Opinion | With the world watching, will Beijing yet grant concessions on Hong Kong political reform?
Frank Ching says the students' achievement in highlighting to the world Hong Kong's fight for democracy could help enable change
Even if student activists don't get Beijing to withdraw its decision on universal suffrage, they have already done a remarkable thing by putting Hong Kong back on the map.
This is no mean achievement. Since the 1997 handover, the world has lost interest in Hong Kong. The severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic briefly revived interest, but in a negative way.
When China denied Hong Kong the right to hold elections by universal suffrage in 2007-2008, the world barely noticed. When it happened again for the 2012 elections, the world shrugged.
This year, when the National People's Congress Standing Committee unveiled a strict model for universal suffrage elections, local people were unhappy, but what could they do? The organisers of Occupy Central admitted defeat and said they didn't mean to paralyse the Central business district after all, and would only hold a sit-in on a public holiday.
But then the students stepped in. Two days later, Occupy organisers realised they were missing the boat and announced that their campaign was starting immediately. But it has been a student-led show.
After the police made liberal use of pepper spray and tear gas on September 28, thousands of people, angered by what they saw on television, joined the students on the streets. The world sat up and took notice. Since then, Hong Kong has received saturation coverage in the international media.
