[k_sze]

> FWIW, any Americans looking to (try to) help may write their Congress representatives to support the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

Please don't. We don't need more concrete excuses for the central government to claim that there is foreign meddling. If the people of the country cannot awaken to fight together in solidarity against the authoritarian government, then it's just too bad. So be it. I still live in Hong Kong and it's a scary thought, but it's also the only correct way.

In fact, nobody can expect the US or any foreign government to want to "save" Hong Kong in good faith. We don't need your saving.

[hker]

> > FWIW, any Americans looking to (try to) help may write their Congress representatives to support the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act.

> Please don't. We don't need more concrete excuses for the central government to claim that there is foreign meddling. If the people of the country cannot awaken to fight together in solidarity against the authoritarian government, then it's just too bad. So be it. I still live in Hong Kong and it's a scary thought, but it's also the only correct way.

> In fact, nobody can expect the US or any foreign government to want to "save" Hong Kong in good faith. We don't need your saving.

Thanks for voicing out your view, but I beg to differ.

I am a Hong Konger and I support the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act 2019, and I welcome Americans to write to their Congress representatives to support the Act—in fact I persuaded my friends to do so.

The central government has been claiming foreign meddling even when there is none: they claim that the protesters went to the street because of direct monetary support by the United States, which—frankly—is insulting to the million protesters. They made similar claims during the 2014 Umbrella protest already, without any evidence of foreign meddling even until now.

Let’s be honest: the Hong Kong protesters would have lost much earlier without foreign support (mostly media attention). The Hong Kong protesters are pretty pragmatic: they don’t expect foreigners (including the US) to “save” Hong Kong in good faith, the protesters only hope that it would be mutually beneficial to align their interests with that of foreign governments, and the protesters would do their part.

Let me use Singapore as an analogy (and to be clear, this example does not imply independence movement or whatsoever): Lee Kuan Yew succeeded with the foreign relations of Singapore largely because he aligned the interests of Singapore with those of foreign powers, such as of Taiwan and of the United States, so that Singapore got their support (including military one). It does not mean foreign meddling or that foreign government want to “save” Singapore in good faith. It means alignment of interests.

[calyth2018]

> The central government has been claiming foreign meddling even when there is none: they claim that the protesters went to the street because of direct monetary support by the United States, which—frankly—is insulting to the million protesters. They made similar claims during the 2014 Umbrella protest already, without any evidence of foreign meddling even until now.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/education-29723763/oslo-freedom-...

It's interesting how BBC added that clarification. At the height of Occupy Central, people were mocking a pro-establishment outlet (東網) for saying that Occupy Central was planned years ahead, in contact with people from the Oslo Freedom Forum. The outlet quoted that BBC Newsnight had initially reported on it.

I didn't bother correcting the people who were mocking that report, but 30 seconds on Google got me the video that clearly stated that the protest were planned years in advance with outside help.

I'm not going to make judgements on whether this constitutes as foreign meddling, but it isn't exactly free from foreign involvement either.

Similarly, plenty had brushed off the accusation thrown at Martin Lee, or Jimmy Lai for foreign involvement. A bit of a quick search on Wikileaks yielded plenty of communication between Martin Lee and the US reps in HK. Lai had also met the same reps, with one of his American lieutenants - the same lieutenant had stated in an American media outlet (the name slips my mind now) that he had not been in contact with the US government for 15 years, but that statement falls apart when you look at the date of the leaked cable.

How much "involvement" is probably something that we won't easily find out, but it isn't to say that there's no evidence of it beyond media coverage.

[traderjane]

> Please don't. We don't need more concrete excuses for the central government to claim that there is foreign meddling.

Would that mean China takes a different stance in HK? Like this is an international PR chess game and China must follow the rules? Because surely that is not true.

HK is both valuable and dangerous to China, and the US can't seriously effect any narrative within the Chinese media. China, on the other hand, can create any narrative it wishes to.

[goblin89]

I keep wishing the West stopped reporting on “successful” protests. What good does that do? Make mainland China more and more insecure about its image?

[sametmax]

What good is a protest if it's not heard and relayed ?

[goblin89]

Relayed where?

The target audience of the protests are (1) local officials, and (2) fellow citizens who do not share the gravity of the situation.

CCP will, of course, know of the protests with no need for any relay.

The “HK students protested against pro-China regulation and quickly succeeded, rejoice!” articles in Western media, though, will also be read by CCP. What would you do if you felt yourself losing your hard-earned strong image in front of the whole world?

Local media attention helps, worldwide—not so much.

[pas]

Just cut your losses, donate HK to itself, like Singapore.

Of course, since Beijing is not really the backing down type, it'll be a little bit of a bloodshed and the unification will be completed ahead of schedule.