Democratic beliefs face destruction

Jeffrey Yang, Staff editor
February 6, 2020

American ideology has a new major opponent in 2019. No, the Soviet Union hasn’t resurfaced. No, North Korea hasn’t had any new developments relating to the United States. The major opponent facing American democracy is

Hong Kong is a former British colony that was given back to China in 1997. At the time of signing, China’s communist leaders agreed to a “one country, two systems” arrangement where China would remain communist and Hong Kong would retain democratic practices, including freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. Yet these rights have been infringed upon as a result of the protests in Hong Kong.

Protests in Hong Kong were evoked by an extradition bill where criminals in Hong Kong could be sent to mainland to be tried in court. The bill has been suspended, but protestors, still furious, have expanded their demands to include democratic reforms. The protestors have several demands that would result in greater democratic rights and an investigation into police brutality during the riots.

The protests taking place in Hong Kong have been mostly peaceful, although some have turned violent. These protests that have escalated were mostly the fault of the government officials creating controversy. An 18-year-old was shot in the chest with a live bullet. Not only did this happen once, but a policeman also shot another protester at close range. The government then banned the use of face masks in protests, creating further discord..

Chinese officials are further hinting at a violent strike against pro-democracy supporters in Hong

However, the protestors’ dreams of freedom, justice and democracy are fair and these threats on the protestors are analogous to a threat to the United States.

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, also feels as if the actions taken by China have been extreme. He has signed two different bills supporting the Hong Kong protestors: the first bill would impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights abuses in Hong Kong, and the second bill bans the sale of crowd-control weaponry, such as tear gas and rubber bullets

Threats to democracy should not be taken as a joke and the recent infringement upon the democratic rights Hong Kong citizens have received are inhumane and a response from the United States is critical.