Letter from Hong Kong: You are proof that Hong Kong continues to battle | EUROtoday

As I write these strains, my mates are in jail in Hong Kong. Also Joshua Wong, with whom I alternately wrote this column. Her “crime”? They took half in a House main to extend the probabilities of a Democratic majority. Joshua has now been sentenced to nearly 5 years and eight months in jail, whereas one other 45 activists acquired draconian sentences.

I’ve identified most of the convicts since I used to be 15 years outdated. Today I’m 28. These folks make up half of my life. An instance is Claudia Mo, former deputy of the Legislative Council. She was a heat mentor. She was as soon as a visitor speaker at a cocktail party at my college. I distinctly keep in mind her strolling as much as the honors desk, recognizing me among the many many college students, and blowing me an air kiss.

Or Lester Shum. He greeted me once I traveled again to Hong Kong in 2020 for the unofficial pro-democracy main. We went to the vigil to recollect the June 4th bloodbath. The police adopted us your entire time, even once we went to dinner. When we had some privateness, Lester requested me:

“Well, are you ready?”

“Huh? Ready for what?” I requested.

“For ten years in prison,” he replied and laughed. “You’re at the top of the list, cooperation with foreign forces and all.”

“Oh, shut up. As if you’re not on the list,” I stated and laughed too.

Then we wager who would go to jail first. Humor was our manner of coping with it. To at the present time I nonetheless discover it humorous in a tragic manner. I’m writing to you as a buddy of the condemned. They are neither martyrs nor tragic heroes.

Your imprisonment will not be the top

They are proof that Hong Kong continues to battle. Their imprisonment will not be the top, it exhibits the unbroken energy of the folks, their dedication to freedom and human rights. “I love Hong Kong, bye-bye,” Joshua shouted as he left the court docket after being sentenced.

He loves Hong Kong, like all of us do. In 2019, hundreds of thousands of individuals took to the streets, from college students to pensioners. It was top-of-the-line organized leaderless actions in trendy historical past.

What introduced the protesters collectively was not a banner, however their dedication to defend their metropolis’s freedoms below the Sino-British Declaration. Among them have been the activists who later organized a peaceable main to pick out candidates for town’s Legislative Council.

The regime in Beijing has described their actions as “subversive” and condemned them. Gwyneth Ho wrote after her conviction that the motion’s energy lay not in methods or expertise, however in its human connections. It was the conversations on the streets, in cafes and in neighborhoods – usually amid tear gasoline – that constructed belief and objective.

This is the center of Hong Kong civil society: folks taking motion. Because they imagine within the energy of interpersonal relationships. Gwyneth had additionally written about Maria Kolesnikova – a Belarusian political prisoner who selected jail quite than exile. Like Maria, Gwyneth turns her struggling into energy and finds connection in isolation.

The democracy motion in 2019 was an awakening. It is harmful to dismiss Hong Kong as a “hopeless case,” as many German politicians now see it. Authoritarian regimes thrive on the impression of inevitability. They use it to stifle resistance and justify oppression.

But writing off Hong Kong means permitting authoritarianism to prevail worldwide. As a number one nation in Europe, Germany has the ethical duty and in addition the sensible means to counteract this.

I truly needed to name you to motion, particularly now that an election is approaching. But Gwyneth stated it significantly better than I ever may. That’s why I move on to you the phrases she wrote from jail.

“No democracy today is safe from the crisis that arises when people lack trust. Calls for an ‘orderly’ and ‘efficient’ rule by authoritarian systems are becoming louder and louder. Reports of failed movements and the suffering of persecuted freedom fighters in distant, seemingly hopeless places are discouraging.

But you can do a lot. Protect and strengthen your own democracy. Defend against abuse of power and restore trust in democratic values ​​through action. Give authoritarian rulers fewer reasons to justify their rule by citing the failure of democracies.

And give freedom fighters around the world one more example that shows them that working for a better world is worth it. Fight where you know best and where it matters most to you. Show the world at every opportunity, no matter how small, that democracy is worth defending.

While suffering can inspire compassion, it often reduces those affected to faceless victims. You become part of an anonymous mass. What really defines us is not the suffering, but how we deal with it. We define ourselves by our actions. Only those who know who they are can open up, make new connections and make a difference – even in unexpected circumstances.

We act because we believe in the diversity, creativity and possibilities of people. And the hope for a world where we can connect with each other as our true selves. For this we dare to act, for this we dare to suffer.”

Glacier Kwong writes this column alternately with Joshua Wong. The two younger activists from Hong Kong are combating in opposition to China’s rising affect of their homeland. Since Wong is at the moment incarcerated, Kwong is constant this column alone in the interim.