A Pan-Africanist Perspective on the "So-called" Hong Kong Protests

About twenty years ago, I attended a local book event.  The author was an African who had written his personal experiences with police terrorism throughout his life.  As I have customarily done throughout my life, I supported the Brother, bought his book, and offered encouragement until a point in the program came where the Brother said he wanted to consider himself a revolutionary.  In response to that statement, someone in the audience stated that if the author wanted to call himself a revolutionary, he has a right to call himself that.  At this point I expressed my disagreement, indicating that being a revolutionary comes with principles and requirements.  One of those basic requirements is if you are going to claim a desire for revolution, you have be working within a revolutionary organization.  In our view, to claim to be a revolutionary without organization is like claiming to be a driver while never having operated a vehicle/vessel, etc.  As to be expected, several people at the event could not understand my logic.  

The reason why those people, and probably many of you reading this, have difficulty understanding the logic is because we live in a bourgeois society where reality is whatever people have the capacity to make people believe.  In other words, in this society, reality has nothing to do with truth.  This is how you can have a holiday in November where thieves and killers are either consciously, or unconsciously, honored.  Along with that, the way most people operate within this society is we receive soundbite definitions on critical terms like "democracy."  By soundbite I mean we literally learn that democracy is "freedom" without that freedom ever being defined.  Since most of us don't take time to study these concepts on any level, we are stuck operating on this extremely superficial level of understanding about practically any and everything of importance in this world.  For example, if people are protesting in Hong Kong today, and those people claim, as they do, that the purpose of their protest is to ensure "democracy" in Hong Kong, most of us have absolutely no critical capacity to analyze this beyond that basic concept that democracy is freedom.  Since that's our foundation, than many of us automatically drift to thinking we must support these people in Hong Kong because we are for freedom right?

As usual, the events in Hong Kong are much more complex than the simple soundbites we receive regarding these events.  So, the purpose of this piece is to hopefully provide people with a ground level understanding of what's happening in Hong Kong, specifically from our revolutionary Pan-Africanist perspective.  

Its important to begin with some historical information.  Hong Kong is a city in China which was seized by Britain from the Qing Dynasty in China in 1842.  From 1842 until 1997, Hong Kong operated as an independent entity from the Chinese mainland.  In the 1980s, Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's government initiated a policy designed to reintegrate former China entities Taiwan, Macau, and Hong Kong, back into China.  In 1984, the Sino-British Declaration was ratified.  This declaration required Britain to transition Hong Kong back to China in 1997 with conditions.  Those conditions are that based on Hong Kong "Basic Law" Hong Kong was to remain committed to its "capitalist way of life" and "freedom" for 50 years from 1997 (expiring in 2047), before Hong Kong would be fully integrated into China.

This reintegration push by Deng was successful for the Chinese Communist Party as Macau and Hong Kong are on track to reintegrate.  Only Taiwan - the entity established by Chinese opposed to the 1949 Chinese revolution of Mao Tse Tung - still remains completely separated from China.  

When the protesters in Hong Kong claim that their protests are focused on ensuring "democracy" in China, their claims deserve serious analysis and reflection.  We are convinced that most of those people taking to the streets and/or supporting those who are, are people who genuinely believe they are correct in their convictions.  Economic life in Hong Kong has seen some reduction of value in recent years and for most of these protesters, this fear reflects the incompetence of socialism in general and the Chinese government in particular.  These people are also expressing fears about Chinese efforts to limit personal freedoms like artistic expression and expression as a whole.  All of these claims must be analyzed correctly.  There is clearly much debate about China's status as a socialist country as well as the question of socialist countries properly figuring out how to address opposition without repression.  If you ask hard-line supporters of Chinese revolution e..g as people currently interpret the revolutionary theories of Mao, most of those people would say China, particularly under Deng's leadership, has abandoned socialism and is vying to develop upon a capitalist pathway.  We argue against that position, instead claiming that this question is still very much being struggled upon by the Chinese masses, but regardless of which side you find yourself on, the reality today is for the people in Hong Kong, they are convinced that China is 100% opposed to the capitalism that has governed their lives for the last 150 years.  They are on the streets to ensure that any semblance of socialist revolution does not find its way to the shores of Hong Kong today, or in 2047.

The actual economic reality for Hong Kong is much different than what is being articulated and believed by the protesters.  In 2019, China has become the second largest economy on earth and regardless of what people say, Hong Kong has always benefited mightily from its close physical proximity to China.  Most Hong Kong multi-national corporations, like the IRC Limited Corporation which facilitates mining projects for Hong Kong, do 75% of their business in China.  In fact, China across the board is Hong Kong's largest trading partner.  Also, due to the "Basic Law" agreement which essentially prohibits China from having any real policy say so in Hong Kong for another almost 30 years, contrary to the emotional beliefs many people in Hong Kong may have, China currently has very little influence in Hong Kong's business and political affairs.  

This phenomenon is similar in form to the masses of uneducated people who live within the U.S.  If there was a similarly imminent relationship between the U.S. and a world power country perceived to be socialist, many of these uneducated people within the U.S. would be out on the streets protesting also.  In U.S. and Hong Kong, the popular meme is correct when it states that people are afraid of socialism when its capitalism that is causing their quality of life to decline.  The irony is even China's hard-line critics have to agree that China has figured out how to provide services to its over one billion people and some of the fears from Hong Kong are connected to beliefs that their access to what they need will be eliminated once China governs Hong Kong.  

Kwame Nkrumah talked about "a plenum of forces in tension" in his 1964 book "Consciencism.  He was talking about the scientific fact that every piece of matter in existence is in struggle with other elements of matter.  Consequently, Nkrumah argues that the highest expression of this contradiction is the class struggle between the haves and have nots.  In Hong Kong, much of the high quality of life the people in Hong Kong have become so accustomed to results from the exploitation of Chinese workers that is dominant based on the close relationship between the two economies.  As an African revolutionary, I'm also obligated to connect the dots that Hong Kong corporations like the previously mentioned IRC Limited Corporation advises Chinese mining entities on China's efforts to continue to mine African resources all throughout Africa.  As we have indicated in previous writings, we understand China is tasked with feeding its population which is over 20% of the total world population.  Still, as long as the dominant process of economic interaction is still capitalism, any type of industry in operation is going to be an exploitative enterprise.  Any and all mining today in Africa is without question an example of this.  So, again, Hong Kong exists in all its lights and splendor, like everywhere else in the capitalist world, based on its position of benefit from exploited regions of the world.  No one protesting in Hong Kong today is calling for an end to that contradiction.  Instead, they are focused on forwarding a decades old anti-communist (socialist) message. 

And, the worst part about that is their message is being crafted by the same old evil and criminal characters.  The U.S./North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the military/political entity representing the capitalist countries that enforces imperialism's dominance over the world, along with the Hong Kong billionaire class, are the forces pushing support for these so-called demonstrations.  The main organizing entity for the protests is an organization called the Civil Human Rights Front.  This organization has strong ties to the National Endowment for Democracy which if you look up that organization you will instantly find it to be a front organization for the Central Intelligence Agency (criminals in action).  These imperialist entities, along with every collection of bottom shoe scum white supremacists from Ukraine, Russia, Western Europe, and the U.S., are the main sources of financing and propaganda support for these so-called protests.  And, even if you didn't know any of this, contrary to imperialist propaganda, there are plenty of people in Hong Kong who are genuinely opposed to these "protests."  The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Workers (HKFTU) is the largest labor formation in Hong Kong, representing over 250 labor organizations and almost 500,000 workers which with Hong Kong's overall population (a tad over 7 million), HKFTU is almost 10% of the total population.  HKFTU is 100% opposed to these so-called protests and has been since their inception.  The labor organization has resisted protest calls for a general strike indicating that any worker issues in Hong Kong around manufacturing, infrastructure, construction, etc., (all the areas of workers HKFTU represents in Hong Kong) are related to the decline of capitalism, not any existing policy influence or the impending Chinese governance in Hong Kong.  

In conclusion, its disgusting how legitimate mass protests in places like Bolivia, where poor people there are in the streets protesting imperialist sabotage of their country, receive no financing and support, yet these legitimate protests receive scant the attention compared to that provided to events in Hong Kong.  Any confusion around this question that still lingers is answered when just asking yourself why it is that white supremacist groups within the U.S. - like the so-called "Proud Boys" and others, support these Hong Kong events while these organizations physically show up in the U.S. to prevent marginalized people from protecting themselves against fascist repression?  Its like Kwame Ture was fond of saying often; "capitalism will make everything that seems strange seem normal while making everything that should be normal seem strange."  The fact so many people think what's happening in Hong Kong is legitimately about rights and justice is so very strange indeed.