Protests continue in Hong Kong over a proposed extradition treaty with mainland China that has led to demonstrators storming the Legislative Council.
According to reports, protestors wearing helmets and googles could be seen tearing down the facade of the building while using metal bars to break glass and barriers as they looked to make their way to the main Legislative Chambers. Some were even seen raising the British Colonial Flag.
Via the New York Times:
At the handover of Hong Kong to China’s control in 1997, the Chinese government agreed that Hong Kong could retain its justice system and protections for civil liberties for 50 years, under a philosophy commonly known as “one country, two systems.” Protesters today are angry because they see Ms. Lam’s pushing of a bill that would open the way to extradite suspects to mainland China as giving up those rights to Beijing.
The United States’ role
Something lost in all of this, especially by the corporate mainstream media is the role U.S. Imperialism has played in these protests and the coverage.
Western media wants to paint the picture of people taking a stand against a totalitarian regime in China that is trying to inflict their will on the freedoms currently present in Hong Kong. Not that China should be portrayed as some innocent player in all of this given the dichotomy of their socialist roots and the growth of state capitalism within the Country.
However playing a behind the scenes role in these protests is the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a tool used by American economic imperialism to help fund unrest in certain parts of the World. This, in turn, is done to help push and influence U.S. interests which in this case is trying to prevent Hong Kong from having a closer relationship with Beijing.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s capitalist class has long benefited from years of western funding despite the autonomous territory having a poverty rate of 20 percent (23.1 percent for children).
In any sense, it’s hard to gauge the end game for some of these protests and what some of those within the grassroots of the movement are being fed. Especially when you see shit like what’s pictured below. Opposing Chinese ‘colonialism’ but waving flags of the British Empire? Weird…
