Sharing at King’s College London
在倫敦大學國王學院分享的講稿| Sharing at King’s College London
Hi folks, this is Billy Fung. In the bygone days, I engaged in student movement aiming at deterring the conspired intervention from Peking to my alma mater i.e. The University of Hong Kong and, hence safeguarding the institutional autonomy. On account of my participation, I was arrested, charged and convicted. People therefore call me an “activist”. However, for now, being an “activist” or some pro-Peking media would say “rioter” entails a much higher threshold in Hong Kong. Since the commencement of anti-extradition law movement in June, thousands of people were being arrested, tortured and interrogated by the so-called Asia’s finest Hong Kong police force, if not the odious gestapo. One of my junior fellow students from my high school was even being shot unlawfully, unreasonably and inhumanely by the gestapo without any prior warning. I nurse a great grievance against the Hong Kong’s government, the Chinese Communist and their collaborators.
However, with due respect to this occasion, I would like to first step back to the ivory tower and compare this movement with the umbrella revolution five years ago involving the keywords like slogan, ways of mobilization, the use of force of the protesters and the gestapo and burgeoning local identity in Hong Kong, etc. Lastly, I would also like to make a sincere plea for your help for Hong Kong’s sake.
Five years ago, in the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, more than ten thousands students gathered and shouted a strikingly abnormal slogan, which is “against the colonial rule and unreasonable selection of CE candidate. Hong Kong people shall determine our own way” (抗殖反篩選 自主港人路) which was initiated by the Hong Kong Federation of Students. Some may then be very curious about why would the students during which considered Hong Kong was under the colonial rule or manifested certain form of colonialism; especially Hong Kong has been returned to her “motherland” for 17 years at that point of time. The incoming regime, the People’s Republic of China, claimed Hong Kong’s territory without Hong Kong people’s consent from our former and respectable metropole, the British Empire. The only difference between the advent of British Lion and Chinese Dragon to Hong Kong is that when the lion’s paw arrived Hong Kong, residents from Macau and Canton came all the way to Hong Kong because of the reputation of British Empire and people desperately seek for migration right before the red tide reached Hong Kong in 1997. In that sense, the Chinese regime is an alien regime like the British Empire, regardless of their popularity.
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The slogan for the anti-extradition law movement contains similar message subtly. The most famous slogan in this campaign five years later is “Liberate Hong Kong! Revolution Now!” (光復香港 時代革命). It was a political appeal initiated by the political prisoner Edward Leung, who was being deprived the rights to run for the parliamentary election. His sacrifice earned our greatest respect. Somehow by employing his slogan, people would like to, in my own opinion, inherit his spirit of struggle. So, what does “Liberation” mean to Hong Kongers? We employed the term “Hong Kong Liberation Day” after the arrival of General Harcourt to Hong Kong and the resumption of British rule at the end of second world war from the hand of the militant Japanese troops. Liberation means getting rid of fear, authoritarian rule and inhumane government and replacing it by good and benevolent governance, considering government and most pivotally civilization. Similarly, the slogan offered an inkling to Hong Kong’s plight: being ruled under the authoritarian and fascist metropole i.e. China. And the civilised Hong Kongers would like to strive for freedom, democracy, human rights and the freedom from fear and hence regain our glorious homeland!
From the above observation, can we very illogically jump to the conclusion that people in Hong Kong are seeking for independence? My answer is no. I would consider the outbreak of the large-scale social movements in Hong Kong over the past few years however is the result of the structural conflict of “one country, two systems” principle. From the very beginning of the negotiation of Hong Kong’s future in the last century, Hong Kong was considered as the goose laying the golden eggs for China. During which, Deng has made it clear that they need Hong Kong’s contribution to China’s modernisation and want to preserve investment confidence according to the archival document PREM 19/789 Future of Hong Kong (Part 1). The very first prototype of the “One Country, Two Systems” was the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, shedding the light on the crux of the resumption of Hong Kong i.e. economic benefit. Matters aside from that, indeed, they didn’t really care. The rhetoric of “dancing and horse racing going on as usual” was simply a cunning tactic to mislead Hong Kongers and an expedient measure to appeal Hong Kongers, craving retention of their investment confidence. After all, China at that time to a dominant extent concerned only the potential economic contribution from Hong Kong to China.
So, the next question is how did the discontent exacerbate so rapidly in the last decade? We can tell the change from the famous online forums which are Golden Forum and LIHKG Forum. In the past, Golden Forum was place for the political discussion but later on it was being hijacked by the cyber warrior and the freedom of expression was therefore limited in the recent years. Even so, eleven years ago, there was a very famous reply by a netizen when they were discussing the Chinese Olympic Game in 2008. The netizen said:
Damn it! I am not an Hong Konger! I am a Chinese.
Hi我唔係香港人，係中國人呀！
From the statistic, we can observe the drastic alteration. According to the survey conducted by the University of Hong Kong in 2019 , 51% of interviewee considered themselves as pure Hong Kongers and only 10.8% of them regarded themselves as a pure Chinese. Comparing with the same research in 2008, 34.4% of them regarded themselves as a pure Chinese and 21.8% of interviewee considered themselves as pure Hong Kongers. The statistic turned upside down over the last decade. Similarly, we expected the crowd in Hong Kong would by no means in favour of the violent move by the protesters. However, the research conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong disillusion all of us. 55.7% of interviewee said they understand protesters’ aggressive move and only 39.4 % of them considered the protesters were violent.
I reckon that the key of the aforementioned alteration can be explained by a bible quote: No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
In essence, the Hong Kong government could not serve the authoritarian and fascist Chinese government and the liberal-minded Hong Kongers at the same time. Since Hong Kong lacks democracy, it is inevitable for our local government to incline towards the fascist China. For example, the government was attempting to impose the brain-washing patriotic education in 2012, no democratic reform in 2007,2008 and 2014, unreasonable disqualification of the electoral candidates, reinterpretation of Basic Law, proposition of the national anthem law and political purge in the name of prosecution, etc. are the vivid examples. And all these shits happen in the last decade. It is not thus unreasonable for the Hong Kongers rendering a vigorous feedback.
These changes and incidents unavoidably fuel the social movement nowadays. Comparing with umbrella revolution, the online forum, which is LIHKG forum, played a key role and made the leaderless movement possible. An ordinary netizen can initiate his/ her own campaigns, ranging from protests to the calling for bank run. And the other would partake that campaign if he/ she deems fit. High degree of division of labour amongst the netizen were observed as well. For instance, some would be obliged to the political propaganda and some would share their own experiences pertaining to confronting the gestapo, etc. A robust civil society was formed on this online platform and it is a very interesting mobilization maneuvers which we can discuss about it later.
So, lastly, may I make a plea for your assistance to do whatever you can to help Hong Kong. Write to your MP, join the party, and most importantly carry on the struggle if Hong Kong is in the grip of the authoritarian Chinese government. Hong Kong people must and shall prevail! As Winston Churchill said, for without victory, there will be no survival.
