Solidarity and Implications of a Leaderless Movement in Hong Kong Its Strengths and Limitations

In 2019, what began in Hong Kong as a series of rallies against a proposal to permit extraditions to mainland China grew into a raft of anti-authoritarian protests and challenges to Beijing’s grip on the city. Given the gravest political crisis confronting Hong Kong in decades, this research investi...

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Published in:Communist and post-communist studies Vol. 53; no. 4; pp. 41 - 67
Main Authors: LAI, YAN-HO, SING, MING
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Kidlington University of California Press 01.12.2020
University of California Press, Journals & Digital Publishing Division
Subjects:
Activism
Anonymity
Authoritarianism
Case studies
Centralization
Civil society
Decentralization
Decision making
Democracy
Democratization
Demonstrations & protests
Division of labor
Extradition
Legitimacy
Militancy
Political activism
Political communication
Political crises
Political development
Political leadership
Political movements
Political parties
Rebellions
Riot control
Risk
Social networks
SPECIAL SECTION ON HONG KONG PROTESTS
Susceptibility
Tactics
Tolerance
Violence
Hong Kong China
Beijing China
France
Chile
China
ISSN:0967-067X, 1873-6920
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In 2019, what began in Hong Kong as a series of rallies against a proposal to permit extraditions to mainland China grew into a raft of anti-authoritarian protests and challenges to Beijing’s grip on the city. Given the gravest political crisis confronting Hong Kong in decades, this research investigates why the protests have lacked centralized leaders and why the solidarity among the peaceful and militant protesters has been immense. This article also examines the strengths and limitations of this leaderless movement with different case studies. The authors argue that serious threats to the commonly cherished values in Hong Kong, amid the absence of stable and legitimate leaders in its democracy movement, underpinned the formation of a multitude of decentralized decision-making platforms that orchestrated the protests in 2019. Those platforms involved both wellknown movement leaders organizing conventional peaceful protests and anonymous activists crafting a diversity of tactics in ingenious ways, ranging from economic boycotts, human chains around the city, artistic protests via Lennon Walls, to the occupying of the international airport. The decentralized decisionmaking platforms, while having generated a boon to the movement with their beneficial tactical division of labor, also produced risks to the campaign. The risks include the lack of legitimate representatives for conflict-deescalating negotiations, rise in legitimacy-sapping violence, and susceptibility to underestimating the risks of various tactics stemming from a dearth of thorough political communication among anonymous participants who had different goals and degrees of risk tolerance. In short, Hong Kong’s anti-extradition movement in 2019 sheds light on the basis of leaderless movements, and on both the strengths and risks of such movements.
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ISSN:0967-067X
1873-6920
DOI:10.1525/j.postcomstud.2020.53.4.41