Hong Kong Pro Democracy parties make major gains in de facto protest referendum - Alex Eberhardt

Hong Kong Pro Democracy parties make major gains in de facto protest referendum
by Maisy Mok, Eric Chueng and James Griffith
CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/24/asia/hong-kong-district-council-elections-intl/index.html

This story was pretty interesting to me. There was an election in Hong Kong and the pro-democratic party completely destroyed the polls (figuratively). It was a huge win for their party as several district leader positions were won by pro-democracy candidates. It's likewise a huge loss for the pro-government supporters. I don't believe there are really going to be too many immediate effects for the people of Hong Kong, but in the longterm, things are probably going to get interesting.
I see this event as a very good and troubling for the people of Hong Kong. Several records were broken in the polls largely due to the pro-democratic party. Their party is extremely dedicated to their cause. The good thing out of all of this (at least for me being a westerner) is that Hong Kong got a little bit closer to keeping an ensured democracy. It is obviously something the people highly value and desire and the fact they are keeping it is good in my opinion. However, I also know that China is very powerful and potentially just as dedicated in enforcing their governmental system on Hong Kong. China claims they own the islands down south in the sea and look at what they've done to ensure that. China literally does own Hong Kong and so I expect that they may go to great lengths to keep control over it in the way they see fit. I mean China even claims that Taiwan is still their land (although the vice-versa is somewhat true here too).
This just scares me because it's two dedicated and powerful (even though one is significantly more so than the other) sides that are getting into a conflict. In order to prevent this one side has to give in and I'm not sure if one will. I will say that as China gets bigger and bigger, I think that they are going to have to start accepting more open policies in regards to western ideals. I think their restrictions of free speech and their human rights violations are too extreme and that, despite the advantages of that system that have helped China grow, it will hurt them overall in the long run. Having such tight control over your people is good for getting stuff done, but is bad for your relations with other powerful countries which is equally as important. If I were China, I would start rethinking some of my tactics and values. At the same time, however, China is a very unique country and full of very smart, thoughtful, and calm people. They certainly do not act like our president does. They think and plan, and so if they want something done, there is a good chance it will be done.

by Alex Eberhardt