Young protesters leading the charge. Violent clashes with police. An unrelenting authoritarian government. The streets of Hong Kong today look a lot like South Korea's in the 1980s.
Lee Tae-ho, who was a student protest leader in South Korea in the late 1980s, traveled to Hong Kong in late July at the invitation of activists there to talk about the pro-democracy movement in South Korea.that led to the impeachment of then-South Korean President Park Geun-hye in a corruption scandal.
But as much as South Korea’s example might be heartening, he said, Hong Kong’s unique political situation of being semiautonomous under Beijing’s rule leaves far less leeway for Hong Kong’s leaders to find a compromise with protesters.“The differences in terms of what the regime can do in response are quite stark,” he said, adding that the recent shooting of a protester might act as a catalyst.
In South Korea, many of those who previously took part in student uprisings are now in charge of running the country, many of them prominent lawmakers, scholars and government officials. In fact, President Moon Jae-in had been expelled from school and repeatedly jailed for taking part in protests against the dictatorship.
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