Some on the pro-Beijing side ask you to believe that the protests are purely a matter of economics, and that the people, young and old, could be pacified with cash handouts or new housing subsidies. That's a let-them-eat-cake insult to their intelligence. On each occasion of mass protest since 1997, and in economic circumstances ranging from a housing crash to a housing bubble, and from low to higher unemployment, people have stood up to defend basic freedoms and civil liberties. It's not about economics. The root issue has always been the lack of democratic accountability for proposals which strike at the heart of HK's core values. These proposals were, in summary:
2003: the draconian National Security Bill under Article 23 of the Basic Law. Suspended and lapsed.
2012: the proposed "Moral and National Education" syllabus for schools, an attempt to brainwash HK's youth into loving the mainland Government. Withdrawn on the eve of the 2012 LegCo election.
2014: the proposals for Iranian-style democracy in HK, whereby a carefully-controlled Election Committee would nominate, with a 50% threshold rather than the current 12.5%, candidates for the HK people to choose from (assuming more than 1 candidate passed the filter). This followed the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPCSC) decision of 31-Aug-2014. This triggered the Occupy movement, and the proposals failed when they did not reach the 2/3 majority in LegCo.
2019: the Extradition and Mutual Legal Assistance bill, to allow extradition of suspects to the Mainland and the freezing of their assets in Hong Kong. This would breach the firewall between the two judicial systems under the "One Country, Two Systems" model. The Bill is now suspended but has not yet lapsed.
