, or the democracy ideology will crush them.

After the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests and the subsequent massacres of thousands of college students by security police, the CCP saw that the use of the democracy "ideology" brought about the 1991 collapse of Soviet communism, and they realized that it might happen to them.

In the 1990s, the CCP launched the Patriotic Education Campaign, a propaganda campaign designed to teach school students to reject the "democracy" ideology, and instead to adopt a highly vitriolic form of anti-Japan hatred as the ideology replacing the democracy ideology. As I explained in detail in my book, "War between China and Japan," this vitriolic and nationalistic campaign anti-Japan hate campaign, which has continued to today, is the crucible of the coming war between China and Japan.

At the same time in the 1990s, Socialism with Chinese Characteristics began to take on a whole new and far darker and more sinister meaning. Any criticism of the CCP leadership could lead to torture, rape and jailing. Any serious adoption of any religious "ideology" (Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Daoism) would be treated the same way.

So today, the CCP sees the hated democracy "ideology" rapidly gaining ground in Hong Kong and Taiwan. However, they don't know what to do about it since, as stupid as the CCP leaders are, even they realize that a violent response in Hong Kong could trigger a widespread rebellion among Cantonese speakers in southern China, and a military invasion of Taiwan would trigger a war with the United States that they're not yet fully prepared for.

So the peaceful demonstrations this weeked were a welcome respite from the violence, and most people hope that the peace will last a while. However, 2020 promises to be a time of renewed violence in Hong Kong, and the CCP will be running out of options.

John Xenakis is author of: "World View: War Between China and Japan: Why America Must Be Prepared" (Generational Theory Book Series, Book 2), June 2019, Paperback: 331 pages, with over 200 source references, $13.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732738637/

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(Comments: For reader comments, questions and discussion, see the Generational Dynamics World View News thread of the Generational Dynamics forum. Comments may be posted anonymously.) (9-Dec-2019) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 9-Dec-2019 9-Dec-19 World View -- Hong Kong holds massive peaceful pro-democracy demonstration

Hong Kong holds massive peaceful pro-democracy demonstration

Protesters renew their 'five demands, not one less' chants

The CCP fights the democracy 'ideology' with the Patriotic Education Campaign

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 9-Dec-2019
9-Dec-19 World View -- Hong Kong holds massive peaceful pro-democracy demonstration