China celebrated the 70th anniversary of the rule of Communist Party this week. As expected, there was a display of both military and civil might. President Xi Jinping, in a glowing speech fit for the occasion, said nothing could stop China’s ascent to greatness.
“No force can shake the status of our great motherland,” Xi said. “No force can obstruct the advance of the Chinese people and the Chinese nation.”
To impress upon the Chinese people and all the world that China is, indeed, a force to be reckoned with, there was 80-minute military parade, involving meticulously choreographed formations and a display of a missile that can carry 10 nuclear warheads, capable of striking any location in the United States.
Meanwhile, a civilian march showcased economic and technological accomplishments including China’s homegrown C919 jetliner, its Jade Rabbit moon rover, and a Long March space rocket, reported the New York Times.
In Hong Kong, however, the pomp and pageantry of the National Day celebrations were overshadowed by unprecedented violence as a police officer shot an 18-year-old protester on the shoulder. The police commissioner said the cop in question only did the right thing as he was provoked, and that he had issued a verbal warning before shooting. Police brutality has been a grating aspect of the protests—as have the protesters’ attempts to test, and excessively, police tolerance.
Elsewhere, images of firebombs and rubber bullets marred the scene, as festivities were ongoing in Beijing.
The Hong Kong protests started in June over a law that sought to extradite criminal suspects from Hong Kong and other territories so they could be tried in China. The protesters reject the idea that a fair and transparent trial is at all possible in the mainland.
Since then, the movement has escalated from peaceful and orderly demonstrations to violent clashes with the police. In recent weeks, protesters have stormed government buildings and halted airport operations, among others.
The chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, has suspended the law but this has not pacified the protesters, who worry about the future of Hong Kong amid China’s perceived tightening grip on the territory. Xi has promised to maintain the one country, two systems policy in Hong Kong.
In the end, the sharp contrast between the celebration in the mainland and the violence and uncertainty in Hong Kong only highlights the chasm that exists between what the government wants and what the situation actually is. It is easy to imagine how the ugly specter of protests rained on Xi’s literal parade, and undermine his pronouncements that nothing stands in the way of China’s greatness.
Something certainly stands in the way of greatness-—and it is that people, when they feel oppressed, unheard and threatened, tend to commit destructive, counterproductive acts that neither serve their purpose nor allow for true cooperation. The violence, whether it is committed by the police or the protesters, is clearly nothing to celebrate.
