A reader — who we will not name, for obvious reasons — sent the photo above and those below from Hong Kong. He tells us these photos were taken outside and near his apartment building by his son.
He wanted our readers here to see what’s happening in the former British Colony as Hong Kongers protest and fight against domination from mainland China.
As the AP reports,
[M]ore than 1,000 people gathered Friday night at a public park near Hong Kong’s legislative complex, chanting “Fight for freedom.” Medical workers rallied earlier at the office of the hospital authority.
A protester runs with a United States flag as tear gas are released on protesters in Hong Kong on Monday, Aug. 5, 2019. Droves of protesters filled public parks and squares in several Hong Kong districts on Monday in a general strike staged on a weekday to draw more attention to their demands that the semi-autonomous Chinese city’s leader resign.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced two days ago that her government will formally withdraw an extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be sent to mainland China for trial. Many saw it as a glaring example of the city’s eroding autonomy since the former British colony returned to Chinese control in 1997.
The protest movement was triggered by the extradition bill, but the focus has since shifted to alleged excessive use of force by police in the increasingly violent clashes and to other issues.
Protesters have adopted a new slogan, “Five key demands, not one less.” They want an independent investigation into the allegations of police brutality, the unconditional release of those detained, no more labeling of the protests as riots, and direct elections of the city’s leaders.
Here are the photos sent by our reader:
We’re told this translates as either recover or reclaim Hong Kong.
What can we do? I’m sure there are many like myself that would like to help. But outside of us pressuring our government to put sanctions on China, what else? Of course Wall Street and many in our government are so in bed with the Chinese Communist, it makes me sick.
Dropping liberators and copies of docs from our founding fathers translated into Chinese could be more dangerous than bombs in the right circumstances.
God bless all these people who yearn for freedom and are willing to pay the price for that desire.
Yeah, the pen is only mightier than the sword if you use it to enlist the services of someone with a sword. Or a rifle.
Otherwise, it’s just a pen.
Tiananmen Square. Whenever socialism gains control of a nation it morphs into communism. People are brutalized. Murdered. Sent to work camps. For heinous crimes such as speaking their opinions.
The protesters in Hong Kong have more respect for America than the dirtbags in Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco, and a lot more than all the Democrat candidates for President. I don’t oppose a one for one exchange for any American who wants to live under Socialism for Hong Kong citizens.
I have a great idea. Let’s offer to trade the mainland Chinese Government the pro-freedom protestors that they have for the anti-American and anti freedom protestors that we have, you know the Democrat party even steven.
I hope those pics don’t end up costing him dearly.
Those resistance fighters are rather smart, innovating responses, like using traffic cones to isolate tear gas grenades.
Their piece ‘de resistance is brilliant, they are using over 1-watt handheld blue burning lasers to permanently ‘blind’ the surveillance cameras on most every utility pole. Just flat burning out their CCD sensors from some distance away :
That’s why you use ToR to set up a proxy email account at an anonymous provider, then link it to a burner phone for sending the pics. No way anyone could track that.
Actually, those powerful blue lasers are almost exclusively made in China. Until around 2013, U.S. citizens were able to purchase them online from vendors like Wicked Lasers.
Pretty amazing to pop a balloon with a laser from 300 meters. Obviously, there are other applications.
If the target was something like a match head or a road flare. My Arctic will light off an uncapped road flare from 100m. Haven’t tried further.
Yup, love my 1 watt blue arctic. The diodes in the early days were pulled from the light arrays of home theater projectors and then overclocked. Lasers are popular enough to get their own production now, but since the import ban we are back to making our own again.
See my post below. Part of it was taken directly this morning from Fareed Zakaria “Gobal Public Square”. It explored the Liberal Education of the Hong Kong Students and why they have the guts to riot. It is for Liberal Government not Conservative Government. Of course anyone with half a brain would have already discovered that fact. It makes all the Conservatives claiming to support the Students look like either traitors to their Jack booted thinking or they are making complete fools of themselves mouthing off about it.
Anyone with half a brain would have seen the “one country two systems” wasn’t going to work. Even the politicians who came up with the catchphrase were hoping to retire and write their memoirs before the situation blew up.
But the Chinese got impatient, especially as the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic is approaching.
Wish these guys the best, they have their work cut out for them but the fact that the extradition has been withdrawn is a great start. Hopefully the knowledge that the world is watching is keeping ChiComs from sending in the Reds to curbstomp these people. While many govts in the West are financially in bed with the chicoms that cuts both ways, and they are forced to restrain their despotism when the world eye is on them to avoid political and economic fallout from heavy handedness
also, for those with Facebook Michael Yon is an independent journalist who is currently in Hong Kong and is often livestreaming the events and clashes, if you want to see some interesting coverage follow him on there, its wild.
The revolt is precisely because Hong Kong students were given a “Liberal” American Style uncensored education that they are now able to “think for themselves” and able to have the willingness and desire to “challenge authority” and reject any conservative dogmatic propaganda. Without Liberalism there would be no Hong Kong Protests. We American Liberals also rioted at Kent State in 1970 against the Conservative Nazi’s who were supporting the U.S. Government’s subjugation and mass murder of the people of Vietnam. History repeats itself on the other side of the world.
Unfortunately just as the Jack Booted U.S. Military murdered Kent State Students so probably will the Chinese Military do just as they did before at Tiananmen Square. I think that when all restrictions are finally removed in the next few years their absolute control of Hong Kong will be put into place with mass murder. The U.S. Government and Chinese Government both operate in the same way with a heavy hand and mass murder of civilians.
And as as PostScript it makes me laugh that U.S. Conservatives are cheering the Students in Hong Kong because if the LIberal Hong Kong Students were given citizenship here the Far Right would be ranting and raving against them.
My superior intellect and the endless minutes I have spent studying all about this reveal the real truth. The greedy capitalist Racist White Supremacist Chinese military will murder tens of millions of Honk Kong students and it will be all Trump’s fault.
Liberal arts/education refers to classical liberalism which was about human freedom and natural rights, such as free speech and private property rights. The “liberalism” in America today is, like yourself, opposed to free speech and private property rights. The protesters in HK are protesting to be able to keep natural rights and private property rights, and the Chicoms are quite literally diametrically opposed to those things. It’s pretty easy for those unveiled by dogma to see where natural allegiances flow
quote——————-Liberal arts/education refers to classical liberalism which was about human freedom and natural rights, such as free speech and private property rights. The “liberalism” in America today is, like yourself, opposed to free speech and private property rights. The protesters in HK are protesting to be able to keep natural rights and private property rights, and the Chicoms are quite literally diametrically opposed to those things. It’s pretty easy for those unveiled by dogma to see where natural allegiances flow————quote
Look lets not get ridiculous here. The Conservative Far Right would like nothing better than to ban free speech. Herr Drumpf is a champion of destroying the free press and makes no bones about it and his glazed eyed followers love him for it. He and his followers have stated that old line News Papers here in the U.S. are “fake News” while State Run TV like Foxy News is gospel. Really did you think anyone who is educated would have believed your post about free speech being championed by the Far Right.
And when you refer to “[property rights” this is only smoke and mirrors to champion the rights of American Businessmen to rip off and bankrupt the public as their Capitalisitc God Given right to economic rape and pillage. The Chinese Government has not placed any restrictions on Capitalism in Hong Cong at all and the students are not protesting at all about property rights.
HERE IS THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE PROTESTING AND THE 5 STUDENT DEMANDS. REALLY YOU SHOULD RESEARCH BEFORE MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS ABOUT PROPERTY RIGHTS AND THE STUDENTS.
At the current Hong Kong protests, asking people there why they are protesting will nearly always get you the same answer: the five demands.
These are:
1 Full withdrawal of the extradition bill
The proposed extradition bill would have allowed for courts in other places, such as China and Taiwan, to ask for criminals to be handed over. The protests started over a general mistrust of the Chinese legal system.
Currently, the government has declared the bill “dead” and insists all work has stopped on the bill. But protesters demand the formal rules of withdrawing a bill be followed in the Legislative Council.
Hong Kong extradition law: Controversial fugitive bill explained
2 A commission of inquiry into alleged police brutality
On June 12, police dispersed protesters outside Legco with what protesters say is excessive force. They have criticized these actions ever since. Protesters also have little confidence in the current police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Council.
3 Retracting the classification of protesters as “rioters”
Shortly after June 12, when protesters surrounded Legco and forced the second reading of the fugitive bill to be stopped, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung used the term “rioters” to describe protesters, which is a crime that can be punished by up to 10 years in prison.
A timeline of events in the 2019 Hong Kong protests
4 Amnesty for arrested protesters
So far, more than 700 protesters have been arrested in connection with the anti-extradition bill protests so far, charged with crimes ranging from illegal assembly and assaulting police to rioting.
5 Dual universal suffrage, meaning for both the Legislative Council and the Chief Executive
At the moment, only half the seats in Legco – the body which makes the city’s laws – are directly elected by voters. The other 35 seats are from “functional” constituencies, an elected according to professions or trades. But this means that corporations and selected voters get to vote for the representative in their particular sector.
The Chief Executive is elected by a 1,200-member committee. Of those, 900 are representatives of different sectors of business, only elected by voters in that business. Of the 300 remaining members of the committee, 70 are members of the Legislative Council and others are representatives to the Chinese National People’s Congress.
Do you see how educated I am? I can even copy and paste stuff written by somebody else that explains protest movements in other countries!
Thanks for covering this TTAG. Hopefully it gets the same attention that you gave Mexico as it emerged as a deeply troubled country a couple years back.
I’ve been to Hong Kong. Several times. It was a beautiful country on its own and the while the handover tarnished that shine a bit, it was still a gem of the Asian Pacific. Watching this sucks and knowing the most likely outcome if China isn’t put under a microscope really sucks ass.
Unfortunately governments around the world are quite used to “keeping the people in line.” Here in the USA, we designed a system of government that was supposed to work FOR the people, but unfortunately, it has forgotten that. If we don’t make some big strides in fixing it, we’re going to end up exactly like this. Spending time attacking those that have different opinions (liberals vs conservatives) doesn’t fix anything and just makes it harder to work with them later on.
“Fight for Freedom” sounds pretty good.
Can we have the American flag waving pro 2A immigrants?
Not according to chris mallory. They ain’t white enough.
Trade our Mexican flag waving protesters for their American flag waving protesters, done.
Bet the left would suddenly get pretty anti immigrant if we could get them to come here.
What can we do? I’m sure there are many like myself that would like to help. But outside of us pressuring our government to put sanctions on China, what else? Of course Wall Street and many in our government are so in bed with the Chinese Communist, it makes me sick.
THIS is why we have a 2nd Amendment.
Yes, it is worth fighting and dying for.
If they need to flee I have no issue with giving them refuge.
If they need immigration sponsors, I bet a lot would step up to the plate…
THESE are the guys that the refugee statutes were written for.
If you need weapons the cops have them. Just saying……….
From the wikipedia entry on the liberator pistol;
“A resistance fighter was to recover the gun, sneak up on an Axis occupier, kill or incapacitate him, and retrieve his weapons.”
I’m sure they can think of other ways to kill or incapacitate an armed occupier……….
Dropping liberators and copies of docs from our founding fathers translated into Chinese could be more dangerous than bombs in the right circumstances.
God bless all these people who yearn for freedom and are willing to pay the price for that desire.
When I see our flag being waved by oppressed citizens of another country I’m thinking they have already read the literature.
Yeah, the pen is only mightier than the sword if you use it to enlist the services of someone with a sword. Or a rifle.
Otherwise, it’s just a pen.
Tiananmen Square. Whenever socialism gains control of a nation it morphs into communism. People are brutalized. Murdered. Sent to work camps. For heinous crimes such as speaking their opinions.
Not here. Not without a real war.
I am deeply saddened we are almost sure to see it in my life again. We need to hold the line here and give support where possible.
The protesters in Hong Kong have more respect for America than the dirtbags in Seattle, Portland, or San Francisco, and a lot more than all the Democrat candidates for President. I don’t oppose a one for one exchange for any American who wants to live under Socialism for Hong Kong citizens.
I still think we should trade all the commies on the left coast for all the residents of Hong Kong.
These are fighters we can support. Unfortunately there are leftists in our government who will help the communists.
I have a great idea. Let’s offer to trade the mainland Chinese Government the pro-freedom protestors that they have for the anti-American and anti freedom protestors that we have, you know the Democrat party even steven.
I see some one beat me to it. Great minds think alike.
I hope those pics don’t end up costing him dearly.
Those resistance fighters are rather smart, innovating responses, like using traffic cones to isolate tear gas grenades.
Their piece ‘de resistance is brilliant, they are using over 1-watt handheld blue burning lasers to permanently ‘blind’ the surveillance cameras on most every utility pole. Just flat burning out their CCD sensors from some distance away :
That’s why you use ToR to set up a proxy email account at an anonymous provider, then link it to a burner phone for sending the pics. No way anyone could track that.
Geoff/guesty/hank talking to oneself again?
Yeah you would get mad at us for helping them oppose China, considering you are a Chicom troll. Xi is a bitch by the way.
“Geoff/guesty/hank talking to oneself again?”
Jerkoff, I only post under my name, except once as “The Frito Bandito”. Got it?
Do you understand what I just said? Knock off your bullshit…
Godspeed Hong Kong…
Excellent. Keep sending pictures.
the chinese send us fentynal we send them military grade blue lasers.. sounds fair to me..
Actually, those powerful blue lasers are almost exclusively made in China. Until around 2013, U.S. citizens were able to purchase them online from vendors like Wicked Lasers.
Pretty amazing to pop a balloon with a laser from 300 meters. Obviously, there are other applications.
I heard you could start fires with them from just as far away. I’d imagine that would actually be a fairly decent tactical option.
If the target was something like a match head or a road flare. My Arctic will light off an uncapped road flare from 100m. Haven’t tried further.
Yup, love my 1 watt blue arctic. The diodes in the early days were pulled from the light arrays of home theater projectors and then overclocked. Lasers are popular enough to get their own production now, but since the import ban we are back to making our own again.
Sadly, they should have been protesting 20 years ago before the Brits gave it back.
That’s the whole truth summed up right there.
In Mandarin it’s Guang Fu Hong Kong: “Reclaim Hong Kong” (They would pronounce it differently in Cantonese.)
So what’s the pro-Socialist spin on this? Someone must have one.
How about this…
“The Hong Kong protestors are obviously deranged Trump supporters and should be “pacified” by our Socialist brothers from China.”
Pretty sure the U.S. Congressional critters supporting BDS are also supporting the Chinese actions against the people of Hong Kong.
Vlad is sleeping, give him time. 😉
He’s in the basement with a tub of astroglide and the photos of the Chinese police suppressing dissidents.
See my post below. Part of it was taken directly this morning from Fareed Zakaria “Gobal Public Square”. It explored the Liberal Education of the Hong Kong Students and why they have the guts to riot. It is for Liberal Government not Conservative Government. Of course anyone with half a brain would have already discovered that fact. It makes all the Conservatives claiming to support the Students look like either traitors to their Jack booted thinking or they are making complete fools of themselves mouthing off about it.
Let me tell you one fact I am an expert at mouthing off. Nobody makes a fool of himself like me the original Vlad Tepes.
China wants to turn HK in to a 1 party system.
Anyone with half a brain would have seen the “one country two systems” wasn’t going to work. Even the politicians who came up with the catchphrase were hoping to retire and write their memoirs before the situation blew up.
But the Chinese got impatient, especially as the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic is approaching.
man… the world is fucken nuts rn.
Wish these guys the best, they have their work cut out for them but the fact that the extradition has been withdrawn is a great start. Hopefully the knowledge that the world is watching is keeping ChiComs from sending in the Reds to curbstomp these people. While many govts in the West are financially in bed with the chicoms that cuts both ways, and they are forced to restrain their despotism when the world eye is on them to avoid political and economic fallout from heavy handedness
also, for those with Facebook Michael Yon is an independent journalist who is currently in Hong Kong and is often livestreaming the events and clashes, if you want to see some interesting coverage follow him on there, its wild.
The revolt is precisely because Hong Kong students were given a “Liberal” American Style uncensored education that they are now able to “think for themselves” and able to have the willingness and desire to “challenge authority” and reject any conservative dogmatic propaganda. Without Liberalism there would be no Hong Kong Protests. We American Liberals also rioted at Kent State in 1970 against the Conservative Nazi’s who were supporting the U.S. Government’s subjugation and mass murder of the people of Vietnam. History repeats itself on the other side of the world.
Unfortunately just as the Jack Booted U.S. Military murdered Kent State Students so probably will the Chinese Military do just as they did before at Tiananmen Square. I think that when all restrictions are finally removed in the next few years their absolute control of Hong Kong will be put into place with mass murder. The U.S. Government and Chinese Government both operate in the same way with a heavy hand and mass murder of civilians.
And as as PostScript it makes me laugh that U.S. Conservatives are cheering the Students in Hong Kong because if the LIberal Hong Kong Students were given citizenship here the Far Right would be ranting and raving against them.
My superior intellect and the endless minutes I have spent studying all about this reveal the real truth. The greedy capitalist Racist White Supremacist Chinese military will murder tens of millions of Honk Kong students and it will be all Trump’s fault.
Liberal arts/education refers to classical liberalism which was about human freedom and natural rights, such as free speech and private property rights. The “liberalism” in America today is, like yourself, opposed to free speech and private property rights. The protesters in HK are protesting to be able to keep natural rights and private property rights, and the Chicoms are quite literally diametrically opposed to those things. It’s pretty easy for those unveiled by dogma to see where natural allegiances flow
quote——————-Liberal arts/education refers to classical liberalism which was about human freedom and natural rights, such as free speech and private property rights. The “liberalism” in America today is, like yourself, opposed to free speech and private property rights. The protesters in HK are protesting to be able to keep natural rights and private property rights, and the Chicoms are quite literally diametrically opposed to those things. It’s pretty easy for those unveiled by dogma to see where natural allegiances flow————quote
Look lets not get ridiculous here. The Conservative Far Right would like nothing better than to ban free speech. Herr Drumpf is a champion of destroying the free press and makes no bones about it and his glazed eyed followers love him for it. He and his followers have stated that old line News Papers here in the U.S. are “fake News” while State Run TV like Foxy News is gospel. Really did you think anyone who is educated would have believed your post about free speech being championed by the Far Right.
And when you refer to “[property rights” this is only smoke and mirrors to champion the rights of American Businessmen to rip off and bankrupt the public as their Capitalisitc God Given right to economic rape and pillage. The Chinese Government has not placed any restrictions on Capitalism in Hong Cong at all and the students are not protesting at all about property rights.
HERE IS THE TRUTH ABOUT WHAT THEY ARE PROTESTING AND THE 5 STUDENT DEMANDS. REALLY YOU SHOULD RESEARCH BEFORE MAKING FALSE STATEMENTS ABOUT PROPERTY RIGHTS AND THE STUDENTS.
At the current Hong Kong protests, asking people there why they are protesting will nearly always get you the same answer: the five demands.
These are:
1 Full withdrawal of the extradition bill
The proposed extradition bill would have allowed for courts in other places, such as China and Taiwan, to ask for criminals to be handed over. The protests started over a general mistrust of the Chinese legal system.
Currently, the government has declared the bill “dead” and insists all work has stopped on the bill. But protesters demand the formal rules of withdrawing a bill be followed in the Legislative Council.
Hong Kong extradition law: Controversial fugitive bill explained
2 A commission of inquiry into alleged police brutality
On June 12, police dispersed protesters outside Legco with what protesters say is excessive force. They have criticized these actions ever since. Protesters also have little confidence in the current police watchdog, the Independent Police Complaints Council.
3 Retracting the classification of protesters as “rioters”
Shortly after June 12, when protesters surrounded Legco and forced the second reading of the fugitive bill to be stopped, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Commissioner of Police Stephen Lo Wai-chung used the term “rioters” to describe protesters, which is a crime that can be punished by up to 10 years in prison.
A timeline of events in the 2019 Hong Kong protests
4 Amnesty for arrested protesters
So far, more than 700 protesters have been arrested in connection with the anti-extradition bill protests so far, charged with crimes ranging from illegal assembly and assaulting police to rioting.
5 Dual universal suffrage, meaning for both the Legislative Council and the Chief Executive
At the moment, only half the seats in Legco – the body which makes the city’s laws – are directly elected by voters. The other 35 seats are from “functional” constituencies, an elected according to professions or trades. But this means that corporations and selected voters get to vote for the representative in their particular sector.
The Chief Executive is elected by a 1,200-member committee. Of those, 900 are representatives of different sectors of business, only elected by voters in that business. Of the 300 remaining members of the committee, 70 are members of the Legislative Council and others are representatives to the Chinese National People’s Congress.
Do you see how educated I am? I can even copy and paste stuff written by somebody else that explains protest movements in other countries!
Thanks for covering this TTAG. Hopefully it gets the same attention that you gave Mexico as it emerged as a deeply troubled country a couple years back.
I’ve been to Hong Kong. Several times. It was a beautiful country on its own and the while the handover tarnished that shine a bit, it was still a gem of the Asian Pacific. Watching this sucks and knowing the most likely outcome if China isn’t put under a microscope really sucks ass.
Unfortunately governments around the world are quite used to “keeping the people in line.” Here in the USA, we designed a system of government that was supposed to work FOR the people, but unfortunately, it has forgotten that. If we don’t make some big strides in fixing it, we’re going to end up exactly like this. Spending time attacking those that have different opinions (liberals vs conservatives) doesn’t fix anything and just makes it harder to work with them later on.