The ‘Umbrella Revolution’, the latest Hong Kong protest, is growing bigger and bigger as the days go by in Hong Kong. The umbrella has become the unofficial symbol of the protest movement after students used them to protect themselves from the pepper spray and tear gas that the police used to disperse the crowds from the protest in Hong Kong’s main avenues on the 28th of September this year.
  The protest started as high school and college students in Hong Kong boycotted classes to protest a sham democracy set forth by the Chinese Central Government. Protesters became angry when the Chinese Central Government promised Hong Kong would have direct elections by 2017, but they found out that the voters will only be able to choose from a list of pre-approved candidates. Therefore, protesters of Hong Kong have gathered and blocked Hong Kong’s financial district to oppose Beijing’s decision to rule out free elections for the city’s leader in 2017. Since the Chinese government blocked all the information about the Hong Kong protest on the internet, people in Hong Kong needed to inform each other without using an internet connection or mobile phone coverage. Therefore, the people in Hong Kong used an app called FireChat, an app where messages can be sent by bluetooth, to connect and share the information with each other. This consequently helped the protest to grow bigger.
  Protesters demanded their full universal suffrage and that Chun-ying Leung, chief executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, step down. The people of Hong Kong have been doubting if Leung is on the Hong Kong citizen’s side. However, the answer, which is no, became clear when the Leung government authorized the Hong Kong police to fire tear gas and pepper spray continuously at peaceful pro-democracy protestors. This event had created more hatred towards the Chinese system to people in Hong Kong.
  The Chinese government has been driven into a corner on how to handle the Hong Kong situation. The people of Hong Kong are afraid that the protest will be put down by the People’s Liberation Army, which was sent by the Chinese Central Government, just like the Tianmen Square massacre in 1989. However, it’s highly unlike to happen. Since Hong Kong is a representative of an international financial center, the Chinese economy would suffer if they decided to put it down with bloody suppression. Furthermore, China is being very cautious about this situation because of the international society. The Chinese economic scale has grown beyond comparison, so if China makes the slightest mistake, it will lead to major blow in their economy.

By Heo Jae-rin
 jr34@cbnu.ac.kr