The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to President
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    14 injured as escalator reverses at Sunae Station in Bundang

  • 3

    Gov't to launch intensive crackdown against foreigners committing drug crimes

  • 5

    Korea falls to Italy in FIFA U-20 World Cup semifinals

  • 7

    Netflix's new original 'Bloodhounds' to deliver cathartic action

  • 9

    INTERVIEWSpaceX's Starlink in Kyiv is wake-up call for Seoul

  • 11

    Dollar remittance, foreign exchange rules to be eased

  • 13

    Billy Graham Seoul Crusade celebrates 50th anniversary

  • 15

    NATO chief to chair emergency Ukraine meeting over dam

  • 17

    Yoon's labor reform drive sputters as umbrella union exits talks

  • 19

    Korean businesses seek tougher punishments for industrial espionage

  • 2

    RM to attend Seoul festival to mark BTS' 10th anniv.

  • 4

    Dog meat traders condemn first lady, animal rights groups' push for ban

  • 6

    Ad or song?: Coca-Cola Zero ad featuring NewJeans becomes marketing blueprint

  • 8

    Robot to conduct orchestra for 1st time in Korea

  • 10

    PHOTOSSubway escalator accident

  • 12

    'Leaving Las Vegas' director Mike Figgis puts Korea in spotlight in new film

  • 14

    Home gardening boom inspires plant adoption, specialized care services for leafy companions

  • 16

    Canada wildfires shroud New York in apocalyptic haze

  • 18

    White Cube to open space in Seoul

  • 20

    Tom Cruise to visit Seoul on June 29 to promote 'Mission: Impossible 7'

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Opinion
  • Yun Byung-se
  • Kim Won-soo
  • Ahn Ho-young
  • Kim Sang-woo
  • Lee Kyung-hwa
  • Mitch Shin
  • Peter S. Kim
  • Daniel Shin
  • Jeon Su-mi
  • Jang Daul
  • Song Kyung-jin
  • Park Jung-won
  • Cho Hee-kyoung
  • Park Chong-hoon
  • Kim Sung-woo
  • Donald Kirk
  • John Burton
  • Robert D. Atkinson
  • Mark Peterson
  • Eugene Lee
  • Rushan Ziatdinov
  • Lee Jong-eun
  • Chyung Eun-ju and Joel Cho
  • Bernhard J. Seliger
  • Imran Khalid
  • Troy Stangarone
  • Jason Lim
  • Casey Lartigue, Jr.
  • Bernard Rowan
  • Steven L. Shields
  • Deauwand Myers
  • John J. Metzler
  • Andrew Hammond
  • Sandip Kumar Mishra
Sat, June 10, 2023 | 10:48
Donald Kirk
Protesting for democracy
Posted : 2014-10-02 17:42
Updated : 2014-10-02 17:43
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link
By Donald Kirk

The democracy demos in Hong Kong evoke so many memories going back to the late 1960s when I saw thousands pouring on to the streets of what was then a British crown colony brandishing copies of Mao Zedong's "little red book."


That was the era of the Great Cultural Revolution, and the message then was quite the opposite of what we are hearing now. In those days, Mao was the hero for zealots to whom British rule was anathema. They yearned for Hong Kong's return to Chinese governance, as happened 30 years later when thousands more poured through Hong Kong's Central District celebrating the end of colonialism.

The concept of "one country, two systems," worked out by Deng Xiaoping to reassure the colony's British overlords, guaranteed that Hong Kong could exist as a capitalist enclave in a communist country. That arrangement was to last for 50 years after China formally took over in 1997. China might be the People's Republic, but Hong Kong would always be Hong Kong.

Sooner or later, Hong Kong would have to wake up from the dream. China might go capitalist under Deng and his successors, but the issue was about control. The Chinese, whatever the system, cannot tolerate Hong Kong as an enclave really separate from the rest of China.

The issue is not ideology or appreciation for doing things differently. The issue is power. The immediate reason for the demonstrations is that people in Hong Kong do not want people in Beijing deciding who is eligible to run for office in Hong Kong, and they want to elect their own chief executive, not some Beijing appointee or surrogate.

I have seen so many democracy protests that comparisons are inevitable. In the People Power Revolution in the Philippines in late 1985 and early 1986, hundreds of thousands, maybe more than a million, swarmed the 12-lane avenue that runs north-south linking the major entities of Metro Manila. And in Seoul, during the Gwangju Revolt of May 1980 and the democracy revolution of June 1987, millions called for an overhaul of what was basically a quasi-dictatorship led by former generals.

The protesters in both those outpourings had powerful support. The People Power Revolution was essentially a contest among elitist factions. Followers of Benigno Aquino, who had been assassinated after getting off a plane to challenge the dictatorial rule of Ferdinand Marcos, coalesced into a force led by some of the country's strongest military and political leaders. They had the backing, moreover, of U.S. officials, who whisked Marcos, his wife Imelda, family members and cronies, out of the country to sanctuary in Hawaii, from which most of them returned after Marcos died.

Regionalism was a critical factor. The Gwangju revolt revealed the explosive frustrations of people in the Jeolla provinces and the city of Gwangju in the southwestern corner of the Korean Peninsula. Democracy protests in Seoul seven years later showed how far the discontent had spread.

I also watched the protest at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989 and later visited Shanghai and other cities. Like the young people who had seized control of Gwangju nine years later, the mob in Tiananmen rampaged over much of the Chinese capital. And, just as the South Korean army, under orders from President Chun Doo-hwan and his military ally, General Roh Tae-woo, brutally suppressed the Gwangju revolt, so the People's Liberation Army wiped out the protesters in Beijing.

However, the Chinese protest ended very differently. While China followed through on some of the pragmatic economic reforms initiated by Deng Xiaoping, there would be no democracy. Korea introduced democratic elections, but Chinese leaders ruled by intimidation and force.

China's President Xi Jinping is more ruthless than his immediate predecessors. Protest from the Uighur region in the northeast to central Hong Kong cannot be tolerated. Xi undoubtedly does not want "another Tiananmen" in Hong Kong, but he feels compelled to stamp out dissent wherever it appears.

The protest in Hong Kong confronts Xi with his most severe dilemma. You wonder if the mood of revolt has a chance of spreading — perhaps to neighboring Guangdong Province, dominated by Guangzhou, China's third-largest city, and Shenzhen, the manufacturing center bordering Hong Kong. What if the central government faces revolt throughout the southeastern region?

Unlike protest in South Korea and the Philippines, the protest in Hong Kong cannot have a happy ending. You cannot quite imagine a bloody outcome similar to that of protests in Bangkok, or in Tiananmen Square 25 years ago. If the protest were to succeed, however, you can very well imagine a central government so weakened as to undermine the China's image as a burgeoning world power.

Columnist Donald Kirk, www.donaldkirk.com, has been covering war and peace in Asia for decades. He is at kirkdon@yahoo.com.

 
wooribank
Top 10 Stories
1Rising minimum wage burdens small biz owners: survey Rising minimum wage burdens small biz owners: survey
2IPO market regains vigor on bullish KOSPI IPO market regains vigor on bullish KOSPI
3OpenAI explores investment opportunities in Korean startups: Sam Altman OpenAI explores investment opportunities in Korean startups: Sam Altman
4Resurging household loans pose challenge for BOK's rate policy Resurging household loans pose challenge for BOK's rate policy
5SPC bolsters PR activities in US SPC bolsters PR activities in US
6China reaches out to Korean Assembly to counterweigh Yoon's bet on US China reaches out to Korean Assembly to counterweigh Yoon's bet on US
7S. Korea may see rise in NK defectors as Pyongyang mulls reopening borders S. Korea may see rise in NK defectors as Pyongyang mulls reopening borders
8Japanese business leaders pledge to support Busan's Expo bid Japanese business leaders pledge to support Busan's Expo bid
9Hyundai Motor partners with Spider-Man animation to envision future mobility Hyundai Motor partners with Spider-Man animation to envision future mobility
10Yoon's $40,000 GNI by 2027 goal seems unlikely prospectYoon's $40,000 GNI by 2027 goal seems unlikely prospect
Top 5 Entertainment News
1China's hallyu restrictions likely to continue unless Seoul-Beijing ties improve China's hallyu restrictions likely to continue unless Seoul-Beijing ties improve
2Gang Dong-won, Park Jeong-min team up for Joseon-era thriller 'War and Revolt' Gang Dong-won, Park Jeong-min team up for Joseon-era thriller 'War and Revolt'
3[INTERVIEW] CIX talks about team chemistry, youth theme INTERVIEWCIX talks about team chemistry, youth theme
4Netflix's new original 'Bloodhounds' to deliver cathartic actionNetflix's new original 'Bloodhounds' to deliver cathartic action
5'Leaving Las Vegas' director Mike Figgis puts Korea in spotlight in new film 'Leaving Las Vegas' director Mike Figgis puts Korea in spotlight in new film
DARKROOM
  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group