Politics
Hong Kong Protests Revive a Demand That China Hates: Real Elections
- Protesters demand electoral reform that Beijing won’t allow
- New generation vents anger as clock ticks toward integration
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As protesters stormed Hong Kong’s legislature on July 1, a masked young man at the front of the chamber held up a megaphone and declared: “I want genuine universal suffrage!”
The demand -- part of a list read aloud in the ransacked council room that night -- sits at the heart of weeks of protests that escalated from an attempt to stop Chief Executive Carrie Lam from changing the local extradition law to a general indictment of Beijing’s rule over the former British colony. The lack of direct elections is “the root of all evils,” the protesters argue, preventing any leader from claiming popular support for their policies.