On Monday, extradition bill protesters in Hong Kong expanded their activity to include a general strike and non-cooperation on Hong Kong Island and in Kowloon and the New Territories. Police fired more tear gas than ever before, and surrounded and beat demonstrators. Parts of Hong Kong came to a halt, forcing Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥), who had hardly been seen for two weeks, to emerge to scold protesters.
The protests began two months ago and have intensified in response to the violence used to suppress them. Protesters are also becoming better at protecting themselves, almost a model of urban guerrilla warfare in the information era. Protesters, reporters and academics must record every detail and preserve them for history and compose a moving record of Hong Kongers’ resistance against the communist tyranny that will return the shine to the Pearl of the East.
Because Hong Kongers are unarmed, despite facing riot police who are armed to the teeth, they must express their demands in a peaceful and non-violent manner. Nevertheless, as the government completely ignores public opinion, the only way to exert some pressure is to also adopt appropriate attack methods so the government to a certain extent feels threatened.
This is why protesters broke into the Hong Kong Legislative Council to express their demands.
The first side to hurt someone was the police when they fired tear gas and rubber bullets and beat protesters, drawing blood, on June 12.
Any struggle against a strong power must adopt a guerrilla approach to provide protection and minimize harm. Hong Kong protesters use guerrilla attacks to target important political landmarks, thoroughfares and areas that the police cannot easily defend.
In response to the violent police suppression, protesters have upgraded their defensive equipment. While some continue to use umbrellas and face masks, others have started using goggles, helmets and even gas masks.
Thus far, protesters have no arsenal that would allow them to fight back against police and organized crime gangs. At the most they have access to sticks, bricks and other material they find on the spot. Apart from that, all they can do is burn garbage to vent their anger.
The only “weapon” that has been seen is a huge slingshot, but that does not have lethal power. If the police bring out armored vehicles and water cannons, would Molotov cocktails be added to the mix?
Faced with the forceful suppression and arrests by the communist government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, protesters erase mobile phone messages after sending them to avoid providing police with clues.
The government, relying on its superior armed power, refuses to compromise. The constantly intensifying suppression will trigger even more intense opposition, which will only add to the instability.
This is testing the authorities’ political wisdom. In addition to fighting back, protesters should bolster their psychological warfare tactics. There must be some who know the families of police officers. They could use this to persuade police and weaken their morale, stressing the point that Hong Kongers do not fight Hong Kongers.
Young Taiwanese should learn from what is going on as a precautionary measure. If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) were to return to power or the Chinese Communist Party were to invade, Taiwanese might have to take the same approach.
Paul Lin is a political commentator.
Translated by Perry Svensson
Taiwan stands at the epicenter of a seismic shift that will determine the Indo-Pacific’s future security architecture. Whether deterrence prevails or collapses will reverberate far beyond the Taiwan Strait, fundamentally reshaping global power dynamics. The stakes could not be higher. Today, Taipei confronts an unprecedented convergence of threats from an increasingly muscular China that has intensified its multidimensional pressure campaign. Beijing’s strategy is comprehensive: military intimidation, diplomatic isolation, economic coercion, and sophisticated influence operations designed to fracture Taiwan’s democratic society from within. This challenge is magnified by Taiwan’s internal political divisions, which extend to fundamental questions about the island’s identity and future
The narrative surrounding Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attendance at last week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit — where he held hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin and chatted amiably with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — was widely framed as a signal of Modi distancing himself from the US and edging closer to regional autocrats. It was depicted as Modi reacting to the levying of high US tariffs, burying the hatchet over border disputes with China, and heralding less engagement with the Quadrilateral Security dialogue (Quad) composed of the US, India, Japan and Australia. With Modi in China for the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has postponed its chairperson candidate registration for two weeks, and so far, nine people have announced their intention to run for chairperson, the most on record, with more expected to announce their campaign in the final days. On the evening of Aug. 23, shortly after seven KMT lawmakers survived recall votes, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) announced he would step down and urged Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) to step in and lead the party back to power. Lu immediately ruled herself out the following day, leaving the subject in question. In the days that followed, several
The Jamestown Foundation last week published an article exposing Beijing’s oil rigs and other potential dual-use platforms in waters near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙島). China’s activities there resembled what they did in the East China Sea, inside the exclusive economic zones of Japan and South Korea, as well as with other South China Sea claimants. However, the most surprising element of the report was that the authors’ government contacts and Jamestown’s own evinced little awareness of China’s activities. That Beijing’s testing of Taiwanese (and its allies) situational awareness seemingly went unnoticed strongly suggests the need for more intelligence. Taiwan’s naval
RSS