HK activists light up night sky with LED resistance message
香港社會運動人士用 LED 的反抗信息點亮夜空
| Defiant act marks two years since start of HK protests
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A group of Hong Kong democracy activists climbed the city’s Lion Rock on Wednesday (June 9) to plant LED signs that read “FREE HK” and “FAITH,” marking the passage of two years since the start of protests that threw the Chinese Communist Party’s repressive machinery into high gear and captured the world’s attention. At about 9 p.m. on Wednesday, a group of around 20 people climbed Lion Rock, a symbolic site in the city’s pro-democracy movement, and planted the LED signs facing down into the city. The activists then stayed for about an hour before descending with the signs. The silent-yet-luminous political gesture comes two years after demonstrators amassed in the streets of Hong Kong to protest a bill that would have allowed local authorities to extradite citizens to stand trial in the mainland. Via an encrypted messaging app, one of the activists present at Lion Rock told Taiwan News the following: “We planned ahead to visit Lion Rock on June 9, but when we learned that some other bros would visit on the same day, we combined the demonstrations together. In the era of China’s national security law, I think what we need is persistence. Those who believe in street resistance, use your own way to keep resisting; those who believe in fighting back through resistance propaganda, keep making things and sharing them. There is no formal way to achieve revolution. The last thing I would like to say is “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times!” Another activist who participated in Wednesday’s event had this to say: “Hongkongers, those who genuinely care about the city, have no freedom to express their fury at the actions of the government. In 2019, many Hongkongers protested day by day, week by week. We tacitly developed a set of shared values and strategies, such as “Be water” and “do not split.” We believe every Hongkonger is still resisting tyranny in their own style. Going up the hill last night was just one way. There are no heroes in real life, only regular people who stand up and rebel.” The 2019-2020 Hong Kong protests, which began on June 9 two years ago, drew at times over 1 million people into the streets. The demonstrations continued until a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic and Beijing’s heavy-handed national security law laid them low. In the nearly one year since the passage of the national security law, which criminalized nearly all forms of dissent in the territory, civil liberties, free elections, and trials without political bias have been largely eliminated in Hong Kong. Victoria Park’s annual vigil for victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, an event that has in past years drawn tens of thousands of visitors, is the most recent casualty of the city’s war on unsanctioned political activities, with would-be commemorators last week having been threatened with five-year prison terms. |
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| Martin Greene, Taiwan News, Staff Writer | |
| 2021-06-10 |
