Plenty achieved already

It's an irony of history: China's central government promised Hong Kongers the right to vote in 1997. And it is now tragic that Beijing is falling behind on its commitment. What does the mighty Beijing leadership has to fear when the seven million people of the special administrative region are allowed to directly choose their administrative chief in free elections?

The people of Hong Kong are not known for taking extreme positions. They are hard-working, pragmatic, well-educated people who value stability and economic growth as much as the Communist Party.

But they are not going to allow themselves to be deceived by a pittance from Beijing, such as the offer of an election in which only a maximum of three candidates, handpicked by the central leadership, are allowed to contest.

And over the past few days, the people of Hong Kong have shown their determination to fight back against Beijing's decision by staging massive protests on the city's streets. The demonstrations have been held in a typical Hong Kong fashion: peaceful, civilized and efficiently organized.

'One country, two systems'

At the time Hong Kong was handed back to China from the British, 50 years seemed to be a long time. For half a century, the principle of "one country - two systems" proposed by Deng Xiaoping was supposed to be in force. The formula has granted Hong Kong far-reaching autonomy, with the city government in charge of all of the special administrative region's affairs, except for foreign and security policies.

But for those demonstrating on Hong Kong's streets, 2047 appears not so far away. It is also due to repeated attempts by Beijing to undermine the freedoms enjoyed by Hong Kongers.

A white paper issued by the central government in June this year, for instance, called on judges in the city to be more "patriotic." Back then, Beijing failed to understand that such a crude demand would undercut one of the roots of Hong Kong's prosperity, namely its independent judiciary.

Beijing's rhetoric of condemning protests as illegal and incited from abroad is already known from other crises. Furthermore, the state media termed protesters as "violent extremists." The People's Daily newspaper, for instance, warned of "unimaginable consequences," if the protests were to continue in this manner.

Chinese President and Communist Party Chief Xi Jinping doesn't seem willing to compromise. Thus far, Xi has dealt with any development challenging the supremacy of the Communist Party with uncompromising toughness.

But Beijing's hard-line and inflexibility have simply brought Hong Kongers closer together. Nevertheless, the protesters also have to show willingness to compromise. The demonstrators come from different camps and they don't have a clear leader. Sticking to their main demands could lead to an escalation of the crisis with no way out.

The protesters have already achieved a lot by showing to the world that Hong Kong does not want to become just any other Chinese city. The demonstrators have grown up with freedoms unimaginable in any other part of China. They now want to protect those freedoms.

The growing repression in China and the tightening of censorship - now visible again in the form of a news blockade from Hong Kong - are acting as deterrents. The protesters therefore want to use their freedom of speech and of assembly, as long as they have them. Xi Jinping speaks repeatedly of the "Chinese dream." In Hong Kong, they are not dreaming about it.