Looking back to the start of the Umbrella Movement and ahead to there being continued protests in Hong Kong

How Harcourt Road looks on protest-less days

 

Admiralty is definitely more colorful when occupied by 

pro-democracy protestors and decorated with their creative works!

Six years ago today, what came to be known as the Umbrella Movement (or Umbrella Revolution) began in earnest after the police fired what was then an unprecedentedly large amount of tear gas into a protest crowd assembled at Admiralty.  I don't expect any tear gas to be fired today or to see water cannons going into action in the area, as was the case one year ago.  But make no mistake: the pro-democracy protest spirit that emerged on September 28th, 2014, has by no means been extinguished.  This even though the authorities have been doing what they can to bring Hong Kong to heel.  

 

Take, as an example, the banning of a protest march intended to take place this upcoming October 1st (with an appeal against the decision having proved unsuccessful).   As expected, the police cited public safety fears by way of the Wuhan coronavirus.  This is despite the third wave now being under control: as evidenced by there just being 10 new cases today; of which only 3 are local transmissions, all of which are linked to other ones.  And you also had the proposed march's very experienced organizers also indicating that social distancing measures could easily be practiced, such as asking marchers to wear masks and walk in groups of no more than four, the maximum number of people allowed to gather under regulations.    

 

As Renaud Haccart Tweeted back on September 15th: "As noted by other commentators, there’s a fair chance that group gathering rules will be the very last to go, as they provide the perfect cover for police to disrupt any public protest of any size or form and make arrests."  And it really didn't seem purely  coincidental that one week later, the powers that be proceeded to extend the current coronavirus social distancing measures until October 1st, amid online calls for a protest march on that day.

 

As a reminder: even without there being the Wuhan coronavirus attacking much of the world, the October 1st protest was banned last year.  And the ban not withstanding, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands of Hong Kongers went out onto the streets to protest nonetheless; and, in so doing, produced the kind of visuals that the authorities most certainly did not wish to have beamed out to the world on China's National Day.

 

It's not entirely impossible that a good number of people will elect to march in protest again this October 1st.  This despite anti-Wuhan coronavirus social distancing measures being in effect -- and the vague, broad and sweeping security law China imposed on Hong Kong on June 30th whose penalties include life imprisonment.  

 

Alternatively, it's been suggested that people wear black on the day to register that October 1st is a day of mourning, not celebration, for most Hong Kongers as well as a sign of solidarity with the 12 Hong Kongers whose bid to seek asylum and freedom in Taiwan led instead to their detention in Shenzhen.  I do sincerely hope though that people won't dress up in black if they do plan to go onto the streets to protest because black attire has become the equivalent to the Hong Kong police of red cloth to bulls!    

 

For those who are wondering why Hong Kong is such a city of protest: do realize that one big reason why this is so is because Hong Kong has never been fully or really democratic.  Consequently, Hong Kongers have had to find other ways to make our will be known and heeded; with mass protests having met with some notable success in the past (e.g., in 2003 and 2012).           

And for those who reckon they know about the security law that's been imposed on Hong Kong: do give the quiz by The Guardian a try.  In what loos to have been an effort to commemorate the start of the Umbrella Movement (even without outright stating it), that British newspaper has shone the spotlight today on: Hong Kong's "freedom swimmers" (the hundreds of thousands of Mainland Chinese who escaped to Hong Kong between 1950 and 1980);  the Chinese Communist Party faithful shipped in to carry out Beijing's will in Hong Kong this year; and Oxford University's efforts to protect the students of China in the wake of the coming into being of China's security law for Hong Kong.