The recent wave of protests against China’s anti-virus restrictions was a ray of hope for some supporters of Hong Kong’s own pro-democracy movement after local authorities stifled it using a national security law enacted in 2020.
Thomas So, who joined about a dozen students from the Chinese mainland staging a rare protest this week at the University of Hong Kong, is among them.
“If mainland China falls apart, I wouldn’t say it’s none of my business,” said So, who held up an electric candle and a blank sheet of paper symbolizing defiance against censorship at the protest. “When I support the values of democracy and freedom, I hope China will have these too.”
So hopes that in reopening a window for people to gather and have their voices heard, the protests might auger a fresh chance for Hong Kong’s languishing pro-democracy movement.
Some in Hong Kong, a former British colony on China’s southern coast, sympathize with mainland protesters’ calls for greater freedoms after nearly three years of onerous pandemic restrictions.
“Hong Kong had a lot of protests before and we understand how it feels to want to say something but not be able to because of the government,” said 23-year-old Kris Tam, holding up a blank sheet of paper.
In 2019, hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers took to the streets before the pandemic to protest proposed extradition legislation. Although the bill was eventually shelved, it sparked months of unrest that sometimes led to violent clashes between police and protesters.
Under the National Security Law, enacted with backing from China’s ruling Communist Party, authorities have cracked down on most public shows of dissent in the city, despite Beijing’s pledge to leave semi-autonomous Hong Kong’s Western-style legal system and civil liberties intact for 50 years after the city passed into Chinese control in 1997.
But rarely-seen demonstrations erupted in many Chinese cities after a Nov. 24 fire in an apartment building in the northwestern Urumqi killed at least 10 people. The tragedy raised angry questions online about whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other anti-virus controls. Authorities denied that, but the deaths became a focus of public frustration.