The growing protests and demands in Hong Kong reached a climatic peak this week as half a million folks took to the streets to call for more democracy on their thriving financial island. demands center on achieving "true universal suffrage" for the region by 2017 as a goal to open up their region to the election process again before the island was handed back to China from England. People in Hong Kong set up an unofficial election to vote for the people they want to represent them and this move infuriated Beijing officials as they know these protests and demands will eventually reach the mainland from other Chinese who will question authority. Many Hong Kong residents feel that their independence is eroding as Beijing's influence grows.China decides who is qualified to lead and since the 1997 handover, Hong Kong's chief executive – the territory's highest-ranking official – has been selected by a committee of 1,200 local elites.
These elites are hand picked by Beijing as being of the party line and not to interfere with the eventual absorption of the island into the state run empire.. While authorities have promised to grant Hong Kong universal suffrage in 2017, they will only allow "patriotic" candidates to run in the election, rendering the voting process moot. the occupation of the central district in Hong Kong is a wake up call for international recognition of the plight of these people that do not want full communist Chinese control. The ability of a thriving financial island such as this to elect their own leaders is crucial for its continuing success. many of those in the Kong have said Beijing authorities have been encroaching on their civil liberties for years and clashes between security officials and protesters in these protests conjure up images of Tiananmen square massacre decades ago. these protests also worry the Washington business elites that have lobbied for jobs to be sent to this cheap labor market so they can squash their political enemies in America while installing a elite corporate capitalist class with money in China that will use the dollar to corrupt officials in China allowing it to be a polluted nightmare that threatens the entire global climate while protecting their profit from this environmental degradation of China. It will be interesting to how this pro-democracy protests develop and hopefully have some carry over to the rest of the oligarch world.
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