Protest violence will not work, leading Hong Kong activist says

ESCALATING protest violence is not the way to bring about change, Hong Kong democracy activist Jason Ng has said, urging demonstrators to embrace non-violent means in the struggle to throw off a feared tightening of Beijing’s control.

With the movement in a less frenetic and ferocious stage after seven months of unrest, Ng, who is also a lawyer, said people in Hong Kong were taking time to process what had happened and reflect on the way forward.

Speaking to AFP in an interview in Barcelona, Ng said he hoped the protests would return to the nonviolent ethos that had characterised the Umbrella Revolution, the mass pro-democracy demonstrations of 2014.

“One of the core values of the 2014 movement was non-violent civil disobedience and we really want to continue that,” said Ng, whose involvement in those protests spawned a friendship with one of its leaders, Joshua Wong, with whom he will publish a book later this week.

“I understand why some of the violence happens, it’s human nature. If you are beaten by the police so many times and so aggressively, you’re bound to hit back,” the 48-year-old said, referring to the fierce clashes with police that have erupted in recent months.

‘Violence is addictive’

But using violence was a slippery slope, particularly when news outlets became immune to covering repeated stories involving petrol bombs and bloodied demonstrators.

“Violence is almost addictive,” he said.

“Once you develop this immunity to the violence, the only way to continue (getting media) attention is to escalate .... You sort of become addicted to media attention by creating more violence and I don’t want that to happen in Hong Kong.”