Unrest in Hong Kong

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It's certainly slower getting around all over HKG Island today due to the re-routing of traffic around the affected areas. I took the opportunity to go to Stanley, Aberdeen and Lamma thinking I'd get away from it, but the going was a bit slower.

The police seem to have backed off with the tear gas at least for now.
 
I'm surprised that this has been getting little, if any, coverage in the mainstream media. The ABC has had some stories about this, but I haven't seen much elsewhere.

The story behind the protests is long and complex and most likely will not resolve quickly unless there is an overwhelming use of force: Tiananmen Square 1989 style.

The 'TL;DR' version is that during negotiations for the return of Hong Kong to China, Beijing promised a high degree of autonomy for 50 years. This is the One Country, Two Systems model that was agreed upon between the UK and China in 1984. In 1993, the lead diplomat in these negotiations on the Chinese side, Lu Ping, described the level of autonomy as "How Hong Kong develops its democracy in the future is completely within the sphere of the autonomy of Hong Kong. The central government will not interfere."

The central government did not keep its promise, and has been interfering with Hong Kong's internal affairs incessantly for years, stymieing the development of democracy in the territory. The final straw that set off the protests is the promise of universal suffrage for Hong Kongers in 2017, however, they would only be able to vote for candidates approved by the central government. The equivalent of "you can have the car in any colour, as long as it's black".

Reddit has an up to date feed of information here, which might be interesting: [live] Occupy Central Civil Disobedience Movement

There have been rallies in support of Occupy Central overseas. There was a small one in Melbourne this evening.
 
This video in connection with the spirit of these protests has been popularly shared around the relevant circles. The melody is rather - naturally - befitting to those who know the original tune and lyrics, even though the lyrics of the adapted version are quite different in meaning to the original.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh8UfrMw8wM

I agree with Programme - unless there is significantly forceful intervention, there will not be likely a quick resolution. The use of force might be viewed as unfavourable by the rest of the world, though most will likely keep their distance as they don't really want to rock the boat with the PRC.
 
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Here in Honkers, Aljezeera and the BBC have repetitive and tedious coverage. It seems fairly quiet now with the riot police backed off and the exhausted were lying down asleep. Hopefully, this will not all end in tears. Occupy Central has apparently been in the planning for 18 months, and is still growing with tens of thousands in attendance as I write.

There is a lot of support for them including apparently the "bankers" who were not able to get into work today.

China's National Day, amajor public holiday coming up: Of course, China says it will not change its mind and has told other countries to back off supporting the demonstrators. Also, there are supposedly 6000 Chinese soldiers located in HKG.

Instagram has been disabled. Taiwan is also watching the outcome closely. (Ref AlJezeera TV).
 
The protests on HK island itself is literally just outside the headquarters of the People's Liberation Army's (the mainland Chinese army) Hong Kong garrison. This could become very ugly very quickly, and the protesters surely know this. It's hard to see a way that the central government will cede to their demands, but one has to admire the courage of people taking to the streets in an environment like that. It's not the same as a common protest that we might see in this country.

This is Causeway Bay tonight. There are tens of thousands of Hong Kongers on the streets from Causeway Bay to Admiralty as well as in Mong Kok. It reminds me of the "Bangkok Shutdown" earlier this year.

10668848_10152827975347448_7764970484416121647_o.jpg

This is Admiralty tonight

10660341_831124213587180_2695000617955573403_n.jpg

As an interesting aside, saw this linked from the Reddit feed that I linked previously. Some foreigners holding a barbecue for the protesters! I wonder where they are from?

1504085_10152828056662448_5191778257975063127_n.jpg

EDIT: The video quality is appalling, but the protesters in Admiralty are waving their phones and singing
[video=youtube;EbuL84x_SZU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbuL84x_SZU[/video]
 
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I wonder what the chances are that China may exert force on the population to force its way?

It's like someone up there could be validating Clive Palmer's recent comments.
 
The world is a different place compared to 1989. China is a different place compared to 1989. At least I damn well hope it is.

Well I hope severe force won't be used, but given it is China I do not have much hope in them not using force. That's how they "maintained harmony" in various part of China including Tibet and Xinjiang.
 
The world is a different place compared to 1989. China is a different place compared to 1989. At least I damn well hope it is.

Understood (maybe not if you were a Tibetian or Uighur), which is why I would like to think it should not come to that. But sometimes you never know what China is capable of. Just to think that a few weeks ago, Palmer said remarks of that allusion which were widely (and deservedly, I'd like to think) criticised.

I know that's a really cruel thing to say, and I really just wish that whatever way it goes, it will happen peacefully and diplomatically.

Certainly, China is just not going to let HK go independently without making a lot of noise. This isn't like Indonesia and East Timor.
 
Are there more travel alerts, other than Australia's?
 
I'm there for 2 nights (wed/thur) and while it may be fun to be in the action I prefer to put my safety first.

I doubt travel insurance would cover this situation, but even if it did - by staying at my old hotel I'm potentially putting myself in harms way which would be grounds to deny the claim anyway. You just never know how things will change over the coming days...
 
I'm due to fly to HKG on Friday. Last evening DFAT was still saying "exercise normal safety precautions", which is the lowest alert level. My hotel is on the Kowloon side. Still planning to go at this stage, but will be keeping an eye on the DFAT alerts for the rest of the week.
 
Although I'm not travelling to HKG and I don't want to sound uncaring/naive/accusative/etc., my impression is that the "unrest" - at least at the moment - would not be overly harmful for travellers, apart from the fact that perhaps getting to or from anywhere might be significantly delayed or uncomfortable.

I'm not exactly sure who would be affected more - tourists or business travellers.

This is not quite like in Bangkok where you have real street battles and confrontations; a traveller could be easily caught in the crossfire, let alone one large danger was being caught in an airport shutdown or area lock down.
 
Well it's not passive defiance. News reports say teargas was deployed 87 times...someone's keeping tally.
 
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