While semi-autonomous Hong Kong has the opportunity to enjoy freedoms that are completely prohibited on the mainland, their political rights are beginning to dwindle as China continues to tighten its grip on them. In 2014, pro-democracy activists failed to win reforms in a number of mass rallies, sparking a major independence movement across the region. Hong Kong activists, however, continued to fight for their rights by creating their own National Party (HKNP), which advocated the city’s independence from China. In July of 2018, Hong Kong’s government decided to ban the political organization under the Societies Ordinance, claiming that groups can be forbidden under the concern of national security and public safety. Despite efforts to continue the movement, dedicated campaigners like Andy Chan was prohibited from standing office. Others were invalidated by state legislatures, and leading independence activist Edward Leung was sentenced to six months of jail time in June after arguments with the police earned him rioting charges just two years prior. As Hong Kong’s government continues to suppress the pro-independence movement, the HKNP has been slowly losing its drive to push back. However, Chan was recently given the opportunity to speak at the city’s press club. While China’s ministry of foreign affairs demanded that the talk be cancelled, The Foreign Correspondents Club refused, stating that different opinions had a right to be heard.<\/p>\n
I believe that Hong Kong is being unfair to its people by not letting them practice their natural rights, such as the freedom of expression. Other groups and even Britain’s foreign office agreed that the city’s rights should be respected. Since political activists haven’t displayed any traces of violence in their public protests or organizations, they have not violated any laws, nor do they pose as a danger to the public or the government. It’s possible that Hong Kong officials could be reacting out of fear of China stripping away even more of their rights. However, their refusal to allow their citizens to exercise their privileges could escalate the issue into a deeper crisis, potentially a violent one.<\/p>\n
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While semi-autonomous Hong Kong has the opportunity to enjoy freedoms that are completely prohibited on the mainland, their political rights are beginning to dwindle as China continues to tighten its grip on them. In 2014, pro-democracy activists failed to win reforms in a number of mass rallies, sparking a major independence movement across the region. Hong Kong activists, however, continued… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1950,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions\/1950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}