(AFP) — Pro-democracy protesters rallied outside Britain’s consulate in Hong Kong on Sunday, demanding London do more to protect its former colonial subjects and ramp up pressure on Beijing over sliding freedoms.
Hundreds of demonstrators sang “God Save the Queen” and “Rule Britannia” outside the consulate, waving the Union Jack as well as Hong Kong’s colonial-era flags.
The protest came as another large rally made its way through the city streets on Sunday afternoon in defiance of a ban by police, who warned the gathering was illegal.
The once-stable international hub has been convulsed by weeks of huge, sometimes violent rallies calling for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability.
The movement is the biggest challenge to China’s rule since the city was handed back by Britain in 1997 and shows no sign of ending, with local leaders and Beijing taking a hard line.
Under a deal signed with Britain ahead of the city’s 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong is allowed to keep its unique freedoms for 50 years.
Democracy activists accuse Beijing of reneging on those promises by tightening political control over the semi-autonomous territory and refusing calls for universal suffrage. read more
Those poor Hong Kongers are desperate for someone to go to war against the ChiComs.
How about a little globalism that carries out justice. The United States is mostly doing its share. These people are begging for help and justice.
Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, and those perfect socialist Scandinavian countries – When are you going to step up and help a little, you pussies?
Brits protect them! They can’t protect themselves.
They have neither the ability nor the ambition to take on such a job.
Hoping for British intervention.
That is desperate.
The sun set on their empire before they negotiated their surrender of Hong Kong.
As a casual observer from afar…I admire Hong Kong’s defiance. And hope for a good outcome. But europussies have lost control of their own countries and US needs to stay out of this.
This won’t end well, I’m afraid.
aren’t the British the one’s that gave them to China in the first place?
yeah … good luck w/ dat!
so, Western Civilization sucks way less than what the Chi Comms have to offer. who knew? well, actually the only ones who are surprised are progtards.
Good grief, right now Britain cannot protect its self from its self.
i wouldnt want to be in their shoes. No country will ‘rescue’ them. The give back was an agreement made by brits and china in 1897. End of story.
Brits had to give it back according to the treaty or loan or whatever it was.
The Lease was only for the “New Territories” – the rest was perpetual. A threat was the water supply. With sufficient will, they could have rigged up a water system with converted oil tankers and oil storage-like facilities and brought fresh water in. Completely doable with a few years lead time.
The 2nd threat was invasion. Hard to stop, yet Would have isolated China internationally. Back to leper status. I doubt they would have done it.
Nobody will go to war against China, except for us. And I don’t think we will unless the Chinese hit America with missiles or attempt landings. We are still somewhat insulated against invasion. But, the Chinese may figure out a way. They are “clever”, as we all know.
As for a land war in Asia to protect the Hong Kongolese, forget it. After the opposition to the war in Vietnam, it would be about as agreeable as a bucket of warm spit.
China will stop the protesters, one way or another…it doesn’t much care about international condemnation, because international condemnation is not worth much.
One way for the Chinese to get massive numbers of troops across the Pacific is to resurrect a plan by kooky but intelligent and creative inventor Geoffrey Pyke. During WWII he developed the concept of frozen water aircraft carriers/troop ships. His proposal used extremely sub-zero frozen water strengthened by wood pulp. The idea was to keep them out in the Atlantic and launch bombers from them against U-boats. They could also have been used as massive seagoing troop carriers as well. Air supremacy would protect them.
If China built enough of them, with each holding 1000 troops, and if they were protected by air power, they could get a massive invasion force over here in a few weeks. A 1,000,000 man invading force is but a small proportion of their army of 100,000,000. Just saying, there are ways.