Black was the attire color of choice for many Hong Kongers today
The key chain accessory of choice for people wishing
to make a statement today
In the wake of yesterday's shock developments, Hong Kong Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai and fellow pan-democrats issued a call for people to wear black today to express their anger at the actions of the Hong Kong police force.
Before I got out of my apartment today, a friend messaged me to say she
was out and about, and disappointed that not many people had seemed to
have obeyed that call.
Curious
as to what things would be like in my neighborhood, I went out to have a
look for myself and found that, while there weren't as many people clad
in black today as I had wished would be the case (and, say, back on June 16th of last year),
there still were a good deal more folks who had dressed in black than I
reckon is usual. And when I ventured to another section of town later
in the day, I not only saw more people in black attire but also noticed
that some of them were pointedly wearing t-shirts with "Hong Konger"
(this on a non-ethnic Chinese-looking individual, which I thought was
very cool), "Hong Kong ga yau" (this on an elderly gentleman) and "f**k
everything" (yep, it was a young fella!) emblazoned on them!
In another welcome development, Lam Cheuk-ting, Ted Hui and the eight other people arrested yesterday and charged today were freed on bail this afternoon.
(For some reason though, six other people arrested yesterday did not
appear in court with them today -- and I hope that we'll be kept
informed about what happens to them.) More than incidentally, when Lam
and Hui met the press in the courtyard of the magistracy after their
release, Lam was clad in a black t-shirt with the word "Justice"
emblazoned on his chest. It got me thinking of the man who had "Courage" emblazoned on his (similarly black) t-shirt that had been among the hundreds arrested back on July 1st.
If only all of today's news were of the positive kind. But I think we have to recognize that things are not going to back to normal or the way we want for a time. The likes of Carrie Lam and Matthew Cheung may say the Hong Kong government "cherishes" press freedom and insist, even up to just a week ago, that press freedom in Hong Kong is intact but the authorities' actions speak louder than words.
Even before the arrest of Jimmy Lai and the raid of his Next Media's offices on August 10th, press freedom was threatened: sometimes physically; and other times by way such as the non-renewal of work visas (for the likes of the Financial Times' Victor Mallet in 2018 and the New York Times' Chris Buckley earlier this year). Today, the authorities went a step further and denied a work visa for Aaron Mc Nicholas, the incoming editor of the Hong Kong Free Press (who previously had had no visa problems when working for Bloomberg and Storyful).
Earlier this month, the Hong Kong Free Press ran a piece on a number of journalists being stuck in limbo because of visa processing delays.
Consequently, there now are fears that while Aaron Mc Nicholas may be
the first journalist who looks to have fallen victim to the security
law, he may not by the last by any means.
Another shock piece of news today concerned at least 10 Hong Kongers having been arrested by the Chinese authorities for trying to flee to Taiwan by boat this past Sunday. Reportedly, all of them were involved in the extradition bill protests and one of them is Andy Li -- who was arrested under the security law on the same day as Jimmy Lai and Agnes Chow,
and now finds himself in major trouble since he's currently out of bail
and most definitely is not supposed to leave Hong Kong.
It wasn't that long ago when people were trying to flee to Hong Kong -- from Communist China and also (Communist) Vietnam. Now it's the other way around -- and not just by air but boat! Which, I think, gives a good sense of the utter desperation some people are feeling rather than, say, their creativity or sheer stupidity. Since for every Hong Konger I know who has decided to stay put even if/as their city burns and/or gets otherwise destroyed, there are others who want to leave, if they can. :(
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