Topic 6: Social Movement
The China Pro-democracy movement In Hong Kong
Social movement is the most influential collective behavior that encourages or discourages a social change by a large organized group of individuals. Depending on the kind of change desired and the target, there are four types of social movement. Among the four types of social movement, revolutionary social movement is the most extreme one that targets everyone in the society and change the whole society radically. In the following, only the revolutionary social movement will be focused and the China Pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong will be used as an example of this type of social movement.

To begin with, here is the history of the movement. The China Pro-democracy movement is the largest- scale and longest-lasting demonstration in China. It started on 15th April, 1989 when the former general secretary of the Chinese committee secretariat Hu Yaobang suddenly died of a heart attack. The death of Hu not only brought the calling for vindication of Hu’s legacy but also the discussion of other political and social issues among the public especially the young intelligence group. Afterwards the university students used non-violent ways such as sit-in, the student’s strike and hunger strike to urge the government make changes in China .They listed some suggestions(“Seven demands“)including democratic reformation, a vindication of Hu and other five points for the government. However, the government did not take the suggestions into consideration and accused the students as extremely small segments of opportunists overthrowing the Communist Party and the political system. Finally the government declared the martial law and cleared the Tiananmen Square by killing protestors. The Tiananmen Square Protest was ended after the June Forth Massacre.

Hong Kong plays an important role on the movement as she supported the activists on Tiananmen and still keep fighting for democratic development in China and vindication of June Fourth massacre. During the period from April to May on 1989, there were lots of activities organized in Hong Kong in order to support the democratic movement in Tiananmen. For example, The Hong Kong Federation Of Students sent 4 members to Beijing so as to understand the situation, 1,500,000 hongkongers took part in Chinese Around the Globe Demonstration, one million people joined demonstration in Hong Kong to support the students in Tiananmen, a fund raising activity for the protest in Tiananmen called “Concert For Democracy In China” was hold at Happy Valley Racecourse etc. After the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China (the "Alliance") was established, regular activities are conducted to push democratic development in China, for instance, demonstration for the June Fourth incident, Candlelight Vigil for the June Fourth incident and other demonstrations for political and human rights issues.

The China Pro-democracy movement belongs to the revolutionary Social Movement because it sought a complete transformation that affected everyone in China. The changes covered political, economic and social aspects which mainly required the government to adopt a democratic political system, improve social inequality and economic problems.

For the political aspect, the government was unable to stop corruption especially among the high-ranking officials and it made corruption became more and more serious. For example, Dend Pufang , Den Xiaoping’s own son and Zhao Dajun, Zhao Ziyang were widely “rumored” gaining a huge profit from guandao. Moreover, the government made decisions without adequate consultation with citizens and experts in a given field so many people felt dissatisfied with the politics. Due to the above problems, many people lost faith in communism and eager to have a democratic political system.

For the economic aspect, the economic crisis was one of causes of the movement.
Since the price system was transited to the market based one in 1988, citizens suffered from inflation. The price index raised 18.5% in 1988 and there was a string of problems brought by inflation such as shortage of materials accumulation, agricultural stagnation and high unemployment rate. However, the government failed to solve the problem. It made people urge the government to put more effort to solve the economic problems.

For the social aspect, there were many underprivileged university students could not find jobs because they did not have “quanxi”.Thus, students wanted the government to eliminate this unequal treatment. Also, students recognized the bad situation that China faced; they wanted more support from the government so that there would be more sufficiently competent personnel to carry improvements in China.

In short, the Tiananmen Square Protest sought for changes in political, economic and social areas and general Chinese citizens from different parties such as workers and students could benefit from the changes.

Social movement is not an ever-lasting activity; it has life cycle. In theory, there are 4 stages of a social movement including emergence, Coalescence, Bureaucratization and decline. And the decline stage can result from five causes; they are repression, co-optation, success, failure and mainstream within the society. Although the Tiananmen Square Protests in China was dissipated, it is on the third stage in Hong Kong.

The first stage (emergency) of the Tiananmen Square Protest in Hong Kong was individual and lack of clear goals and organization. People from different sectors such as education, the mass media expressed their support towards the students in Tiananmen.

The second stage (Coalescence) of the movement in Hong Kong was more organized and goal-directed than first stage; more people support the movement by participating demonstrations. In the period from April to May in 1989, there were different activities that conducted to support the protest in Hong Kong as the above mentioned.

The movement in Hong Kong is on the third stage (Bureaucratization). Since the "Alliance" was set up on 21th May 1989, the movement is formalized. The “Alliance” organizes regular activities and carries out the goals of the movement with specialized people. The organization sent members to bring the money raised from the fund raising concert to the students in Tiananmen and conducted Operation Yellowbird which helped 300 wanted activists escape from China. Also, the “Alliance” holds regular activities to persuade more hongkongers to join the movement as the above mentioned.

As the movement is still continuing in Hong Kong, it does not reach the fourth stage (Decline) and here comes to the five reasons.

Firstly Hong Kong citizens have freedom of speech, freedom of the press and of publication; freedom of demonstration and so on under the basic law. Therefore, hongkongers can freely support the movement in different ways and will not be repressed.

Secondly, no co-optation and establishment of mainstream are one of causes of the continuing movement. The two leaders of the movement Szeto Wah and Lee Chu-ming quitted the committee of the basic law after the June Fourth massacre and insist on fighting for democratic development in Hong Kong and China. The determination of the leaders leads the movement can still continue now.

Thirdly, the central government still does not admit the June Fourth massacre and not reform the political system. Therefore, the movement is still going on till the government changes her mind.

Fourthly, organizational strain is common factors that cause the failure of movement. To avoid the organizational weakness, the “Alliance” set up a good system, for instance, a regular meeting is hold on every two months and different departments are set up for different tasks. Most importantly, the “Alliance” attracts new constituents to join especially the youngsters. Thus, the movement can pass to generation to generation until achieving the goals.

To conclude, though the movement on mainland was repressed, it is an opening for Chinese people to fight for democracy. As the movement is still going on in Hong Kong and the public awareness towards human right and democracy is increasing, I believe the movement will succeed in one day.

Reference 1.