https://themilitant.com/2019/06/29/massive-protests-in-hong-kong-push-back-hated-extradition-bill/
Massive protests in Hong Kong push back hated extradition bill
??By Roy Landersen
Vol. 83/No. 24
July 8, 2019
June 16 demonstration in Hong Kong drew some 2 million people, largest
mobilization in history of former British colony. Beijing fears its
impact on working people inside China.
Reuters/Thomas Peter
June 16 demonstration in Hong Kong drew some 2 million people, largest
mobilization in history of former British colony. Beijing fears its
impact on working people inside China.
In a victory for democratic and political rights, the biggest
mobilizations in Hong Kong???s history forced the city???s chief executive,
Carrie Lam ??? after a meeting with top Chinese officials ??? to suspend
moves to pass a hated bill authorizing extradition June 15. Some 2
million people out of a population of 7.4 million jammed city streets
the next day calling for the bill to be permanently withdrawn. Many
demanded Lam resign.
Lam claimed the move was necessary because the former British colony???s
laws don???t allow extraditions to mainland China or Taiwan. But working
people and youth saw this as a pretext to allow the regime in Beijing
legal cover to go after its political opponents in the semi-autonomous
region. The people of Hong Kong continue to defend broad democratic and
political rights they first wrested from the British rulers, rights
which have been suppressed in mainland China.
Beijing has a history of secretly abducting people from Hong Kong for
detention and ???trial??? on the mainland, as with five booksellers in 2015
who sold literature critical of top Beijing officials.
Even some major capitalists with close ties to the Chinese rulers
opposed the law, worried?? they could be in danger if Chinese officials
decided to go after them in one of their periodic crackdowns on
???corruption.???
The British imperialists made Hong Kong a colony in 1841 after defeating
China???s rulers in the First Opium War. Even after the victory of the
Chinese Revolution in 1949, Hong Kong remained under British rule. It
was not until 1997 that the capitalist island was returned to China
under a ???one country, two systems??? arrangement. It has special
administrative region status meant to last for at least 50 years. Under
the deal, Beijing controls Hong Kong???s military and foreign affairs.
Hong Kong, a deep-water port and tied to the world capitalist banking
and financial markets, was especially important to the Stalinist regime
in Beijing as it opened up China to foreign capitalist investment and
promoted Chinese capital.
Working people and youth in Hong Kong have stood up to numerous attempts
to close down democratic rights. In 2014, students, trade unions and
other supporters of political rights took to the streets in what became
known as the ???umbrella revolution,??? demanding the right to directly
elect government officials and in opposition to Beijing???s intervention
in Hong Kong affairs.
The year before, dockworkers went on strike demanding better pay and
working conditions at what was then the world???s third busiest container
port.
And unlike mainland China ??? where the regime bans commemorations of the
massive 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing that China???s military
drowned in blood ??? in Hong Kong nearly 200,000 demonstrated on the June
4 anniversary.
Frances Hui, a student from Hong Kong at Emerson College in Boston,
helped organize a June 9 Boston action in solidarity with the Hong Kong
protests and spoke at a June 16 action in New York. She told the
Militant?? June 21 that thousands attended solidarity events in ???29
cities in 12 countries.???
The protests were large, Hui said, because of Beijing???s encroachment on
???human rights and freedoms.??? The bill would have meant ???people who fled
to Hong Kong after the [Tiananmen] massacre wouldn???t be safe.??? The city,
she said, ???would become much closer to how the rest of China is operated.???
Unions join Hong Kong protests
The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions encouraged its members to
join the protests. ???The extradition bill is very dangerous for Hong Kong
people, especially workers,??? Confederation Education Secretary Stanley
Ho told Reuters June 12.
As opposition to the extradition bill mounted, Lam at first kept pushing
to adopt it. But anger mounted after cops clashed with some protesters
who had surrounded the Legislative Council Building, firing rubber
bullets and tear gas and making arrests.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi blamed ???Western forces??? for trying ???to
sabotage Hong Kong???s stability.??? The China Daily condemned ???foreign
entities??? for misleading youth.
As the protests mushroomed, Lam ??? and top Beijing officials ??? were
forced to backpedal. This was the first major climbdown in Chinese
President Xi Jinping???s career. The Chinese rulers acted to derail any
impact on workers on the mainland and in Taiwan and any effect?? on
Beijing???s trade dispute and longer-term rivalry with Washington.
In 1997 Hong Kong represented a fifth of total Chinese economic output,
but after rapid capitalist expansion in China, it is less than 3% today.
Shanghai is now the busiest port in the world.
But the island city still channels about two-thirds of overseas
investment to the mainland. It is still a hub for southern China
including the major cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
The rulers in Beijing worried that the protests in Hong Kong could spur
actions by workers in China resisting speedup, low wages and government
repression. All the news in the capitalist press about developments in
China and Beijing???s competition with Washington for economic supremacy
avoid this, the real factor that will affect the future ??? the rise of
the class struggle.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???US hands off Iran! End US economic war!
???US sanctions hit hardest against working people
???Speak out against bans on ???Militant??? in prisons!
???Vote to erase Calif. mural is blow to art, political rights
???Massive protests in Hong Kong push back hated extradition bill
??????We demand: End US colonial rule over people of Puerto Rico???
Feature Articles ???Victory in bakery???s lawsuit against ???racism??? smear by
Oberlin College
Also In This Issue ???Former ???wives,??? children of IS fighters held in
Mideast camps
???Workers at Gate Gourmet, Sky Chefs fight for contract
???Undocumented workers in NY win right to driver???s licenses
???Sudan military attacks protests demanding civilian government
???Celebrating 100 years ???on right side of history???
???Joyce Meissenheimer: Communist fighter
Books of the Month ???Building a party capable of leading workers to power
25, 50 and 75 years ago
?? Copyright 2019 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxx
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Voltaire
??? Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
???
??? Voltaire,