{"id":4026,"date":"2014-12-03T18:48:04","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T23:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/?p=4026"},"modified":"2014-12-03T18:48:04","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T23:48:04","slug":"editorial%ef%bc%9athe-guardian-view-on-the-continuing-protests-in-hong-kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/editorial%ef%bc%9athe-guardian-view-on-the-continuing-protests-in-hong-kong","title":{"rendered":"Editorial\uff1aThe Guardian view on the continuing protests in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Small-paper-umbrellas-sym-012\"<\/a>Rule that is simultaneously timid, fearful, and harsh: China\u2019s problem is that it cannot free itself of a mind set that values control above all else<\/p>\n

Small paper umbrellas, symbols of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, on display last month. Photograph: Alex Ogle\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Monday 1 December 2014 14.44 EST<\/p>\n

China\u2019s obsession with control is the enemy of sensible policy. If nothing that comes from outside the ranks of the governing elite can ever be permitted, and indeed must on principle be opposed simply because it does come from outside, the result will be rule that is simultaneously timid, fearful, and harsh. That is the lesson of Hong Kong, where both the local authorities and Beijing have made misstep after misstep. The result is that the police are still beating and arresting student demonstrators more than a month after the first, peaceful, protests against the Chinese government\u2019s insistence that it must control who can and who cannot stand for the position of chief executive.<\/p>\n

True, the number of demonstrators has fallen, as has popular support for their cause. True, the use of force has been, so far, relatively restrained. The situation is manageable, but that does not mean that China has won, if by winning is meant winning over that large proportion of the population of Hong Kong who want their city to have the autonomy and gradually evolving democracy they believe they were promised, and in return for which they were ready to offer a qualified loyalty to Beijing. What China has done in Hong Kong will preserve control but deepen alienation.<\/p>\n

It will have a price, too, outside China, where it is seen as yet another indication that compromise and the Chinese communist party are strangers to each other, whether in dealing with non-Han minorities, in territorial issues with neighbours or in relations with other major states.<\/p>\n

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For detail please visit here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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