Umbrella Revolution
Hong Kong’s leaderless protests may mark a new evolution in leadership
Just who runs protests in places like Kiev and Hong Kong? It’s not an easy question to answer, but that doesn’t mean the protest movements in those places lack energy or direction. In fact, their loose structure may be a new model for political organization.
Hong Kong’s protests are less ‘occupy’ and more ‘take back our city,’ says one couple
Charlie Schroeder and his wife, native Hong Konger Wendy Mok, moved back to the city two years ago. Now that protests are jamming the streets, they see the pent-up frustrations of many young Hong Kongers being expressed, hoping to make China pay attention to their concerns.
Beijing’s usual playbook of control won’t work in Hong Kong
Reporter Mary Kay Magistad spent 20 years reporting on China, and says Hong Kong’s ingrained culture of law and rights is too powerful for Beijing’s normal methods of control to work. And that’s in large part because Beijing has ignored the city’s real opinions.
Hong Kong still holds powerful symbolic meaning for China
Hong Kong isn’t just a city — it’s the place where China was able to strike a long-awaited blow at the Western powers who subjected China to decades of colonial humiliation. That’s how Beijing still views the city, and that powerful past means compromise on the current protests is all that much harder.
Hong Kong has grabbed headlines around the world — except in Beijing
There might have been a lot of coverage of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, but the story barely made a blip in mainland China. Chinese government officials have tightly controlled reporting from Hong Kong, and even blocked Instagram for the first time.