An analysis of the protest rally and subsequent events will certainly be of interest to the general public in the territory as well as to the international community who is concerned with the developments of Hong Kong. The editor has lined up a team of top experts in the territory to discuss the pertinent issues, and their contributions constitute the first authoritative volume on the historic event. The academic experts involved will examine a broad range of subjects; and it is hoped that the readers will have a comprehensive understanding of the significant issues facing Hong Kong at this stage while examining the protest rally on 1 July 2003.This volume will be of interest to university students and academic in public administration and political science. Media professionals interested in the current affairs in Hong Kong will also find it a handy source of reference. Published by City University of Hong Kong Press. 香港城市大學出版社出版。
Since 2003, Hong Kong has witnessed a series of large-scale protests which have constituted the core of a reinvigorated pro-democracy movement. What drove tens of thousands of citizens to the street on a yearly basis to protest? What were the social and organizational bases of the protest movement? How did media and public discourses affect the protests' formation and mobilization? How did the protesters understand their own actions and the political environment? This book tackles such questions by using a wide range of methods, including population and protest onsite surveys, media content.
This is an open access book. The start of the 21st century has seen the world shaken by protests, from the Arab Spring to the Yellow Vests, from the Occupy movement to the social uprisings in Latin America. There are periods in history when large numbers of people have rebelled against the way things are, demanding change, such as in 1848, 1917, and 1968. Today we are living in another time of outrage and discontent, a time that has already produced some of the largest protests in world history. This book analyzes almost three thousand protests that occurred between 2006 and 2020 in 101 countries covering over 93 per cent of the world population. The study focuses on the major demands driving world protests, such as those for real democracy, jobs, public services, social protection, civil rights, global justice, and those against austerity and corruption. It also analyzes who was demonstrating in each protest; what protest methods they used; who the protestors opposed; what was achieved; whether protests were repressed; and trends such as inequality and the rise of women’s and radical right protests. The book concludes that the demands of protestors in most of the protests surveyed are in full accordance with human rights and internationally agreed-upon UN development goals. The book calls for policy-makers to listen and act on these demands.
This book examines the government of Hong Kong since its handover to mainland China in 1997, focusing in particular on the anti-government mass protests and mobilisations in the years since 2003. It argues that Hong Kong has been poorly governed since transferring to Chinese rule, and that public frustration with governmental performance, including anti-subversion laws and slow democratisation, has resulted in the regular and massive protests, which have been rare in Hong Kong's past political development. The book then assesses different explanations for Hong Kong's government problems, including lack of social cohesion, incomplete economic restructuring, structural budgetary deficit, severe social inequality, intensifying cronyism and deficiencies within the political system itself. It goes on to discuss the implications of poor governance for legislative elections, civil society and constitutional development, and considers the prospects for the future. It argues that although in the short-term the Hong Kong government has managed to maintain its popular support ratings, in the longer run it is unlikely to be able to maintain its legitimacy in dealing with the fundamental challenges of government unless the current system is replaced by popular election of the government with appropriate institutional capacity and political powers.
Digital and social media are increasingly integrated into the dynamics of protest movements around the world. They strengthen the mobilization power of movements, extend movement networks, facilitate new modes of protest participation, and give rise to new protest formations. Meanwhile, conventional media remains an important arena where protesters and their targets contest for public support. This book examines the role of the media -- understood as an integrated system comprised of both conventional media institutions and digital media platforms -- in the formation and dynamics of the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong. For 79 days in 2014, Hong Kong became the focus of international attention due to a public demonstration for genuine democracy that would become known as the Umbrella Movement. During this time, twenty percent of the local population would join the demonstration, the most large-scale and sustained act of civil disobedience in Hong Kong's history -- and the largest public protest campaign in China since the 1989 student movement in Beijing. On the surface, this movement was not unlike other large-scale protest movements that have occurred around the world in recent years. However, it was distinct in how bottom-up processes evolved into a centrally organized, programmatic movement with concrete policy demands. In this book, Francis L. F. Lee and Joseph M. Chan connect the case of the Umbrella Movement to recent theorizations of new social movement formations. Here, Lee and Chan analyze how traditional mass media institutions and digital media combined with on-the-ground networks in such a way as to propel citizen participation and the evolution of the movement as a whole. As such, they argue that the Umbrella Movement is important in the way it sheds light on the rise of digital-media-enabled social movements, the relationship between digital media platforms and legacy media institutions, the power and limitations of such occupation protests and new "action logics," and the continual significance of old protest logics of resource mobilization and collective action frames. Through a combination of protester surveys, population surveys, analyses of news contents and social media activities, this book reconstructs a rich and nuanced account of the Umbrella Movement, providing insight into numerous issues about the media-movement nexus in the digital era.
This volume in 15 chapters serves as a useful overview of various significant aspects of the new trends of political participation in Hong Kong. Written by a team of experts who have been astute observers of Hong Kong Politics, the book covers a wide spectrum of topics ranging from a conventional understanding of political participation (e.g., the activities of political parties and interest groups) to a more specialized form of participation (e.g., the relationships between government and legislators in policy-making). The study of the rise of new social movements by the Post-80s generation would be of particular interest to those who are keen to comprehend the sharpening inter-generational differences. There will be a readership among academics and university students. This can also be a valuable reference for the media, policy-makers, or anyone interested in Hong Kong politics. This book is published by City University of Hong Kong Press. 香港城市大學出版社出版。
This book with 24 essays will appeal to local and international readers interested in Hong Kong. The latter include the international financial and business community, researchers in Asian Studies, journalists and educated tourists. Published by City University of Hong Kong Press. 香港城市大學出版社出版。
‘A free press is not a luxury. A free press is at the absolute core of equitable development’ according to World Bank President James Wolfensohn. A free press is also the key to transparency and good governance and is an indispensable feature of a democracy. So how does Asia rate? In Losing Control, leading journalists analyse the state of play in all the countries of North Asia and Southeast Asia. From the herd journalism of Japan to the Stalinist system of North Korea, Losing Control provides an inside look at journalism and freedom of the press in each country. One conclusion—a combination of new technology and greater democracy is breaking the shackles that once constrained the press in Asia. ‘Brings together Asia’s best and brightest observers of the press.’ Hamish McDonald, Foreign Editor, The Sydney Morning Herald ‘A rare insiders’ view exposing the real dynamics behind social and political change in Asia.’ Evan Williams, Foreign Correspondent, ABC TV ‘A timely and necessary contribution to the debate over the quality of freedom in Asia.’ Geoffrey Barker, The Australian Financial Review
This book shows that Hong Kong’s protests from June to December 2019 originated from not only an attempt to extradite a Hong Kong man involved in a Taiwan murder case, but also China’s effort at extraditing corrupt mainlanders who laundered dirty money in the territory. The mixture of peaceful and violent protests was due to the snowballing effect of protestors-police confrontations, the imbalanced way in which police exercised their power, and protestors’ strategies. The protests triggered the national security concerns of Beijing, which mobilized the People’s Armed Police to Shenzhen as a warning rather than sending them openly to Hong Kong to avoid undermining the image of “one country, two systems.” The entire debate raised the concerns of Washington, Taiwan, and foreign governments, heightening Beijing’s sensitivity. After the bill was withdrawn, the anti-extradition movement has become anti-police and anti-mainland, constantly challenging the legitimacy of the Hong Kong government and Beijing. This is a valuable read for China watchers, political scientists and all those interested in the future of East Asia.
