Tuesday 1 October 2019

The gloves are off - Hong Kong government's murderous intent now crystal clear



On an oppressively hot and humid Tuesday evening in Hong Kong, violent and dislocating convulsions shook the city to it's foundations once again. As police savagely beat protesters and utilised firearms on numerous occasions, it marked yet another grim milestone on the path to God-only-knows where. Much of the city remains locked down and at a standstill with public transport suspended and visible road blocks in many districts. It feels very much like martial law in all but name.

As police violence towards demonstrators reached a sickening nadir with the shooting of a high school student this afternoon, it is clear the government wants to send a message to the public. 'Resist and die' or something to that effect. The use of force on display today from 'Asia's most respected police force' came as no surprise to anyone, but was shocking in it's brutality nonetheless. Whilst public attitudes to the Police surely crystallised some time ago,  outrage sparked by police violence reached a crescendo in recent days with widespread reports of torture and sexual abuse suffered by detainees held on the border with China and now today's unprecedented scenes of violence captured on video and quickly shared on social media.

To the people of  Hong Kong the truth has now become abundantly clear. The rule of law is smashed, broken and bloody on the floor along with  the bodies and dreams of the city's brave youth. Any remnants of faith in the city's most vital institutions is gone forever, along with any sympathy for the territory's corrupt and incompetent leaders. This leads people to the inevitable conclusion that the government and their instruments are now the enemy of the people. Leaving millions of residents with an impossible conundrum, a question that many had avoided under the assumption things would never come to this, what if I don't want to live under 'actual' Chinese rule?

Many Hongkongers are existentially split on this point, they have always felt a kinship with the Chinese people, a pride at being counted amongst them - 'I'm Chinese and I'm a Hong Konger'; was the prevailing sentiment. But this was a pride and sense of identity that explicitly depended on being allowed to remain different and diverse. Now that China, (like Israel) has successfully made it's regime synonymous with the country itself,  many Hong Kong citizens are grappling for the first time with more fundamental questions of identity. Perhaps for the first time, it seems possible that this fragile society could collapse under the weight of it's own contradictions.

Today feels different not only because it marked a new low in terms of police violence, but because it likely signified the beginning of a new phase in hostilities, as Beijing visibly ramps up efforts to crush the pro-Democracy movement once and for all.  

On Monday, suspected pro government supporters put up posters throughout the city advertising for applicants for a 'Anti-Police Death Squad', a pathetically transparent attempt to provide justification for a later use of extreme force again demonstrators. As escalation seems to be the only government 'strategy' at this point, many feared Tuesday's demonstrations might be where we see the first deaths at the hands of security forces. Sure enough, there were at least five live rounds discharged by police throughout the day including one into the chest of a teenage demonstrator.


Meanwhile Carrie Lam smiled and laughed it up with Chinese elites in celebration of their Dear Leader, Xi, in Beijing. Whilst the government is not without supporters amongst certain limited sections of HK society, popular support is now vanishingly thin. It seems clear that on orders from Beijing, the HK government will make no more concessions. And has been tasked with actively crushing dissent.

The status-quo-ante is no longer an available option, what this means going forward is far from clear. What we do know is that today marked a violent shift in direction. The gloves are well and truly off now, and in a hugely asymmetrical struggle such as this, with little meaningful international support, the people of Hong Kong have every reason to be worried about their future as 'part of China but not under it'.




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