Liberty is Alive in Hong Kong

For those who have read about the freedom in Hong Kong, Freedom is attributed to its economic position and ease of doing business score or its respect for human rights and liberties under the Hong Kong Basic Law. I do not doubt that this is the case. However, my experience with the People of Hong Kong leads me to believe quite something different.

During the Spring Semester of 2016, I traveled to Hong Kong for a Study Abroad. A few week after I arrived a protest broke out during the Lunar New Year’s Festival. The government is currently going through a process of escalating control. One of the victims of Government Control has been street food vendors in Hong Kong, called Hawkers.

City officials have historically left the hawkers alone and allowed them to operate without a license, this changed last year when police tried shutting the hawker down during the Lunar New Year.

I got to see this riot first hand.

As the police moved in to arrest the hawkers, the people started throwing trash and debris at the officers. The police left the scene and returned with enforcements and crowd control barriers.

This enraged the public, and the Revolution was underway. People pulled bricks out of the street and sidewalk and hurled them at the police. Fires were made as makeshift weapons to keep the police at bay. As the clashes between the Police and people escalated, two warning shots were fired into the crowd. The people were unrelenting. This action by the police enraged and provoked the people. The protested charged through and broke the police blockade forcing the Police to retreat. The volley continued and mounted in a standoff from 2 am to 8 am.

I have never had seen a such a defense of individual liberty in America. Every day, people are arrested for victimless policy infringements, and no one present says a thing, no one fights back in defense. I can almost at times sense the desire among the public to have the occasional street peddler arrested for the tiniest of infraction in America, if not just for mere annoyance. I can say I have seen attempts of such.

The people of Hong Kong, however, show in force a respect of human dignity and of the right to make a living off one’s work, even if it means that one has to subsist by defying the law. The universal respect for human dignity and the people’s indignation toward those that would undermine it nourishes and keeps liberty thriving in Hong Kong.

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