Three young voices vs a superpower

WILL Hong Kong jail its first political prisoners on Thursday? If it does – and it looks likely – the event would mark a watershed in Hong Kong’s modern history and should set off further alarms about China’s intentions for the territory.

Joshua Wong, one of the three young men bracing for this verdict, has been a hero of his hometown’s democracy movement since he was 14. The pinnacle of Wong’s activ- ism came during 2014, when he and a group of students led hundreds of thousands of their neighbours in a 79-day demonstration defending Hong Kong’s autonomy from Beijing’s encroachment. The protest, known as the Umbrella Movement, was one of the largest in the city’s history.

Three years on, Wong and his colleagues, including Nathan Law and Alex Chow, are still being punished. They might be thrown in prison on charges for which they have already served sentences.

Last year, the three were found guilty of “unlawful assembly” for entering a fenced-off area outside the city’s government headquarters during the Umbrella Movement protests. Wong and Law were sentenced to community service; Chow was given a three-week suspended sentence. The charge and ver- dict was yet another sign that Beijing had little intention to honour its commitment to free speech and peaceful assembly.

Now Hong Kong’s Department of Justice has reopened the case on the grounds their punishment was too lenient.

Wong was asked if he was scared about the likelihood of going to prison.

“My parents named me after Joshua because they hoped I would be like Joshua in the Bible,” he replied. “To lead people to make change and to ask for social justice.

“As a person in the global spotlight, I bear more responsibility to let the world know that Hong Kong people will still keep fighting.”

The question is whether Western nations will back up these young democrats who insist their hometown maintain its commitments to the rule of law.