Hong Kong Protesters Are Furious About A 30-Year-Old Broken Promise

Seemingly out of nowhere, images of tens of thousands of protesters in the streets of Hong Kong confronting tear gas with umbrellas are dominating the media. "Occupy Central" is what those in Hong Kong are calling the movement to maintain democratic rule on the island. It has been able to assemble hundreds of thousands to demonstrate since July, when Beijing publicized that it would no longer tolerate independent rule in Hong Kong. It said that Hong Kong's constitutional autonomy was not "an inherent power." Instead of allowing free and fair elections as it has for the past 20 years, Beijing wants to select candidates who can run for political office in Hong Kong.


In a closed-door meeting with Hong Kong leaders in August the guy named Zhang Xiaoming, Beijin's liasion to Hong Kong, told Hong Kong leaders supportive of Occupy Central, "The fact that you are allowed to stay alive, already shows the countr'y inclusiveness." So what is happening now says more about changesin Beijing under President Xi Jinping that in does about any revolution on the island. To the contrary, protesters on the ground aren't fighting for change, but rather a return to the commitment that was made to them in 1997 -- that they would be able to govern themselves.