- Published: December 25, 2021
- Updated: December 25, 2021
- University / College: Duke University
- Level: Doctor of Philosophy
- Language: English
- Downloads: 40
The movement claims that the Chinese Government cannot inhibit the intrinsic rights of humans, including freedom of speech and political representation in the government. Although the movement was initiated on the belief that more people should be aware of the current situation and Hong Kong people should fight for their own rights, Occupy Central nearly caused the whole city into the violent uprising and a military takeover.
Occupy Central was led by the Joint Committee of Students’ Unions of Hong Kong’s eight prominent universities. John Lo, the Administrative Secretary of the Hong Kong University Students’ Union said that HKU students are the vanguards of political awareness in society (1). As students do not share as much of the burden to care for a family, they should stand at the forefront of this fight. The picture shows protesters with yellow ribbons to symbolize pro-democracy supporters (youngest 1). This fight for democracy is not only for the current generation, he said, but for future generations. Secretary Lo participated in the movement by camping out in the street along with thousands of other protestors as a form of nonviolent civil disobedience. He and his cabinet also urged the HKU Union Council to issue a decree condemning the Communist Party and National Party Congress for passing laws that effectively prohibit Hong Kong from reaching universal suffrage at least until 2018.
As of now, HKSAR’s government system is not in function. The imbalance of power among the three branches of government is obvious. The legislative branch is seemingly only responsible for being dangerous opposes of Hong Kong democracy, and the judicial branch tries to stay neutral, while the executive branch yearns to hold even more power. Many senators from both geographical and functional constituencies will argue that Leung Chun Ying, the chief executive of the HKSAR government, is simply a puppet sent from Beijing to monitor the progress of the integration of HKSAR back into China. The reason being that universal suffrage is still not permitted in this peculiar model of democracy.