Background of the Issue Over the past 10 days, international news agencies such as CNN, BBC and other similar networks have been covering the rallies that have been occurring in Hong Kong. The reason behind the actions of thousands of local citizens can be traced to the events of 1997 when Hong Kong, a British territory at the time, was turned over to mainland China. During the period of transition, the Chinese government stated that by 2015, Hong Kong would be able to elect their own officials under a democratic process instead of utilizing the party electoral system that was currently in use within mainland China. Unfortunately, by 2014 it was announced that while the people of Hong Kong could elect an official into office, they had to pick from a list of candidates that had previously been vetted and scrutinized by the governing body of the mainland. From the perspective of the democratic process of elections, it can be stated that the act of selecting from a list of candidates that was chosen for you instead of those that you want in office, goes completely against the concept of a fair electoral process. It was due to this that several thousand people within Hong Kong rallied in front of the main government building of the city in order to showcase their displeasure over the actions of the mainland government. In this incident, there are two exercises of power that were utilized by the Chinese government in order to control the population. The first centers around the preselected candidates that could run for office while the second relates to the aftermath of the protests wherein the mainland government subsequently implemented a broad censoring initiative throughout the local media and on the internet wherein it clamped down completely on news relating to the protests. When examining both actions of the government, it must be questioned whether the government is going too far when it comes to the denial of rights that they are implementing (i.e. preventing the freedom of speech and preventing the use of a fair democratically elected constituency to represent the will of the people). Within this context, it must be asked: to what extent is the exercise of power used to control a subject population rational? It is the belief of this paper that the exercise of power to control a subject population can be categorized as being rational only when it serves the needs of the people and not primarily the government. The Problem with Control The position of this paper is that while it is necessary to implement the rule of law, this should not be done by removing the freedom of people. This particular aspect is even more relevant when taking into consideration the fact that governments should be stewards of the people (i.e. they should serve the people and focus on what they want). During instances where the government takes a firm position against what the people desire, it cannot be stated that a government is operating the way that a government should be operating. It is within this context that this paper cannot agree with the actions of the Chinese government when it comes to their actions involving the protestors in Hong Kong. While it is tru