Opinion     

'Occupy Central' is far from democracy

China.org.cn, October 19, 2014

• The double standards [By Zhai Haijun/China.org.cn]

  
  
  

  The Western media has dressed the "Occupy Central" movement up as democracy. But a careful examination shows that their chants of "democracy" are nothing but the fictional Emperor's New Clothes - the movement is a street riot that goes against rationality, damages the rule of the law and opposes the government. That the Western media interprets the movement as democracy is farfetched and unacceptable; it also reflects the West's hollow and utilitarian understanding of democratic ideals and the decline of its democratic values.

  Seen from its goals, organization, practices, and disastrous effect, "Occupy Central" is by no means democracy, but is intended to seize power, antagonize, and cause conflict and damage.

  The goals of the "Occupy Central" movement have nothing to do with democracy. Despite its multiple goals, the pivotal part of the movement lies in seizing the right to governance. Hong Kong is entitled to elect its chief executive directly in 2017 according to the Basic Law and the decision made by the National People's Congress Standing Committee. But the "Occupy Central" movement, by staging mass riots in Hong Kong's financial, commerce and administration center, has tried to violate the regulations that the candidate must love China and Hong Kong. They have tried to create the institutional conditions for the election of a candidate who would stand against China and unsettle Hong Kong. In a word, the movement intends to force the central and the Hong Kong Special Autonomous Region (SAR) governments to allow for a candidate who is in every way against China and Hong Kong to run for the 2017 election, under the pretext of "real universal suffrage."

  Of course, the organizers are aware that acts challenging the rule of law and the state authority will not work out in the end, but they harbor a covert goal of nurturing forces that are against the central and Hong Kong governments, undermining patriotic forces, and winning more votes for the opposition camp. Though they are not likely to win the chair for the chief executive in 2017, they can still translate their achievements in the movement to the election of the Hong Kong Legislative Council in 2016 and win more seats for the opposition forces. Thus it is clear that "Occupy Central" is not an effort to strive for democratic rights for the 7 million Hong Kong citizens, but for a few people who want to take control of Hong Kong.

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