Hong Kong Then
The British handed over Hong Kong to China in 1997. At the time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) promised they wouldn’t infringe on Hong Kong’s freedoms for at least 50 years. They lied.
In early 2019, the Hong Kong Government tried to push a new law that terrified Hongkongers: They wanted the right to extradite criminal suspects from Hong Kong to mainland China for trial.
On June 9, a million people filled the streets of Hong Kong, calling for the extradition bill’s withdrawal.
Another protest on June 16 brought out two million Hongkongers, making it one of the largest protests in world history.
As protests continued into July, the CCP and the Hong Kong government became increasingly scared. They responded with tear gas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets. Yet brave Hongkongers continued to protest without violence. There was no end in sight.
Then in early 2020, Covid hit. The CCP and Hong Kong authorities used Covid as an excuse to forbid all forms of gathering, including protests. No tanks needed. This was legal warfare.
On June 30, 2020, Beijing passed the Hong Kong National Security Law. That law put an end to the freedoms Hongkongers had enjoyed for so long. Now, protesting the Chinese or Hong Kong governments was forever against the law.
Hong Kong Now
There are no protests inside Hong Kong in 2024. The CCP has created a climate of fear.
Authorities have shut down the city’s biggest pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily. Civil society groups have been disbanded. More than 1,800 Hong Kong political activists are in prison. People are encouraged to spy on their neighbors for having “wrongthink.” No one in Hong Kong can even post critical comments online, for fear of authorities coming after them.
The government’s recent passage of Article 23, a second even more draconian security law, made it even more dangerous for people in Hong Kong
Many Hongkongers have fled overseas, knowing they may never be able to safely return home.
Many of them participate in activism—coming together online and in person outside China to make the kind of change that the CCP fears.
For example, overseas Hongkongers have successfully pushed the US government to put financial sanctions on dozens of Chinese and Hong Kong officials who are responsible for imprisoning protesters.
And there’s something you can do, too. Leave your message on this digital Lennon Wall, so the people of Hong Kong can see that you care about their freedom, and that you stand with them against the CCP.
Things may look bleak, but together we can show that the world has not given up on Hong Kong.
As many Hongkongers say:
“It’s not that you persevere because you see hope, it’s that you see hope because you persevere.”
