Hong Kong’s highest court ruled to ban the usage of masks in court this Monday. The ruling is in response to the series of protests led by citizens of Hong Kong demanding more democratic liberties to be given. The court ruled that by wearing masks, they were hiding their faces allowing them to remain anonymous and not be punished by the Chinese government. Obviously, the main purpose of the masks is to protect themselves and others by the virus, but it just also happens to hide ones identity. The court stated that those wearing masks ” “were seemingly free to act with impunity.”
I believe that this is a horrible situation for those stuck in Hong Kong. Not only are their democratic liberties being slowly and steadily stripped away, but they also are not even allowed to protect themselves from the Corona Virus. Going foward, this is a clear stance on how the government is going to treat protests in Hong Kong. I worry that as the anger of people continue to rise, so will the severity of responses by the government.
In class, we discussed different polarity’s of the world. Specifically, how the world right now is uni-polar and the U.S is the sole power. In the realist theory, it would be the job of the U.S to intervene in Hong Kong, not to necessarily help the protesters, but to stop a conflict from breaking out. If further conflict was to break out between the Chinese government and Hong Kong then the U.S would have to intervene in order to stop anarchy. Whether that be joining the Chinese government, or helping the protesters, the goal simply would be to establish stability.