Anti-government protests in Hong Kong have included a surprising number of pro-American signs, chants, and even songs. One image going viral right now even shows one Hong Kong protester holding up a sign that reads “we need the Second Amendment.”
This should make it perfectly clear what sort of society the people of Hong Kong want to live in, and it’s not the communist dictatorship China has.
Hong Kong is in a tough position. It was a British territory until the turn of the millennium, and its transfer to the Chinese government was supposed to be incremental. The problem is that, under British rule, Hong Kong citizens have lived a very western way of life. This means free markets, democratic representation, and protected free speech.
Over the past century, China came to embody the opposite philosophy. The communist government in Beijing, which bans all opposition parties, censors speech on every platform, and micromanages all aspects of the economy, is completely antithetical to the society that generations of Hong Kong residents came to enjoy.
Sure, it’s fashionable to rip on the United Kingdom’s imperial history (which is still quite recent), but there’s no getting around the fact that English common law transformed everywhere it touched for the better in many aspects.
Well, these days the UK doesn’t do a great job at honoring this tradition. It’s most famous creation, on the other hand, is still in the fight for freedom. Maybe Trump should buy Hong Kong instead of Greenland?
