'The bravery of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement must not be forgotten', Benedict Rogers

Ten years ago this week, a sea of yellow umbrellas filled the streets of Hong Kong in what at the time was the largest mass campaign for democracy in the city. In what became known as the ‘Umbrella Movement’, the people of Hong Kong courageously showed the world their desire for freedom – and their determination to fight for it. For 79 days, crowds occupied major streets in the centre of Hong Kong, demanding genuine multi-party democracy.

The protests were preceded by demands by civil rights groups in an unofficial referendum for universal suffrage in elections for the city’s chief executive (effectively, the mayor) – a right promised in Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law. At the end of August 2014, Beijing responded by announcing that the 2017 chief executive election and the 2020 legislative council election would indeed be by universal suffrage – but that Beijing would handpick all the candidates. To which the ‘father’ of Hong Kong’s democracy movement, distinguished barrister Martin Lee, quite rightly retorted:

Hong Kong people will have one person, one vote, but Beijing will select all the candidates – puppets. What is the difference between a rotten apple, a rotten orange and a rotten banana? We want genuine universal suffrage and not democracy with Chinese characteristics.

On 28 September 2014, the movement – though already underway – began in earnest, with tens of thousands of Hong Kongers occupying the city’s financial district, singing ‘Do You Hear the People Sing?’ from Les Miserables. School and university students demonstrated by day, and were pictured diligently doing their homework in their tents by night. Protesters picked up litter from the demonstrations in order to keep the streets clean. They were the most orderly, well-behaved, moderate and decent protests imaginable.

While the protests were entirely peaceful, the police response was not. Hong Kong’s Catholic Bishop Emeritus, Cardinal Joseph Zen, was arrested and Martin Lee tear-gassed.

‘Like many of the other tens of thousands of calm and non-violent protesters in the Hong Kong streets … I was shocked when the pro-democracy crowd was met by throngs of police officers in full riot gear, carrying weapons and wantonly firing canisters of tear gas,’ Mr Lee said.

‘After urging the crowd to remain calm under provocation, I got hit by a cloud of the burning fumes. The protesters persevered. They ran away when gassed, washed their faces and returned with raised hands. But the police continued to escalate the crisis. Their aggressive actions hardened the resolve of Hong Kongers, many of them too young to vote, to defend our freedoms.’

The Umbrella Movement was a remarkable alliance of young radical students, middle-aged mainstream academics, and the elder generation of the pro-democracy movement. Although generational differences and tensions over strategy existed, it largely held together. The courage of its participants – as well as the disproportionate police brutality – paved the way for the escalations that followed.

It was also the spark that led to my own involvement with Hong Kong’s fight for freedom – which has been my major focus for the past decade. Hong Kong was once my home, and it was where I began my working life. In September 1997 – just two months after the city’s handover to China – I moved to Hong Kong to start my first job as a journalist, and lived there for five years. In those early years, Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy remained largely intact. As a young journalist, I was able to publish stories, columns and editorials critical of the governments in Hong Kong and Beijing that today would land me in jail. When I left in 2002, I never imagined I would see the transformation of what was one of Asia’s most open cities into one of its most repressive police states.

Yet when I saw – from afar – the inspirational courage of Hong Kongers and the cruel repression of the regime in 2014, I knew I could not stay silent. Shocked by how few people in London or around the world were speaking out, I started to do what I could by writing articles and talking to parliamentarians and policy-makers.

From there, I engaged with the movement and hosted prominent Hong Kong activists when they came to London. Three years later, realising that it was unsustainable for me to advocate for Hong Kong on my own, in my spare time, with no organisational infrastructure, I co-founded Hong Kong Watch – an initiative that proved to be more prescient than we realised.

The response of Beijing and its quislings in Hong Kong to the Umbrella Movement was to crack down – initially with a piecemeal approach, and then with wholesale repression. Key ringleaders were arrested and jailed, elected legislators whom Beijing particularly disliked were disqualified, and repressive legislation that encroached on but did not totally dismantle Hong Kong’s liberties was introduced.

Then came the 2019 protests, which led to escalation on both sides. Over the past four years, since Beijing imposed a draconian national security law on Hong Kong, the city’s freedoms have been completely dismantled. Freedom of expression, assembly and association no longer exist in Hong Kong, press freedom has been almost entirely destroyed, academic freedom is under pressure and religious freedom is threatened.

Over 60 civil society organisations have been forced to disband, almost all independent and pro-democracy media has been shut down, and the founder of Apple Daily, British citizen Jimmy Lai, the editors of Stand News and dozens of journalists are in jail or face constant harassment and threat. The entire pro-democracy camp has been removed from Hong Kong’s legislature and disqualified from contesting future ‘elections’; many of them are now in jail.

In Hong Kong today, forget about organising an Umbrella Movement. Even wearing a T-shirt with a pro-democracy slogan, singing a song that Beijing dislikes or posting a comment on social media can land you in prison.

I have experienced the transformation of Hong Kong from open society to police state first-hand. In 2017, I was denied entry to the city. Since then I have been threatened with a jail sentence, named as a collaborator in the trial of Jimmy Lai and received dozens of anonymous intimidatory letters at my home address in London. Even my neighbours and my mother have received letters telling them to shut me up. Thankfully my neighbours expressed their support and my mother told me she had given up many years ago trying to get me to shut up.

Most of my Hong Kong friends are now in jail or in exile

Most of my Hong Kong friends are now in jail or in exile – and those who are not, I no longer contact because I do not want to endanger them. I have gone from daily contact with dozens of friends in Hong Kong to zero contact except for those who have left the city.

So as we look back at these ten years, what do we do? First, let us remember the Umbrella Movement, honour its leaders and participants, and retain its inspiration in our hearts. Second, the international community – and especially the British government – must make it a priority to demand the release of Hong Kong’s political prisoners. The Prime Minister should meet at the earliest opportunity with Jimmy Lai’s son Sebastien, and use every opportunity to seek his release, as well as that of Umbrella Movement leaders such as Joshua Wong and Benny Tai, and the hundreds of other political prisoners unjustly jailed.

And third, Beijing should face consequences for its actions. Over the past decade, Xi Jinping’s regime has torn up its promises made in an international treaty, the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and, by destroying Hong Kong’s freedoms, trampled on the international rules-based order. That should not go unchallenged. Targeted sanctions should be imposed on individuals and entities in Beijing and Hong Kong that are responsible. If Xi is allowed to get away with this with impunity, then we are all at risk.

The lesson of the Umbrella Movement is that there is inspirational beauty and nobility in standing bravely in defence of democracy. But unless it is matched with international solidarity and meaningful policy, in the short-term at least, it can be snuffed out. Like a flower, it can bloom and then wither. It is our responsibility to keep the memory of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement alive, to inspire a continued struggle for the defence of freedom itself, in Hong Kong and around the world.

This article was published in The Spectator on 28 September 2024.