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Civil Disobedience In Occupy Central-Why Is It Justifiable?

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Civil Disobedience in Occupy Central - Why is it justifiable? Recently, Hong Kong is in a deep-rooted political struggle between the government and the majority of citizens. Occupy Central has drawn worldwide media’s attention in the past few months as it is an act of civil disobedience with an unprecedented scale and span in Hong Kong. The aim of occupy central is to call for a change in the future plans set by the Hong Kong government and approved by the central government of China of how future Hong Kong leaders, chief executives, will be elected. This essay will firstly, in brief, give an overview of what occupy central is, and set out the definitions of the terminology used in this essay. It will then assess whether this is a justifiable act by …show more content…

Occupy Central, began on September 28, 2014, is a civilly disobedient means by Hongkongers to protest against the unfair methods of chief executive election in 2017 granted by Beijing (http://www.scmp.com/topics/occupy-central). The “universal suffrage” proposal unilaterally “approved” by the Chinese central government (in state media) literally states that the Chief Executive will first be screened by a small circle of persons, the nominating committee. (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-08/31/c_133609238_3.htm) This sparked widespread discontent among Hong Kong citizens. Moreover, Occupy central is not a type of direct civil disobedience but an indirect one. It is indirect because it disobeys a law [by blockading the main roads of Hong Kong] distinct from that against which it means to protest [against methods of election of chief executive]” “It breaks a just law, but with the goal of avoiding a greater evil for the legal system (of election in Hong Kong in this case)” (Falcon y Tella,

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