How Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Movement is Changing

Tommy Walker reports on the more nuanced methods of resistance democrats are adopting in the face of repressive new laws

For every action, there’s a reaction. Last year, for seven consecutive months, Hong Kong erupted with widespread pro-democracy protests.

Sparked by an extradition bill – allowing activists to be deported to China and trialled on the mainland – protesters resisted on the streets. At times, the demonstrations mirrored urban warfare. Tear gas, Molotov cocktails and hordes of riot police swept the city.

As 2019 ran its course, Hong Kong’s mass pro-democracy rallies were slowly petering out. Then came the Coronavirus pandemic, followed by the National Security Law implemented by Beijing – widening the scope for police forces to arrest protestors – both sucker-punching the numbers of campaigners on the streets.

But while last year’s tumultuous scenes are unlikely to repeat anytime soon, the movement is still active and the protests are changing with it.

There are fewer people wearing the yellow helmets and black-clad attire that have become a feature of Hong Kong street protests – likely ditched to help evade arrest. Furthermore, the actual numbers of hardliners today has depleted dramatically. Some are under police investigation and fear further retribution, whilst others have fled Hong Kong altogether.

In June, high-profile activist Jimmy Lai, owner of media outlet Apply Daily, indicated that the protests were changing.

“A lot of people have left, or are leaving, a lot more sidestepped the movement,” Lai told Byline Times.

“Definitely, we will become a much smaller group, and hopefully, this group will stand firm and become the backbone.”

---

Subtle Protest

Under the ‘one country, two systems’ agreement signed by the UK and Hong Kong in 1997, after the city was transferred back to Chinese rule, it was promised that Hong Kong would retain a ‘high degree of autonomy’ until 2047.

The National Security Law prohibits secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces, and its meaning can be widely interpreted. Even non-Hong Kong residents who violate the law, in the city or overseas, can be prosecuted.

It is therefore widely believed that China has violated the 1997 agreement and effectively scrapped the ‘one country, two systems’ principle.

The new law is limiting the methods of demonstrators, too. Protesters cannot wield revolutionary slogans while criticism of Beijing is deemed to be subversion.

Last year, Hong Kong’s main public transport network, the Mass Transit Railway (MTR), was criticised for collusion with the police. Demonstrators then continually vandalised MTR stations to garner attention. Under the National Security Law, however, these actions would now be regarded as terrorism.

Today, protestors tend to stay away from confronting police officers, keeping their distance while mixing within a sea of press and volunteers. This is a sharp contrast to the black-clad demonstrators who manned the frontline during last year’s clashes.

One subtle way of supporting the resistance has been the decision taken by thousands of people to shop at venues that are deemed ‘yellow’ – businesses that are sympathetic towards the pro-democracy cause.

Meanwhile, with political sloganeering a dangerous act, some street protestors have held up blank posters as a symbol of their censorship, while office workers have protested during their lunch hour by publicly reading the pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily.