The New York Times this morning reported that hundreds of thousands of people marched in Hong Kong today to protest China’s subversion of the Basic Law and refusal to allow full representative government. The protests were a continuation of efforts by Hong Kong’s besieged democracy movement to demonstrate popular support for a legislature selected by and beholden to the governed rather than sock puppets of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Freedom in Hong Kong has been substantially curtailed and often threatened by the CCP and its thugs, most recently with the arbitrary and illegal rewriting of the Basic Law to preclude open elections in 2007, but also in attempts to legislate “anti-subversion” statutes, and in death threats to democracy friendly talk show hosts and activists.
The fight for freedom will not die despite the CCP’s efforts to crush it by jackboot or intrigue. In 1989 the CCP massacred hundreds of people in Tiananmen Square- it has since sought to erase all memory of the incident. Freedom and democracy have taken root amongst the Chinese people, and Tiananmen Square is openly remembered in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Voters there will not surrender the franchise to mass murdering kleptocrats masquerading as communists- not without a fight.
Posted by publius at July 1, 2004 01:12 PMIt was quite an impressive demostration.
Posted by: Jane at July 6, 2004 08:57 AM