Protests’ face a-changin’
Hong Kong – From doing homework by torchlight to hurling flaming molotov cocktails at riot police, the character of Hong Kong’s protests has changed dramatically in five years, with young demonstrators hardened by the failure of their peaceful Umbrella Movement.
Then-student Bunny was one of thousands who camped on the streets in a 79-day occupation that had a festival edge of good humour and patience. Now she describes herself as a frontliner in the territory’s current summer of rage. “I shifted my position from being rational to more hardline over these five years,” she said, using a pseudonym. “If being rational is a way out for Hong Kong, why couldn’t our demands have been met in 2014?”
On Saturday, protesters behind this summer’s huge and often violent pro-democracy rallies will mark the fifth anniversary of the Umbrella Movement. It took off when huge crowds came out after police fired tear gas at a smaller student-led rally, and was named after the umbrellas people used to defend themselves.
Compared to the current strife, with street battles erupting for 16 consecutive weeks, 2014’s protests were softer, with students completing classwork in the camps, recycling their waste, and the police largely avoiding direct conflict after intial clashes.
Many of those taking part this time say the failure to win concessions from Beijing then has led to the more violent maelstrom now engulfing the city.
Jackool, a 30-year-old theatre technician, manned the barricades in 2014, expecting a police assault that never came. “Umbrella Movement means total failure to me,” he said, using his nickname.
Now married, he spends his weekends in a fleet of drivers who pick up those returning from clashes.
“I may have to bear the legal consequences if the ‘kids’ are ... in my car. But it’s just a minor sacrifice compared to them. If we lose, Hong Kong will become Xinjiang,” he said, referring to China’s western, Muslim-majority region where there is a huge security clampdown.
When protesters left their camps in December 2014 after Beijing waited-out the movement and mainstream opinion tired of the disruption, activists chanted: “We will be back!”
But as the years went by, few expected that to happen. Many leaders of the movement were prosecuted and Beijing tightened the screws on critics. But then the city’s pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam tabled a now-scrapped bill proposing extraditions to the mainland, and the new democracy movement was reborn.
Student Henry Wong said he was hopeful even as China rejects further concessions. “We have proved that after 2014, we have the strength to come back. No matter what is ahead, we will continue our fight.” –