New wave of leaders step into breach for jailed Hong Kong democracy activists

HONG KONG: The jailing of Hong Kong’s best-known democracy activists has pushed a new wave of young leaders to take the helm as they seek to keep the movement’s message alive.

Joshua Wong and Nathan Law, who carved out international reputations with their campaigning, were both sent to prison last month in what rights groups slammed as politically motivated prosecutions.

Alongside fellow activist Alex Chow, they are serving sentences of between six and eight months for their roles in a protest that triggered mass Umbrella Movement rallies in 2014 calling for democratic reforms.

The jailings were a blow to the pro-democracy movement and seen as more evidence that Beijing is tightening its grip on semi-autonomous Hong Kong.

But they also breathed new life into a campaign that had been struggling for momentum since the 2014 rallies failed to win concessions.

Tens of thousands took to the streets to protest the jail terms last month, and activists who have long been at the right hand of Wong and Law are now stepping into the spotlight.

“We should try to do more, not only for them but also for our city and to show the government and the Chinese regime that we are not going to be scared,” Agnes Chow, 20, a close friend of the jailed activists, told AFP.

Chow addressed the crowds at last month’s protest over the sentences and has regularly spoken to the media since her friends were imprisoned.

If a by-election for the Hong Kong legislature is held early next year — after her 21st birthday in December — she would be old enough to run for Law’s vacated seat, and has not ruled that out.

Law was one off our pro democracy lawmakers disqualified from parliament in July for inserting protests into their oaths of office.

Activist Lester Shum said those who are free to continue campaigning should put pessimism aside.

Shum, 24, also a prominent student leader during the Umbrella Movement, has been at the forefront of recent protests over the jailings.

He said the imprisonment of Wong, Law and Chow was a turning point for the democratic movement.

“They have been facing their situation with a very calm and determined attitude,” he told