Comments
[Links] Tangible actions to support Hong Kong protestors from afar
1 min readAug 18, 2019
4
https://github.com/hongkonggong/beyond-lennon-walls (archive)
For those in the US, it's really quick to send letters to your representatives in support of The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act of 2019 via this link: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/co-sponsor-hong-kong-human-rights-and-democracy-act-of-2019 (archive)
Vox has some good background on the protests: https://www.vox.com/world/2019/8/18/20810872/hong-kong-protests-beijing-military-police-violence-airport-demonstration-extradition-bill-11-week (archive)
Sunday’s march was organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, the same group that has organized many of the mass protests since they began. The group says that marches will continue until their demands are met, which include a complete retraction of a bill that wold allow Hongkongers to be extradited to mainland China, universal suffrage to elect Hong Kong’s leaders, and amnesty for all arrested protesters.
...
As tensions rise, a number of US lawmakers have called for bipartisan legislation designed to pressure Hong Kong to align with protesters and to push back against creeping influence from Beijing.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) reintroduced the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act earlier this year, a bill that would make it harder for Hong Kong to maintain its special trade status with the US if does not maintain a sufficient degree of autonomy from mainland China.
4
Given that mainland China is trying hard to paint the Hong Kong protests as foreign-manufactured, it might be worth second guessing attempts for foreigners to endorse or otherwise help the protests. However, I'm unsure to what extent this consideration should cut against reasons for supporting.
For sure. I think getting the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act passed is probably good on net, though this is all super complicated & hard to say with confidence.
I'm unsure of the impact. I think that while Hong Kong is China's main connection to US trade, Hong Kong is now only 3% of the GDP of China and China seems increasingly willing to forgo trade with the US and this act may just further push China away from trade. I could see the sign of implementing this going either way and think we'd have to do more analysis first.
+1 to more analysis here being good.
I think there's something to be said for solidarity & acting according to one's principles. Not really sure how to weight that consideration alongside tactical / political considerations like what you're pointing to. (My instinct is to weight solidarity & acting from principles heavily.)