TIME magazine announced Greta Thunberg as person of the year despite a poll reaching 96% in favor of Hong Kong protesters. This itself goes against our basic policies as a nation in that of democracy. The people of Hong Kong are fighting for the exact same thing that we have been perfecting for the last few centuries. While this may not change anything in the long run, by making the protesters “person” of the year, we can set a precedence and demonstrate to China that we will not stand for the human rights violations being committed overseas. China has been a large trading partner and close ally for a long time, and for good reason. They’re economically stable and strong, but that’s mostly because of Hong Kong. And what does Hong Kong have that China doesn’t? Democracy. If we can simply point out to China the error in communism and point out the benefits of democracy, there may be hope just yet. The link can almost be made to Berlin, Germany during the latter half of the Cold War, when West Berlin (and it’s democratic values) was prospering and wealthy. On the other hand, West Berlin (occupied by the Soviet Union and thus communist) struggled with feeding its citizens and struggled with starvation. The same can be said about Hong Kong (democratic) and China (communist). Time and time again communism has been proven to fail while democracy has a much higher success rate.