Fight For Freedom, Stand With Hong Kong

Hong Kong protesters gear up at 'National Calamity Hardware Store'

By Jessie Pang

Keita Lee, 33, owner of the "National Calamity Hardware Store" poses at his shop in Hong Kong, China, September 27, 2019. 

HONG KONG -- While months of anti-government protests have taken a toll on Hong Kong businesses, from luxury retailers to hotels and restaurants, Keita Lee’s pop-up stall is thriving.
Since demonstrations escalated in mid-June, Lee, 33, has been running what he has dubbed the National Calamity Hardware Store, selling protest essentials -- hard hats, gas masks and goggles -- near rally hot spots.
Part-entrepreneur, part-activist, he has taken out short-term leases on storefronts in at least four districts, shifting to evade police and hostile landlords.
“I’ve never had a business like this before. It’s insane,” Lee told Reuters in his latest shop in the gritty district of Cheung Sha Wan on the Kowloon peninsula.
Hong Kong’s government invoked colonial-era emergency laws last week, including a ban on face masks, which have been widely used by protesters to hide their identities. 

Lee dismissed any suggestion the regulation would hurt his business, saying more protesters had come to his stall.
“The legislation of the anti-mask law only intensifies the social conflict,” he said.
“If the government can invoke emergency powers to pass certain laws or ordinances, they can use it to pass other unreasonable bills recklessly.”

‘HONG KONG HAS A FREE MARKET’
Protests against a now-withdrawn extradition law that would have allowed suspects to be sent to mainland China for trial, have evolved into a broader fight for greater democracy, plunging Hong Kong into its biggest political crisis in decades.
Most weekends, black-clad protesters throng the streets in demonstrations that have increasingly descended into violent clashes with police, who often fire tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds.
Protective equipment has become harder to find, since the Chinese government restricted sales and exports of safety equipment into Hong Kong. 

This has made Lee even more determined to keep his business going.
“Hong Kong has a free market. I am running the business without violating any law. We only announce our pop-up address one hour before we open the stall so it’s almost impossible for the police to obtain a search warrant in time,” he said.
Lee says his stall has been a constant target of the police and he has been arrested twice.
Police said in a statement to Reuters that a 33-year-old surnamed Lee, and five others, had been arrested on Sept. 30 on charges including possession of offensive weapons and inciting and taking part in unauthorized assemblies. 

They were released on bail.
Lee denies the charges.
He says it is a constant challenge to find new suppliers in Southeast Asia, Taiwan and the United States.

‘FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM’
Lee’s political views go further than some other protesters opposed to what they see as the erosion of Hong Kong’s autonomy and freedoms by China’s Communist Party leaders. 

He openly backs independence for the territory, a taboo topic for Beijing.
“Independence can’t be finished within our generation. It will take a few generations,” he said.

Although Lee no longer protests on the front lines, he is sympathetic to the young activists and often offers discounts to hard-up customers.
“If we want to rebel against the authoritarian regime, we should do it without thinking about the price. At most, I will apply for bankruptcy. If we lose this fight, we will lose a few generations’ freedom,” he said.
Lee says his work keeps him busy at all hours and he snatches a few hours of sleep when he can.
“The only regret I have is that I don’t have time to spend with my seven-year-old daughter and five-year-old son,” he said.
“I hope they will understand one day that I’m fighting for their freedom.”

Hong Kong protests: The Taiwanese sending 2,000 gas masks

By Cindy Sui
Alex Ko holding a gas mask in a church storage room

Soft-spoken, bespectacled, and based 650km (400 miles) from Hong Kong, Alex Ko is far removed from the widespread protests sweeping the former British colony.
But he's exactly the kind of person China is worried about.
In recent weeks, when protesters were battling police on the streets of Hong Kong demanding universal suffrage, and their freedoms to be preserved by China, Mr Ko, 23, didn't just watch idly online.
He launched a donation drive for gas masks, air filters and helmets at his church.
He's since collected more than 2,000 sets of such gear, and sent them to Hong Kong protesters to protect them against tear gas regularly fired by the police.
"I've never been to Hong Kong, but I feel I have no reason not to care," he says.
"As a Christian, when we see people hurt and attacked, I feel we have to help them. [And] As a Taiwanese, I'm worried we may be next."
While Hong Kong is a former British colony that reverted to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, Taiwan has been ruled separately since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

But Beijing sees the island as a province to be reunified with China one day -- by force if necessary.
Fears that China will one day control Taiwan, turning it into the next Hong Kong, have made Taiwan's government and people the strongest supporters of Hong Kong's protesters.
Taiwan's government has repeatedly urged Beijing and Hong Kong's authorities to respond positively to protesters' demand for democracy -- and fulfil their promises of maintaining freedoms and autonomy.
And Taiwanese people -- while previously more concerned about Hong Kong's Cantopop and dim sum -- have turned out in increasingly large numbers to show support for the anti-extradition-turned-pro-democracy movement.Around 300 students in Taipei formed a human chain to support the Hong Kong protesters in August

"Even though Taiwan is separated from China by the Taiwan Strait, our political status is not a Special Administrative Region like Hong Kong," Mr Ko says.
"We are not a part of China, it could invade us one day. By joining forces [with Hong Kong], we are stronger. One day we might need their help too."
Beijing meanwhile has accused Taiwan, along with the United States, of being "black hands" fomenting the protests.
While there's no evidence of Taiwan helping to organise or fund the protests at a state level, there has been contact between activists since Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement and Taiwan's Sunflower Movement in 2014. 

Both stemmed from fears of Beijing rolling back democracy in their respective societies.
Hong Kong democracy activists, such as Joshua Wong, have visited Taiwan to meet Taiwan's activists. 

The founding of Mr Wong's Demosisto party was reportedly inspired by Taiwan's New Power Party.
The recent storming and trashing of Hong Kong's parliament also mirrored a similar incident in Taipei, Taiwan's capital. 

And Taiwan's ruling party and an opposition party recently voiced support for granting asylum to Hong Kong protesters who need it.
This joining of hands by Hong Kong and Taiwan could mean double the trouble for Beijing. 

But not everyone thinks Taiwan will be the next Hong Kong.

"Taiwan has independence and democracy; what Hong Kong people are fighting for, we already have -- universal suffrage," says Yen Hsiao-lien, a retired lawyer.
Since the protests, President Tsai Ing-wen 's approval ratings have risen significantly.

President Tsai, from the pro-Taiwan independence ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), is ahead of Han Kuo-yu from the opposition Kuomintang (KMT).
None of this is lost on Beijing, says academic Andy Chang.
Partly because of fears of President Tsai being re-elected, Beijing was willing to withdraw Hong Kong's extradition bill in early September when faced with large-scale protests, Mr Chang says.
"It [the Chinese government] doesn't want to give Tsai Ing-wen more advantage in the upcoming election," he says.
But China's leaders will only give in so much. 

They are more concerned about their biggest threat -- challenges to their power from within.
They think democracy movements could usurp their power or become tools for their rivals to oust them.
"They feel if they totally accept the protesters' demands, it will release the floodgates and make other places in the mainland become unstable. After all, the kid who cries gets candy," says Mr Chang.
"It doesn't want to show that people who use forceful methods to make their demands will get Beijing's support. This is totally different from how leaders in a democratic society think."
Increasingly, Beijing is taking action to discourage Taiwanese people from supporting their neighbour's fight for freedom and self-rule.

Lee Meng-chu, photographed in June 2019.

Recently, Chinese authorities arrested Taiwanese businessman Lee Meng-chu on suspicion of taking part in activities that threaten national security. 

Mr Lee's friends say he is an ordinary small trading company owner who simply visited Hong Kong protesters to cheer them up, two days before crossing the border into mainland China.
But, in a show of defiance, Taiwanese people have helped previously detained Hong Kong bookseller Lam Wing-kee raise money to reopen his Causeway Bay bookstore in Taipei.
His Hong Kong store sold politically sensitive books about Chinese leaders and mailed them to the mainland, which led to him and four colleagues to be detained in 2015. 

The store was later shut down. 

Mr Lam fled to Taiwan in April, because of the extradition bill.
In just the past week, Taiwanese donors helped him raise more than $5.4m Taiwanese dollars ($174,000; £140,000) in his crowdfunding campaign -- nearly double his funding goal.
Slowly but surely, the people of Hong Kong and Taiwan see their fate as tied.
They are the only two places in Greater China that have tasted freedom -- and some believe by joining forces, they could show the Chinese leadership and people how much democracy is worth fighting for.

加油!

Hong Kong Students Begin School Year With Gas Masks, Class Boycotts and Protests
By Tiffany May and Elaine Yu

High school students participated in a strike in central Hong Kong on Monday.

HONG KONG — High school students in Hong Kong starting the new school year on Monday arrived to class wearing gas masks and joined hands to form human chains. 

University undergraduates held a strike, waved flags and chanted protest slogans.
After a summer of demonstrating in the streets, outside municipal offices and in the airport, students refuted the government’s wishful assertion that once they returned to school the months of pro-democracy protests that have roiled the city would come to an end.
“The government thinks it can quell the movement when students return to school, because we can only come out during the summer,” said Owen Lo, 16, a high school student. 

“But that’s not true.”
He said he was afraid of the repercussions he and other students might face but “seeing so many students selflessly gambling their future to express their demands to the government, it is infectious, and makes me want to come out and do something for Hong Kong.”
Students who gathered at a plaza near the Central Business District were joined by thousands of workers holding a concurrent strike, exemplifying the multigenerational makeup of the protests.
“Through these peaceful activities, many citizens are coming out to show their comrades on the front lines that public opinion has not turned against them,” said Peter Chui, a 24-year-old engineer.
Hundreds of thousands of people have joined protests that began in June to oppose an unpopular bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be extradited to mainland China for trial. 

As the summer unfolded, the protesters’ demands grew to include a call for universal suffrage and an independent inquiry into accusations of police brutality. 

The protests have also become more violent, as a core group of demonstrators — many of them high school and university students — have fought with the police and damaged symbols of Chinese authority.
Police officers attacked unarmed demonstrators inside a subway station on Saturday, and protesters on Sunday disrupted transit for thousands of travelers at Hong Kong’s international airport, the seventh-busiest in the world.

An assembly of student demonstrators at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Monday.

Tensions on Monday, the first day of school for many students, ran high. 

Police officers monitored the student protests and riot police officers were deployed to subway stations — a sign of the fears that the weekend’s tumultuous protests would continue onto campuses. But the activism Monday morning remained peaceful.
High school students around the territory protested in various ways across campuses, reflecting the diversity of the movement. 

They wore black shirts or eye patches to commemorate a first-aid volunteer who recently lost an eye to a projectile shot by the police. 

Others studied in the library or designated classrooms rather than participate in normal classes.
A group of secondary school students from St. Francis’ Canossian College, the alma mater of the city’s leader, Chief Executive Carrie Lam, carried signs and donned construction helmets or gas masks, gear typically saved for more violent protests. 

One sign read: “Chief Executive, will you listen to the voices of the younger sisters from your school?”
Tens of thousands of students from schools and universities across the city crammed the central commons on the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong to listen to speeches from professors, lawyers and student protesters.

A demonstration on Monday at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Many striking students said they had exhausted other avenues of protests and that class boycotts were the most peaceful way of resistance. 

Some emphasized in a statement the principle of “boycotting classes but continuing to learn,” by more directly engaging in current affairs and in civic lessons.
“This is more important than school,” said Krystal Hung, a university student who planned to boycott classes in the short term. 

“I can catch up on studies on my own even if I’d skipped classes. And if I don’t come out this time, I may not have another chance in the future.”
Jessie Cheung, a 17-year-old high school student, said she felt drained after splitting her summer between attending protests and studying for college entrance exams. 

She has not skipped a single march since the movement began during her exams in June, she said.
“It all adds up. I’m getting more tired and with the start of school, there will be more things to worry about,” she said. 

“On the one hand, I have to care about my grades, and on the other, I need to perform my civic duty.”
The Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union, which has a history of supporting pro-democracy protests, said in a statement that while its members believed that undergraduates had the maturity to decide whether to strike, the group would neither organize nor endorse high school class boycotts.
Ip Kin-yuen, the vice-president of the union and a lawmaker who represents the education sector, said he encouraged schools to accommodate the wishes of high school students boycotting classes within schools.
Karen Yong, a 52-year-old teacher, said that she would follow the instructions of the school authorities but felt helpless after watching students protest all summer without achieving their goals.
“In this social climate, I don’t know what to tell my students. You could be very authentic, serious and engaged with society, but what happens to you could be quite tragic,” Ms. Yong said, referring to the arrests of protesters and prominent activists and lawmakers. 

“In the end, I may just have to tell them to get good test results, and find a good job and make good money — that’s all. Is that the point of education?”
Joshua Wong, a prominent 22-year-old activist whose activism as a secondary student played a prominent role in citywide protests, said that class boycotts represented the most peaceful forms of resistance against Beijing.
”When we can’t see the future of our society, how can we see our personal future and our personal career?” he said in a phone interview. 

The class boycotts were not the “starting point and not the end point” of the protest movement, he added. 

“It just shows how our momentum keeps going forward.”

Revolution's Supply Chain

Gas mask sales soar in Taiwan as Hong Kong protesters seek fresh supplies

• Shops in Taipei start running out of stock and could wait months to get more
• Church collects donated equipment to send to ‘those in need’ in Hong Kong

By Lawrence Chung

Hong Kong protesters have been sourcing gas masks in Taipei after supplies were exhausted at home.

Sales of gas masks have soared in Taiwan, with some shops reportedly running out of stock in the past month as Hongkongers snap up supplies on the island to protect themselves during extradition bill protests.
A sales manager at Taipei-based Ceachain Enterprise, a wholesale and online supplier of protective equipment, said the company had triple-digit growth in sales of gas masks and filters compared with the same time last year.
“We are running out of stock of [one model] and it will take three months to get more from the manufacturer,” she said, adding that other models that were just as effective were still in stock.
Since June, police in Hong Kong have fired more than 1,800 rounds of tear gas during protests triggered by the now-shelved extradition bill.
Health experts warn that improper use of the crowd-control agent could turn it into a deadly weapon.
Supplies of gas masks ran out in Hong Kong last month and courier companies have reportedly stopped delivering the products from the mainland, prompting some protesters to turn to Taiwan.

“Because demand is growing daily, we finally decided to allow individual buyers to purchase and pick up the products from our company as long as they make their orders by phone a day in advance,” the Ceachain manager said.
Another wholesaler in Taipei said that not many people bought the respiratory equipment before the protests started but sales at his company had skyrocketed in recent weeks.

Hong Kong shoppers have been snapping up gas masks in Taipei.

“We sold out of more than 3,000 units in just one month – that’s already three times more than we ordered from manufacturers for all of last year,” he said.
At Fusheng Chemicals and Instruments, also in Taipei, a sales employee said that almost everybody who went to the shop bought multiple sets of the equipment, with each set including a face mask, two filter cartridges and a pack of filter pads.
“They told me they need to take them back to Hong Kong for their friends and themselves because they couldn’t find new supplies there,” the employee said, adding that the company did not send orders to Hong Kong.
“We have prepared 10 sets for a Hong Kong customer who is supposed to come to get them soon.”
One customer, a 27-year-old office worker from Hong Kong, said he was buying the equipment for his friends.
“No tear gas was used in the last protest but [Hong Kong Chief Executive] Carrie Lam and the police have not guaranteed they won’t use it on the August 31 protest, so it might be safer for us to buy them here to prepare in advance,” he said.
He said he was not on the front line of the protests and so had not encountered tear gas, but some of his friends who scuffled with police came away with severe coughs and eye inflammations.
“We tried to buy or order the gear locally, but couldn’t find supplies in Hong Kong,” he said.
Huang Chun-sheng, head pastor of the Che-Lam Presbyterian Church in Taiwan, said the congregation had started collecting supplies of respiratory equipment for the protesters after hearing reports that none were available in Hong Kong.
“We have been told online stores like [mainland online shopping website] Taobao and couriers like SF Express have faced mounting pressure for selling or shipping those products to Hong Kong and have stopped the services,” Huang said.
“Some enthusiastic supporters in Taiwan started to donate the products and asked us to arrange to have the equipment sent to those in need in Hong Kong.”

Pastor Huang Chun-sheng (right) of Taipei-based Che-Lam Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and a volunteer worker show some of the respiratory equipment they will send to Hong Kong. 

Taobao is owned by Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post.
So far, his church had sent more than 1,000 sets of the equipment to Hong Kong, either through the post or via personal couriers.
“We do this out of humanitarian concern, especially after reports that many innocent people were injured during the protests,” Huang said.
Beijing has accused Taipei of fanning the unrest in Hong Kong by supplying protective gear to Hong Kong protesters.
Earlier this week, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, lashed out at Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and her government, accusing them of “playing an extremely disgraceful role” in Hong Kong’s unrest and demanding they “withdraw their black hands from Hong Kong”.
Ma also warned Taiwan against offering asylum to Hong Kong protesters, saying Beijing would not tolerate any attempt by Taipei to meddle in Hong Kong’s affairs.
Beijing considers Taiwan a wayward province awaiting unification by force if necessary.
It has suspended official exchanges with the country since Tsai took office in 2016 and refused to accept the fallacious "one-China principle".