WATCH: Footage shows what it’s like on the ground amongst thousands of other pro-democracy demonstrators in the Mong Kok area of Hong Kong.
It comes in flashes: The look in the eyes of a young protester, the hardened stare of a police officer, or the sound of idealistic chatter. The naive hope and the brutal realities play out in old familiar ways.
It was what I saw and heard a quarter of a century ago, when another group of young Chinese stood up for freedom in Tiananmen Square.
Today those early democracy advocates could be the mothers and fathers of the Hong Kong protesters, both physically and spiritually. While it’s tempting to create the generational link–and sometimes with the onslaught of the protest images it’s almost inescapable–the times have changed and so has the struggle for freedom.
Let’s start with the most obvious: In 1989, the unarmed students and workers were massacred by the People’s Liberation Army on the orders from the Chinese Communist Party. While the communists are now in charge of Hong Kong, they haven’t visited the same horror on the young people here. Not yet, anyway.
The truth is that even if they wanted to, it may be impossible.
Even in Tiananmen 25 years ago, the government had to bring up hardened troops from the Vietnam border to stiffen the spine of local army units when they were ordered to shoot their own people. Finding that type of blind loyalty in Hong Kong might be elusive.
It’s not that the communists are playing Mr. Nice Guy now. In fact, just like back then, the party is refusing to budge a millimetre. It’s more a case that killing people in Beijing was easier than shooting people in a highly sophisticated and worldly city like Hong Kong.
Back then, the threat to the party’s absolute rule was quite literally on its doorstep. Here at least, it seems less obvious, and therefore not requiring the same brutal response.
Some have suggested social media has changed the game and that the same sort of repression couldn’t happen because of Twitter. I think that’s nonsense.
The party knew in 1989 that there were dozens, if not hundreds, of international media in Beijing. It may have taken a bit longer, but the images and the stories got through to the world. The party wasn’t afraid of international opinion then, and probably cares even less now.
The calculation has proved right so far. The democracy protest here is almost over. The students have been granted a meeting with the assistant to the chief administrator, who has already dismissed any compromise, and the students are hailing this as a victory. It’s the sort of outcome that has the old men in Beijing smiling.
But they shouldn’t be too smug. Despite the failures of these uprisings, the absolute authority of the Communist Party is still under attack from within. In Hong Kong it should really worry them.
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The protesters by and large were born after the British handed the colony back to China. This generation is the first that has only known Chinese rule. They have been brought up to love the party.
Instead they’re calling it out. Soon enough the protesters will be running the economy here, and in Hong Kong, money talks.
While Tiananmen and Occupy Hong Kong may be a generation and a world apart, there’s still some remarkable similarities: Both involved a genuine quest for freedom, but neither was violent. Both sought greater freedoms but not the overthrow of the government. Both were characterized by their gentle and polite demeanor.
Both in Tiananmen and Hong Kong, I was struck by the civility of those who wanted to change their world, and the brutishness of those who wanted to keep their power and entitlement. And in both protests, a new generation learned that freedom doesn’t come easily.
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