BEIJING, China (AFP) – China’s tightly choreographed 70th birthday bash next week risks being upstaged by pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, which offer a starkly different take on the strength and power of the Communist Party being feted in Beijing.
As President Xi Jinping gets ready to preside over a huge military parade and gala event tomorrow, the former British colony is in tumult over the erosion of its special freedoms by Beijing.
Hong Kong has been rocked by the worst political unrest since its handover to China in 1997, with police firing tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse increasingly violent protesters.
The city’s summer of discontent – first triggered by an extradition bill to the mainland that has since been shelved – has morphed into a call for free elections and less intervention from Beijing.
With tanks and military aircraft to parade in Beijing on Oct. 1, Hong Kong protest organizers have promised their own major rallies.
“It’s safe to say that the Hong Kong protests have already wrecked the (Communist) Party’s party even before it’s begun,” said author and activist Kong Tsung-gan.
Under the policy of “one country, two systems,” China has offered tiny Hong Kong certain liberties denied to citizens on the mainland – including freedom of expression, unfettered access to the Internet, and an independent judiciary.
But the arrangement is due to expire in 2047.
The financial hub has seen waves of civil disobedience over the last decade, particularly the 2014 Umbrella movement, when demonstrators occupied major intersections and government buildings demanding universal suffrage.
These protests have undermined the party’s closely-crafted narrative that the masses would settle for prosperity without political rights, Kong said.