It is now the tenth week that the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China has been gripped in severe
disorder, as the protest crowds that initially gathered to rail against a
heavily pro-Beijing extradition bill have remained to call for greater freedoms
in the territory. The Hong Kong government, while having suspended legislation
on the bill and promised to take residents’ sentiments into consideration, have
also been obliged to respond with force to the protests, as they have turned
violent and disruptive with invasion of government buildings and operational
interference in transportation infrastructure. China itself has turned up its
political pressure by hitting Hong Kong’s signature flag carrier airline.
ABS-CBN News reports that Beijing has recently leveled some
stringent regulations on Cathay Pacific Airways that would single out any of
the airline’s employees carrying sympathetic opinions to the Hong Kong
protests. The Communist government has instructed CPA’s leadership to shut out
any staffers that are proven to have either participated or voiced support for
the protesters, from being on the crew of any flight of the airline that goes
to mainland China. This demand, issued Friday, August 9, also instructed Cathay
Pacific to submit information on all air crew staff plying the HK-China routes,
for Beijing’s own approval screening.
Such an act of overreach by the
Communist leadership of mainland China was expected following some bargaining
from the Hong Kong government not to deploy the military into the SAR. This is
a grave concern for the Hong Kong Cabin Crew Federation union of HK-based
airline workers. According to their spokesperson Carol Ng, this move enables
Beijing to influence the economic fortunes of not just local businesses but
multinational conglomerates depending on access to the Chinese market, as the
potential blanket ban on protest sympathizers threaten to further destabilize
the freefalling economy of Hong Kong.
This is not a wanted development
for the former British colony that has already been laid low by the
pro-democracy protests since late June. The HK stock market is dropping while
tourists are scared away by the violent clashes between angry residents and
authorities. And while Cathay Pacific is acquiescing to the Beijing demand for
now, some of its employees are increasingly resentful of the iron hand leveled
upon them.
Currently the protests in general
are calling out Beijing on stifling the democratic safeguards that were
supposed to ensure the “One Country, Two Systems” governmental and economic
status of Hong Kong from 1997 to 2047. China on the other hand lays the fault
of the “OCTS” on the protesters themselves, while blaming “foreign agitators”
for encouraging HK residents to believe in the falsehood that the territory is
independent from China.
Image
courtesy of CNN International
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