Hong Kongers are becoming more accepting of violent protests because the territory’s pro-Beijing leaders have ignored years of peaceful demonstrations, a leading democracy activist said in letters penned from his prison cell.
Law professor Benny Tai (戴耀廷), a staunch non-violence advocate, was in April sentenced to 16 months in jail over his role in the largely peaceful 2014 “Umbrella movement” — weeks before a renewed round of protests and clashes engulfed the territory.
The current demonstrations were triggered by a controversial bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but have since evolved into a call for wider democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms.
Photo: AP
Massive crowds have regularly hit the streets for peaceful rallies, while increasingly violent clashes have broken out between police and pockets of hardcore protesters.
In a hand-written letter from Shek Pik prison, Tai said the trashing of the Legislative Council building earlier this month was a turning point and showed a growing willingness to embrace more violent tactics.
“People seem to have much more tolerance especially when the government refuses to give any direct and meaningful response to the demands of the non-violent movement,” he wrote in a letter dated July 21 that Agence France-Presse received yesterday.
“What is violence? Must violence be wrong? Must all violent acts be condemned?” were questions Hong Kongers were now asking themselves, he added.
Protesters have vowed to keep their movement going until their core demands are met, such as the resignation of Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥), an independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty for those arrested and a permanent withdrawal of the bill.
They have also begun calling once more for universal suffrage.
Tai, who helped popularize the idea of mass civil disobedience prior to the Umbrella movement that called for free elections, said the root problem of Hong Kong’s political crisis remained the territory’s lack of democracy.
“The anti-extradition movement is a strike back by Hong Kong people against the interference by the Chinese Communist Party,” he wrote in an earlier letter dated June 23.
Public anger over sliding freedoms have also collided with years of frustration over spiraling inequality and the cost of living in one of the world’s most expensive, densely populated cities.
Tai said that “all institutional channels to raise their objections have been blocked,” as authorities tightened the grip on the territory’s legislature and clamped down on the opposition, forcing the public to use other means.
“Only democratic reform can resolve the conflicts or open a door to the resolution,” he wrote in the July 21 letter.
The 2014 Umbrella movement, which took over key intersections for more than two months, failed to win any concessions from Beijing and many of its leaders like Tai have since been prosecuted or jailed.
Tai and fellow activist Chan Kin-man (陳健民), a 60-year-old sociology professor, were jailed under colonial-era public nuisance laws for encouraging others to protest, the stiffest sentences handed down to anyone involved in the 2014 protests.
In the years since, the territory’s pro-democracy camp say the clampdown has only deepened, with opposition politicians disqualified and dissident booksellers disappearing into mainland custody.
Tai said protesters had learned from the failures of 2014 and modified their protest tactics, with the current movement providing a long-awaited “break-out point.”
Echoing the protesters’ demands, he said a “general pardon, including unlawful acts of police and protesters” during this period and an independent inquiry are “needed in the short run.”
However, there is seemingly no end in sight to the turmoil engulfing the territory.
Lam has shown no sign of backing down beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in