Hong Kong: The end of the Umbrella Revolution
VICE News published this five days ago. Last September, VICE documented the birth of the so-called Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. When students organised a weeklong strike to protest against China’s handling of the local election process, the government responded with tear gas.
Thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the city’s streets in solidarity with the students and the protesters occupied several major roads for weeks on end. Nearly two months into the occupation, the demands and resolve of the protesters remained unchanged.
They started to become fatigued and divided against each other, however, and public support for their cause began to decline. The movement was under immense pressure to either escalate their action, or to retreat and give back the streets.
When VICE News returned to Hong Kong near the end of the year to check on the protesters, they witnessed the final days of the Umbrella Movement’s pro-democracy demonstrations.
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The government was very careful not to have a repeat of the Tiananmen square massacre. As long as tanks stayed off the street and protesters were not killed, no foreign government was going to raise much of a fuss, especially because all those foreign governments are desperate to do business with China.
It then simply became a war of attrition and it was pretty obvious that the protesters would blink first. Office workers got on with their lives and started seeing the protesters blocking the streets as a nuisance.
Even students have only so much time, energy and resources to protest. Once the general public started turning against them, the writing was on the wall.
The dictatorial Communist Party lives to fight another day.
Why did the public turn against them? For a very Maltese reason. Ghax hazin ghall-business, qalu.
Malta and China. Truly a marriage made in heaven.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-27960661
http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/2014%20-%20Chinese%20investment%20in%20Piraeus%20-%20Clingendael%20Report.pdf
Piraeus is a main entry point for fake goods that are sold in the Balkans region. Whether Cosco Pacific, having assumed operational control over part of the Piraeus terminal, increases the number of fake goods entering the EU is unclear and requires further research. Still, one expert on trade flows of fake goods who was consulted for this study stated that he believes that Cosco’s involvement indirectly contributes to a larger inflow of China-made fake goods into Greece, and that this inflow has indeed grown substantially since Cosco assumed control of pier II.107 According to this source, potentially relevant factors in this regard may be the high level of corruption in both China and Greece,108
The thing that got to me was how dirty the Chinese government would play. For instance the central government in Beijing would agree to meet them, but as soon as they tried to leave Hong Kong they would find their travel documents were cancelled.
Qishom l-istudenti Maltin, preciz. I forgot the last time I heard SDM/KSU speak out.