Democracy is the living, breathing product of struggle: of people organising together and using their collective strength to drive back the power of those above, often at great personal cost and sacrifice. This is the drama now being played out on the streets of Hong Kong.

As is always the case with such struggles for popular sovereignty, they are being taunted and demonised by the powerful. “They are doomed to fail,” screeches the official organ of the regime. “Facts and history tell us that radical and illegal acts that got their way only result in more severe illegal activities, exacerbating disorder and turmoil,” claims Beijing’s tyrants. Curious, given they owe their own place in power to a revolution predicated on “radical and illegal acts”. Their rather Orwellian proclamation that “stability is bliss and turmoil brings havoc” is another favoured trope of embattled rulers: that if the people dare to challenge unaccountable power and an unjust order, then chaos and mayhem will ensue.

The protesters in Hong Kong have a simple, inarguable case. The regime wants to approve which candidates run in the territory’s first elections based on universal suffrage. The people want to freely choose their own leader without any restrictions. In asserting their basic democratic rights, protesters have been met with teargas and brutality. But their determination in the face of a regime with a demonstrably murderous record should worry China’s ruling elite. When their barricades are dismantled, they simply set up new ones.

History is littered with the corpses of those who fought for democracy. Peterloo in Britain in 1819; Hungary in 1956; Mexico City in 1968; the Caracazo in Venezuela in 1989; and – of course – the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. In that infamous bloodbath, protesters sang The Internationale – the emblematic socialism anthem of resistance and struggle – and yet were portrayed as capitalist counter-revolutionaries.

This is how China’s dictators try to maintain their legitimacy. They are a developmental dictatorship, using their unique, hybrid model of state-directed capitalism to transform Chinese society and lift millions out of poverty. They have avoided the chaos and collapse in living standards that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union and the restoration of capitalism to its former territories. But this is bunk. Democracy or progress is a false binary choice: they are inextricably linked. Others point out that Hong Kong’s former British rulers denied them democracy, too: which they did. That does not make Beijing’s refusal to surrender to a movement now demanding that democracy any more legitimate.

In China itself, there is evidence of people reclaiming the country’s formidable tradition of resistance. Waves of strikes hit the country in 2010, as workers took industrial action at Honda and Toyota plants. But this year, there appear to be record numbers of striking workers. In the second quarter of 2014, there was a 49% jump in industrial action compared with the same period last year. Earlier this year, thousands of Chinese workers took strike action in Jiangxi and Guangdong provinces. Workers are demanding independently controlled unions, not adjuncts of the regime. Technology such as smartphones is enabling workers to bypass the dictatorship-controlled media.

These protests and strikes are a reminder of a simple truth. Democracy is a universal right, not a privilege reserved for westerners. Cultural relativism – that deems democracy is only appropriate for some cultures – is inherently racist, effectively claiming that some people are incapable of ruling their own societies.

That does not mean the western model is the ultimate form of democracy: it certainly is not. Yes, westerners enjoy democratic rights that were won – again, at great cost – by ancestors who fought the powerful. But we have a democracy of caveats: popular sovereignty is relentlessly infringed by corporate interests, and our “free media” is in actual fact a media run by a small set of moguls who are part of a status quo they inevitably defend. Social gains – such as workers’ rights, the welfare state and public services – are being dismantled as wealth and power are distributed to those above.

But those protesters filling the streets of Hong Kong should be considered an inspiration for all of us who champion and cherish democracy as a universal cause. They will be demonised, ridiculed and even brutalised by an illegitimate regime. Yet it is clear who history will inevitably judge to be the victors. Beijing’s tyrants know that too. No wonder they are so scared.