Campaigners and artists remain quietly active despite China’s tightening control
~ Levon Kwok ~
On 19 October, 45 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong were sentenced to prison for subversion. Jimmy Lai, a Hong Kong media mogul who run a Beijing-critical newspaper called Apple Daily, stood trial for treason just last year. Since the passage of the Hong Kong National Security Law (NSL) by the National People’s Congress of China in 2020, and with the legislation of the Basic Law Article 23 by the Hong Kong authorities in March this year, Hong Kongers at home or abroad are under threat of losing their freedom if they speak against the Chinese government.
The July 1 Marches, the 2014 Umbrella Movement for universal suffrage, and the 2019 Anti-Extradition Bill Protests were all efforts by Hong Kongers to protect their freedom and deter the Chinese state from governing the city with a heavy hand.
The Hong Kong SAR authorities’ characterisation of the 2019 Protests as “riots” not only intensified the conflict between the protesters and the police at the time, but also opened the door for the Chinese central government to justify the passage of the NSL in 2020. The rest are simple: to arrest, charge, imprison every “target” one by one according to the law.
Since the passage of the NSL in 2020, social movements in Hong Kong have faded away. Beware! This is a false image in the mainstream media. In fact, many activists, campaigners and artists are still striving for freedom in the city. Most of them keep their activities low-key in order to avoid prosecution.
If some say Britain—which decided to hand the city over to China —should do something, they would be disappointed to realise what it has done so far. Responding to China’s political move against Hong Kongers’ freedom, the state only changed its immigration rules to allow non-overseas British Hong Kongers (or, technically speaking, the Hong Kongers who have the British National Overseas (BNO) status or have a parent who has it) to apply for a visa to come to the UK.
Why do the British need a visa to resettle in Britain, but the islanders from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean don’t? Why do Hong Kongers have to give up Hong Kong? Why doesn’t the British state file a lawsuit against China owing to its breach of the Joint Declaration? Instead, Starmer still wants a “strong” relationship with China.
Meanwhile, some charity and activist groups have been involved in work for the release of the “45” and for all Hong Kongers’ freedom. No matter what strategies we follow, the key is being immune to information manipulation and saying no to government support. Instead, we can discover new mediums, create our own agenda and work together independently, and this is what the authorities are most nervous about.
Top photo: 2019 Hong Kong protests. Studio Incendo, Wikimedia commons
