U.S. should value free speech

 

 

What country would typically be considered the foundational force for democracy?

Few, if any people would argue that China is any kind of force for democracy. Their human rights record wouldn’t get Mr. Clean’s seal of approval. Many people would argue that democracy spread from the shores of the Potomac River throughout the rest of the developed world.

One of the core principals of modern democracy is freedom of speech. The First Amendment included freedom of speech because this freedom is one of the most important to any democracy.

So what does this have to do with China?

For the past two weeks, protesters in Hong Kong have been protesting a plan that would limit their democracy.

Americans should be paying attention to these protests. The Communist Party has determined that they will choose all the candidates in Hong Kong’s upcoming election, an idea many Hong Kong voters feel is anti-democratic and limits the freedom they were promised. The point of these protests is far less important to Americans. What every American should be paying attention to is what has not happened in Hong Kong.

Protesters in Hong Kong have mostly been allowed to speak, organize and protest freely—traits one would expect in a bedrock of democracy like the U.S. What most Americans should be shocked about is that the Communist government in China has treated these protestors better than our governments have handled similar situations.

During our own occupy protests and the more recent protests in Ferguson, MO, we saw crackdowns against the protestors’ free speech, and not in any insignificant way. Police in riot gear —or worse, military gear — reacted to the protests with excessive hostility. Assault rifles, tear gas, dogs and even mine-resistant armored personnel carriers were used. Citizens and journalists were beaten and arrested. Videos of police threatening to shoot their own citizens are easy to find. Protesters were treated as the enemy, not as the citizens who police were tasked to protect and serve. That is shocking and it should concern every American. Our constitutional structure gives a lot of power to local governments, and it would be irresponsible to give the impression that the U.S. is responsible for the crackdown on our protests. Individual governments have been. However, the principal still stands.

Free speech has been treated better in China than it has in the U.S. The core principles of government by the people, of democracy and of freedom have been given a longer leash in China than in the country where they were supposed to have no leash.

We can hope this is an outlier, not a pattern, but one can be forgiven for being skeptical. The same government that cracked down on Tiananmen Square is now treating protesters with more dignity than those in the U.S. That statement should sting like a rubber bullet from a Ferguson police officer.

[email protected]