Photo via Flickr

There’s been a major upheaval happening for the last three months halfway around the world; yet the Western press has only covered it in fits and starts. If you’re a regular reader here, you probably know the basics of the Umbrella Revolution; we’ve covered both the protests in July and the beginning of the current wave of unrest and how it became known as the Umbrella Revolution. What had been for the most part peaceful protest turned violent this week, as the police began to crack down.

On Monday, the New York Times ran an op-ed by Shiu Sin-por, the head of The Central Policy Unit of of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (the Beijing government). In it, he claimed that the pro-democracy protesters must accept Beijing’s powers as defined in the Basic Law; what China says is the constitutional document that specifies how Hong Kong is governed. In remarks made to the China News Service (a state-run news organization), Zhang Xiaoming, the head of the central Chinese government’s Liaison Office in Hong Kong, said the movement had “provoked” the central Chinese government and engaged in “radical forms of street confrontation,” and that China’s central leadership was “paying very close attention to the current developments.”

Then, on Tuesday morning, police using chain saws and sledgehammers cleared away the barricades that protesters had put up around two sites, and reopened several major roads that the protesters had blocked. Early Wednesday morning, students and the police clashed, with the police using riot shields, batons and pepper spray. The police made 45 arrests, and four policemen were injured. However, it’s the other thing the police did that has Hong Kong up in arms.

A video shot and broadcast by TVB, a usually pro-government television station, showed at least six plainclothes Hong Kong police officers dragging a pro-democracy protester into an alley, where he was kicked and beaten by them. The public reaction to this was as you’d suspect. “I thought a situation like this would only be seen in foreign countries, other societies — I didn’t expect to see it in Hong Kong,” said Ronny Tong, a Civic Party member of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council.

Audrey Eu, the chairman of the Civic Party, said; “Whatever they might charge him with, both his hands were tied behind his back with a plastic tie, and he was carried by police officers to a dark corner where he was assaulted for four minutes. I don’t know what has come over the police. It’s criminal.”

Hui Chun-tak, a spokesman for the Hong Kong police, said the authorities would conduct an “impartial and fair investigation” over the beating. Meanwhile, a front page commentary in the People’s Daily (the official Communist Party newspaper) praised Leung Chun-ying (Hong Kong’s Chief Executive)’s handling of the protests and further said the calls for his dismissal from protesters were part of a plot to force the government into unacceptable concessions.

As we’ve said before, we’re struck by how much the situation in Hong Kong parallels our own here in the U.S. Rampant income inequality, a lack of affordable housing, and many more. Even the way candidates are chosen for the highest office are similar; the only difference is that here we pretend the special interests who control the government and choose which candidates will run aren’t actually who’s in charge.

And, just like on the Chinese mainland, our media does its best to ignore the protests, hoping that they’ll go away before we notice what’s happening; before we realize that we share common goals; before we realize that we too have the power to bring about change.

Back in July, we wrote a piece about the democracy movement in Hong Kong. The piece was published the day after 500,000 people took to the streets for reasons that should sound familiar to us all; in many ways, it sounds just like here in the U.S.

Hong Kong has historically had more freedom and more of a democracy than the mainland has; when the British handed over Hong Kong to China back in 1997, preserving Hong Kong’s relative autonomy was one of the promises that China made to the British and to Hong Kong residents. The Chinese furthermore pledged that in 2017, Hong Kong’s citizens would be allowed to democratically elect their top leader for the first time.

You see, in Hong Kong, the candidates for leader are selected by a nominating committee, which consists of corporate representatives and members of the upper class, In other words, just like our system, except that the Chinese are much more honest about the procedure than our political parties are. Non-elected officials get their appointments through patronage, and not the skills they have. Sound familiar to you?

In June, the Chinese government issued a “white paper” claiming “comprehensive jurisdiction” over Hong Kong and that “the high degree of autonomy of [Hong Kong] is not an inherent power, but one that comes solely from the authorization by the central leadership.” Then, in August, the Chinese government stated that although citizens would vote for the chief executive (the head government office in Hong Kong), the candidates would have to be approved by a , special committee. Needless to say, the citizens were not impressed.

Hong Kong, 9-28-14. Photo via Facebook

Last Monday, thousands of students began a week-long boycott of classes at CUHK to protest the government’s decision. Lester Shum of the Federation of Students said in speaking to the demonstrators,  ““In the colonial days, the British ruled Hong Kong as if they were a group of refugees and obedient subjects. On August 31, [Beijing’s] decision would allow the central government and [tycoons]to continue to manipulate the election. Isn’t that applying the colonial [approach]to Hong Kong?”

Then, Occupy Central joined the students. The main force behind the July protests, Occupy Central was originally going to launch a “civil disobedience” campaign on October 1, a national holiday celebrating communist China’s founding. But, as the student protests escalated, they decided instead to join the students. On Friday, the protesters peacefully occupied the forecourt (think courtyard) in front of the main government building.

Hong Kong, 9-28-14. Photo via Facebook

On Sunday afternoon, the police moved in. Firing tear gas canisters into the crowd, they were also stopping supporters of the protest from entering the area. The protesters who couldn’t get into the forecourt spread out into the nearby streets, and the confrontations with police spread across the city. As the police crackdown spread, outraged citizens joined the protesters – the unrest spread even more. At this point, the student leaders began referring to the protests as the Umbrella Revolution, as the protesters were using umbrellas not only to keep dry (it rains a lot in Hong Kong this time of year), but as shields against tear gas and pepper spray.

The Chinese central government issued a statement endorsing the police actions, as did Hong Kong’s current chief executive, who’s basically a front for the Beijing government. How this will go over with the protesters remains to be seen; we’re guessing it won’t go over too well.

Occupy World Writes stands in solidarity with the people of Hong Kong. In what’s becoming a familiar sight at protests, some of the demonstrators are using the same “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture used by protesters in the Ferguson, Missouri protests of last month. We find this to be fitting; just as we are all Michael Brown, we’re also all the people of Hong Kong.

Ferguson, Missouri 9-28-2014. Photo via Facebook

The right of the people to self-govern is non-negotiable. The right of the people to hold the police responsible for their actions is non-negotiable. We are Hong Kong. We are Michael Brown. We are the 99%.