“Occupy Central,” a civil disobedience movement, just turned into the biggest democracy demonstration in Hong Kong on Sept. 28, 2014. Thousands of protesters paralyzed the main financial district and traffic of Hong Kong demanding the true democracy, according to the international standard, from electing the chief executive in 2017 by the citizens. The majority of Hong Kong people are not satisfied with the “democracy” that was promoted by the Chinese government — meaning that the candidates of the chief-executive election are selected not by citizens but by a group of 1,200 representatives who are biased.
Within the movement, some protesters are young folks and some are even elderlies, but most of them are young students. However, I was really shocked when I witnessed a photograph of the protesting area surrounded by tear gas, people being pepper-sprayed, police officers holding rifles, and videos of the harmless students being treated with violence. And all they were doing was just standing with their hands in the air performing a peaceful demonstration. Since then, a lot of peaceful thoughts have become anger.
I strongly believe that is unacceptable to use violence in controlling a crowd of peaceful demonstrators, and I believe the false use of a weapon, such as tear gas, is an important trigger causing the anger among the citizens. I also believe that the Hong Kong government has full responsibility for the outcome now because it has still not directly faced the issue.
We, the people in America, are fully enjoying the benefits of democracy. But just think about how unfortunate it would be to not be able to choose our own leaders.
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