Hong Kong Against Tyranny

    In the 21st century, its safe to say American society has further learned to speak out against oppression. Technology makes it easy to spread information and were protected by the amendments in the U.S. Constitution (also known as the Bill of Rights), which permits us to legally protest and publish opinions against what we think is wrong. Even though there are limitations to exactly what we can say or do, its definitely an advantage. Recently in Hong Kong, China, the residents have not been allowed these rights. *China runs under the "one country, two systems" principle where Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau are cities part of China but hold independent political and economic systems from the rest of the nation. China is communist (economic/political action controlled by state) and the other three cities are capitalist (individuals/corporations own and sell as much as they want).

    Back in early July, in Hong Kong, China, thousands of residents gathered in the streets to promote a more democratic system. Democracy is the belief that power should be given to the people, we either vote for change directly or have representatives from each state to speak for us in government. Beijing is the Capital of the People's Republic of China (political decisions are made there) and it was in charge of organizing elections for 2017. On August 31st it was basically decided that the people will only be given hand-picked candidates from the communist government and expected to choose one of them as their next chief executive. This means democrats can't elect a leader themselves, instead they must vote for someone they didn't even pick in the first place. China had promised more freedom but the people ended up stuck in the same cycle once again. Since then there's been peaceful protests in busy business centers meant to make Beijing take back their unfair decision. University students,common working class citizens, and activists stand together. All they've really done is hold signs or sit in the streets for hours, no violence. How did their government decide to respond? Officials assault them with tear gas and pepper spray. Still they continue, wearing masks and holding umbrellas simply trying to represent their cause.