ABSTRACT
The political agency of Asian youths is currently highly visible in the transnational media. In October and November 2019, as I write this commentary for the Space and Polity special issue focusing on urban youth politics in the region, the ongoing Hong Kong civil society protests sparked off by the Anti-Extradition Bill proposed by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) are recognized across the world as a notable political uprising. Performed in a liberal democratic spirit, they have set against the local government acting under Chinese rule. During the autumn, encounters between the police and hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of Hongkongers have intensified, with violent clashes now a frequent occurrence. The world outside of Hong Kong’s civil society is thus witnessing an escalating domestic conflict, with the classic features of: growing state domination, peaceful demonstrations by the people, violent police action, aggressive expressions of frustrated citizens, apparent concessions by the state, further protests including radical action met with violent responses – and what follows remains to be seen. Complex theoretical frameworks are not needed to identify the political nature of this situation or the political relevance of youthful agency. Similarly, India’s recent Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act bears such strong geopolitical and geoeconomic meanings that anything happening in the region can be identified as political.
