The Mouse That Roared: The Democratic Movement in Hong Kong
The popular uprising in recent years in Hong Kong – “Occupy Central” a.k.a. Umbrella Movement – has again brought to the fore the question of the Special Administrative Region’s relationship with Mainland China post-1997 “handover” of the territory by the British colonial government to the People’s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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National Sun Yat-sen University
2016-09-01
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| Series: | Contemporary Chinese Political Economy and Strategic Relations: An International Journal |
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| Online Access: | http://icaps.nsysu.edu.tw/var/file/131/1131/img/2375/CCPS2(2)-Dirlik.pdf |
| Summary: | The popular uprising in recent years in Hong Kong – “Occupy Central” a.k.a. Umbrella Movement – has again brought to the fore the question of the Special Administrative Region’s relationship with Mainland China post-1997 “handover” of the territory by the British colonial government to the People’s Republic of China. This article argues that the protests have their origins in a consciousness born of the anxieties provoked by the prospect of unification in the 1980s and 1990s, further evolved against the background of the unstable “one country, two systems” arrangement openly favoring the corporate and financial ruling class in Hong Kong which is in turn prepared to align its interests with those of the Communist regime in a mutually beneficial relationship. It also posits while the upheaval in Hong Kong bears similarities to other “Occupy” movements elsewhere in the economic issues that inform it, it may be viewed as the latest chapter in a narrative that goes back to the 1980s – the emergence of a neoliberal global capitalism of which the PRC has been an integral component, and the Tiananmen movement which was one of the earliest expressions of the social and political strains created by shifts in the global economy. |
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| ISSN: | 2410-9681 2410-9681 |