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Little remains of Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement 10 years on

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Deutsche Welle

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:950px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/172767222239817264670473212024090710090_dc5ad4b951528a4a75a6c7e9afa70b05192d86e3c6d86a0c8d0fd4f331c3ba8d.jpg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left"></span></span></span></div><p style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal">A man looks up on a promenade at Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong on September 5, 2024, as super typhoon Yagi tracked across the South China Sea towards the southern China coast. <em>Photo by Dale De La Rey/AFP/File</em></p>TAIPEI — Ten years after a million Hong Kongers took to the streets to stand up for democracy and free expression, in what later came to be called the Umbrella Movement, a Hong Kong man was sentenced to 14 months in prison for wearing a t-shirt reading: &quot;Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.&quot;<div></div><p>He is among three people to be sent to prison last week under Hong Kong&#x27;s expanded national security law for the first time.</p><p>The other two men were accused, respectively, of scribbling pro-democracy graffiti on a bus seat, and criticizing Chinese President Xi Jinping on social media.</p><p>Last week, a Hong Kong court sentenced the former editor-in-chief of Stand News, Chung Pui-kuen, to 21 months in prison for &quot;sedition&quot; under a draconian, Beijing-backed, national security law.</p><p>According to Megan Khoo, a researcher and policy advisor at Hong Kong Watch, a UK-based human rights group, these most recent legal moves have greatly &quot;increased fear&quot; among the populace.</p><p>&quot;There&#x27;s lots of uncertainty around where the red line is … also lots of self-censorship that&#x27;s imposed,&quot; she added.</p><p>For many Hong Kongeres, these recent cases are a stark contrast to what many had hoped for when they took to the streets ten years ago during the Umbrella Movement. </p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/2024/9/7/us-warns-of-growing-risks-of-business-in-hong-kong-1659">READ: US warns of growing risks of business in Hong Kong</a></div><div><strong>A movement of change</strong></div><p>&quot;It was the peak of peaceful protest. People still believed they could sit down and communicate well with the Hong Kong government,&quot; said Roy, a Hongkonger now working for a publishing firm in Taipei. He spoke to DW under a pseudonym due to safety concerns.</p><p>At the time, the protesters took to the streets in opposition of Beijing&#x27;s attempt at reforming Hong Kong&#x27;s electoral system to require pre-screening of possible candidates to ensure support of Beijing&#x27;s policies.</p><p>Protesters felt that this was a violation of the principle of free and fair elections and set out to push for change through non-violent occupations of the city&#x27;s political and economic centers.</p><p>&quot;It was a really significant moment for Hong Kong,&quot; said Khoo.</p><p>&quot;Hong Kongers were showing the world what they stood for, not necessarily what the Chinese government or [President]Xi Jinping wanted for them after he came into power. It was quite powerful,&quot; she told DW.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/world/2024/9/16/hong-kong-man-faces-jail-over-seditious-t-shirt-1350">READ: Hong Kong man faces jail over &#x27;seditious&#x27; T-shirt</a></div><div><strong>From peaceful protest to fierce resistance</strong></div><p>After 79 days of peaceful occupation, the protests were brought to an end under a heavy crackdown from Beijing. Hong Kong police fired tear gas at protesters for the first time since the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China from the United Kingdom.</p><p>The violent crackdown was a profound shock for many pro-democracy activists, including Roy.</p><p>&quot;Everyone felt they had reached their limit. They were left wondering what to do when peaceful dialogue proved ineffective,&quot; Roy told DW. &quot;So by 2019, during the Anti-Extradition Bill protests, people began to adopt different methods.&quot;</p><p>In 2019, large-scale protests erupted again in Hong Kong in response to Beijing&#x27;s proposal to amend the Extradition Law, which democracy activists feared could be used as a political tool to crack down on dissidents in the city.</p><p>Tens of thousands of citizens took to the streets demanding the withdrawal of the bill.</p><p>In a departure from the tactic of peaceful occupation that defined the Umbrella Movement, clashes between protesters and police escalated into violent confrontations in many areas.</p><p>Some protesters used iron rods and petrol bombs to attack riot police, while the latter fired water cannons, rubber bullets, tear gas and even live ammunition.</p><p>In 2020, a year after the massive protests, Beijing passed the controversial Hong Kong National Security Law, leading to a new wave of political repression.</p><p>Politicians and activists were arrested with some facing sentences of up to life imprisonment. Many, including Nathan Law, fled Hong Kong and now live in exile.</p><div><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/12/30/23/hong-kong-police-vow-to-pursue-activist-agnes-chow-for-life" id="isPasted">READ: Hong Kong police vow to pursue democratic activist Agnes Chow for life</a></div><div><strong>&#x27;Failed&#x27; but still hopeful</strong></div><p>In hindsight, Roy characterized Hong Kong&#x27;s decade-long journey of social movements as &quot;one failure after another&quot; if solely looking at the outcome. But he emphasized that &quot;there is still a group of people working hard&quot; for change in their significantly transformed city.</p><p>&quot;People are starting to accept reality,&quot; he said. &quot;Some have given up on protesting entirely and focus on making money, but there&#x27;s also a group using different methods to fight within the law.&quot;</p><p>&quot;We might feel that after the 2019 protests, there are no other methods of resistance. But people felt the same way at the end of the Umbrella Movement,&quot; Roy told DW. &quot;I truly believe there is hope.&quot;</p>

<p>"People are starting to accept reality," he said. "Some have given up on protesting entirely and focus on making money, but there's also a group using different methods to fight within the law."</p>

"People are starting to accept reality," he said. "Some have given up on protesting entirely and focus on making money, but there's also a group using different methods to fight within the law."

Little remains of Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement 10 years on

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Little remains of Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement 10 years on

Deutsche Welle,

Yuchen Li

Published Sep 30, 2024 12:57 PM PHT

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