December 11 — Hong Kong residents, mainly led by students, have protested massively for close to six months. These protests are part of a continuing movement that opposes Chinese rule over Hong Kong. They were provoked by threats to send protestors to mainland China, where they would be subject to long prison sentences.
As in Hong Kong’s “Umbrella Revolution” of 2014, police and other pro-government thugs have attacked the recent protests with gunfire and tear gas. Youths have responded bravely, but bravery isn’t enough. They need to fight the Chinese capitalists by mobilizing for real communism.
Economic Roots of the Protests
These protests not just caused by anti-Beijing politics. They are driven by serious economic issues. Housing in Hong Kong is among the most expensive in the world. Many workers live in tiny unsafe illegal shacks built on rooftops. A huge real estate “bubble” has pushed the average home price to US$ 1.23 million. Many in Hong Kong resent rich housing buyers from mainland China and the mainlanders who occupy many spots in Hong Kong’s elite colleges.
The inter-imperialist rivalry between the US and Chinese capitalist classes is deeply involved in the Hong Kong movement. The US Agency for International Development (that is, the CIA) funds “pro-democracy” projects in Hong Kong. New U.S. laws threaten sanctions against Hong Kong and Beijing officials over “human rights violations.” US capitalists want to use this issue to embarrass the Chinese government, as they do with the Chinese government’s vicious oppression of the Uighurs, a Muslim minority group.
China’s capitalist government has been making aggressive moves against US capitalism, now that it has become a major imperialist power. President Xi Jinping’s government is challenging the US in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Straits. It is producing new aircraft carriers, bombers, missiles and fighter planes. The Chinese government is being tough in the trade war with the US that Trump said would be “easy to win.” The attempt to impose Chinese mainland law on Hong Kong is part of the same imperialist muscle flexing.
Democracy is Still Capitalist Dictatorship
The Hong Kong movement is a real mass movement with real grievances. However, many protesters are unfortunately falling for the capitalist illusion of “real democracy.” Democracy, with its trappings of elections, campaigns and media ads, is a strategy of the capitalist class for legitimizing its rule. It promotes the lie that the masses have some say in what the government does.
In all democracies, candidates can’t win elections unless they win the approval of a combination of party leaders, the big media and rich contributors. Candidates that lack this approval will be ignored or they will be attacked in the press or in expensive TV ads.
In the US, capitalists have so far been able to rely on this charade to maintain their rule. But that may be changing. In general, capitalist classes resort to mass violence whenever elections might not give the results the most powerful capitalists want. We have seen that recently in Bolivia and Ukraine.
Capitalists Always Rule – Until Workers Take Power for Communism
Hong Kong capitalists have their conflicts with the big capitalists in Beijing. However, capitalists have ruled everywhere in China since the Cultural Revolution. That mass movement in the 1960s tried but failed to prevent the victory of capitalism in China.
The capitalists who now rule China will never give up their power without a new real communist revolution. The Hong Kong masses will not be better off if some different politicians get elected there. We challenge these determined fighters to redirect their energy and courage to fight for communism.
See our series “The History of the Cultural Revolution in China” available here.
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