As the anniversary of the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement arrives, HKFP looks back at the day protesters were evicted from the Admiralty base camp outside government headquarters. On December 11, as the remaining demonstrators left the site – or were removed – many left messages promising to return.
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Two Hong Kong cops freed over activist Ken Tsang assault case, five others have jail terms reduced
Two Hong Kong police officers walked free on Friday after the Court of Appeal overturned their convictions on the assault of activist Ken Tsang in 2014. Of the seven officers involved in the case, appeal judges on Friday found two of them not guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Their two-year jail sentences were quashed […]
During tough times for Hong Kong, some words of wisdom from a minibus uncle
Like many Hongkongers everywhere, I carry a heaviness around these past days – a raging, aching, messy heaviness that is shaped like loss, but also feels like anger. And before anyone helpfully explains that I should have seen this coming – that it’s hardly a surprise that the Chinese Communist Party would torpedo Hong Kong’s […]
Love and peace, or love and hate: is it ‘game over’ for civil disobedience as Hong Kong’s protest model?
By T-Fai Yeung At the beginning of 2013, Benny Tai, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, proposed the Occupy Central with Love and Peace Movement, with reference to Martin Luther King’s civil rights activism and John Rawls’ theory of civil disobedience. Some scholars and commentators have suggested that Occupy Central […]
‘If we lose, Hong Kong will become Xinjiang’: The Umbrella Movement generation, five years on
by Jasmine Leung and Yan Zhao From doing homework by torchlight to hurling flaming molotov cocktails at riot police: the character of Hong Kong’s protests has changed dramatically in five years, with young demonstrators hardened by the failure of their peaceful Umbrella Movement. Then-student Bunny was one of thousands of Hong Kongers who camped out on […]
Hong Kong’s director of public prosecutions David Leung resigns over differences with justice secretary
Hong Kong’s Director of Public Prosecutions David Leung has resigned from his role, citing differences with the Secretary for Justice (SJ) Teresa Cheng. “It is most unfortunate that I do not see eye to eye with the SJ on the running of the PD [Prosecutions Division], and the situation has not improved with the passage […]
Hong Kong police arrest Tony Chung for allegedly vandalising a flag pole. Why the dawn swoop?
I am indebted to a kind reader who brought up an interesting aspect of police procedure in cases with what we might call a political flavour. The Occupy Nine were, we were told, all arrested at various times between two and three years after the events which led to them being charged. Why? This is […]
PTSD and protests: How the violence on Hong Kong’s streets impacts mental health
The first panic attack took place two weeks after Sarah (not her real name) was caught in the middle of an evening protest in Admiralty on September 29, during which multiple rounds of tear-gas were fired by the police. “I’ve never felt afraid for my life. I’ve always been brave,” she told HKFP. “I’ve always […]
Hong Kong rights must be ‘fully respected’, says UK after Umbrella Movement activists jailed
Free speech and assembly rights in Hong Kong must be “fully respected”, Britain said on Thursday, a day after leaders of the city’s democracy movement were jailed for organising mass protests in 2014. “It would be deeply concerning if the outcome for these individuals were to deter the people of Hong Kong from participating in […]
Interview: Homework came first – the secret shame behind Perry Dino’s Hong Kong protest art
It is not unusual for Hongkongers who were alive in 1989 to remember vividly what it was they were doing on June 4th that year. Artist Perry Dino, known for his prolific protest painting, is no exception. As he recalls this memory, he is sat among stacks of works in oil. His modest studio is […]