Hong Kong's Summer of Uprising: From Anti-Extradition to Anti-Authoritarian Protests (original) (raw)
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For the second time in five years, citizens of Hong Kong mobilized in protest against proposed legislation that threatened to erode the Special Administrative Region's relative degree of autonomy from the People's Republic of China. The ensuing Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (Anti-ELAB) Movement subsequently became the largest social movement in Hong Kong's history. While the movement had peaceful beginnings, clashes between police and protesters turned increasingly violent over time. Under what conditions do primarily nonviolent movements escalate to violence? Given the widespread diffusion of social movements around the world, insights into potential explanations to this question are important for both policymakers and citizens alike. Regarding this question of violent escalation, the social movements literature suggests that movements make strategic decisions to escalate, are driven toward this outcome by state repression, or alternatively engage in nonviolent escalation. This paper argues that a combination of state repression and a determination of the inefficacy of nonviolence by movement actors influences the likelihood of violent escalation. In a qualitative case study of the Anti-ELAB Movement, this paper finds support for the hypothesis that a combination of state repression and the perceived ineffectiveness of nonviolent protest drives violent escalation. Biography Connor Weathers is currently a senior at Suffolk University in Boston, MA studying Government with a concentration in International Relations. His main research interests are focused on international conflict and American foreign policy. In addition to coursework, he has served for the past seven months as a Data & Analytics intern with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, assisting the federal government's COVID-19 response. He has also interned as a research assistant with a Professor of International Relations at Suffolk. Following the completion of his undergraduate degree in December 2022, Connor plans to pursue graduate study in the field of International Relations.
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Digital technologies and Internet connectivity are enabling rapid mobilisation of large groups of individuals around a common cause. The defining feature of such a Radically Networked Society (RNS) is the scale and pace of its operations. Consequently, RNS movements pose a serious challenge for the hierarchically ordered state structures, which tend to lack the dexterity and speed to respond. In this paper, we apply the RNS framework to the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests. We conclude that the protests were the product of underlying fissures over issues of identity and political autonomy. The region’s thriving Internet ecosystem and hyper-connected society enabled the development and expansion of networked communities around these issues. This fuelled sustained, leaderless mobilisation, resulting in large-scale disruption and electoral advances for pro-democracy activists. Meanwhile, the state’s response was rooted in a strategy of attrition. This minimised costs and proved somewhat effective in that the movement failed to achieve the broader objective of earning universal suffrage for Hong Kongers. Yet, the protests have managed to fundamentally reshape state-society relations and shift the narrative around the region’s future.
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Networked Protests State Responses The Case of Hong Kong 2019
The Takshashila Institution, 2020
Digital technologies and Internet connectivity are enabling rapid mobilisation of large groups of individuals around a common cause. The defining feature of such a Radically Networked Society (RNS) is the scale and pace of its operations. Consequently, RNS movements pose a serious challenge for the hierarchically ordered state structures, which tend to lack the dexterity and speed to respond. In this paper, we apply the RNS framework to the 2019-20 Hong Kong protests. We conclude that the protests were the product of underlying fissures over issues of identity and political autonomy. The region’s thriving Internet ecosystem and hyper-connected society enabled the development and expansion of networked communities around these issues. This fuelled sustained, leaderless mobilisation, resulting in large-scale disruption and electoral advances for pro-democracy activists. Meanwhile, the state’s response was rooted in a strategy of attrition. This minimised costs and proved somewhat effective in that the movement failed to achieve the broader objective of earning universal suffrage for Hong Kongers. Yet, the protests have managed to fundamentally reshape state-society relations and shift the narrative around the region’s future.