Last week, the National Security Division of the Hong Kong police arrested more than 50 candidates and organizers who had participated in the primary election of the democratic Legislative Council last July. Even the conservative democrats, who lost the primary election and whose political views converged with those of the pro-establishment camp, were among those arrested. The National Security Division arrested them solely on the basis of their plans to obtain a majority in the Legislative Council election, which was later cancelled, and to veto the government’s financial pre-election. The enforcement of the National Security Law has reached the point of unwarranted arbitrary arrests.
Initially used against advocates of Hong Kong independence and courageous protesters, as well as friends involved in international lobbying in foreign countries, the National Security Law is now being used to arrest even pan-democrats who are closest to the establishment. It is conceivable that once Beijing feels it has fully subdued the opposition, the National Security Law will soon be used against other political and business elites in the upper echelons of the power struggle. The disappearance of Jack Ma and the life sentence of Hu Huibang, the former chairman of China Development Bank, should also send chills down the spines of Hong Kong’s wealthy local and mainland businessmen and establishment figures when they see it. Now the Hong Kong authorities are temporarily not prosecuting the 50 or so people arrested last week, letting them out on bail and confiscating their travel documents. This shows that the arrests may not be to put them in jail, but to prevent any more democrats from going into exile overseas.
When Xu Zhifeng, a fellow moderate pan-democrat, went into exile, his and his family’s bank accounts and credit cards were frozen. Beijing has continued to attack Britain and other countries for opening their doors to Hong Kong people, and to study punishing Hong Kong people with foreign passports, showing that Beijing is very concerned about the emerging community of Hong Kong people overseas, and even the protest movement of Hong Kong people overseas. When some exiles spoke to the media about planning a Hong Kong parliament in exile, Beijing reacted sharply, warning that no country would allow the parliament to operate.
It will not be easier to solve the problems of living and maintaining morale than to stay in Hong Kong and face oppressive rule. When I learned that an overseas Hong Kong youth had started a magazine, Ru Shui, to rally the Hong Kong diaspora community, and invited me to write the foreword for the inaugural issue, I gladly agreed. The following words are an encouragement to them and an exhortation to all those Hong Kong people who have chosen to leave but whose ideals remain unquenched.
In any movement for freedom, there are low tides and high tides. The progress of human history is always moving forward in the alternation of high and low tides. What determines whether you can reach your goal in the end is not only how far you can go when the situation is good, but also how far you can go when the situation is difficult without going backwards or sinking, and using the time of silence and waiting for opportunities to enrich yourself and prepare for the time when opportunities come again.
To change the status quo to achieve the ideal, action and ideas are indispensable. Uninterrupted action can lead to fatigue and blindness. Sometimes when action is suppressed and unable to advance, it can actually be a blessing, because this is the time when we can read, debate, reflect and deepen our ideas. Water can converge into a huge torrent that can break through walls, but more often than not it evaporates into an elusive fog, and in the cold of winter it gathers into ice, crouching and waiting to run again when it warms up, but in any case it will not disappear. Those who have the opportunity to further their studies abroad during the winter should take advantage of it to arm their minds and exercise their wills.
From the early 1990s to the present, in Hong Kong and overseas, I have seen the many faces of different democratic protest movements at their low ebb, some collapsing, some turning the corner, and some taking the bull by the horns in the midst of constant division and infighting. I am convinced that the young people of Hong Kong, who have experienced the dramatic changes in Hong Kong and the world situation in the past decade, are not imprisoned by the demons of Greater China or the rigid ideology of the Cold War era as the previous generation was, and have a broader vision and should be better equipped to face the headwinds. But there is still a lesson to be learned from the past.
One cannot be unhappy to learn that aspiring young people in Hong Kong who are now scattered around the world to continue their studies are going to run the magazine Ru Shui as a platform for the exchange of ideas and debates. The overseas Hong Kong people I have met over the years in Europe and the United States and elsewhere are, for one thing, small in number and, for another, mostly more interested in quick success and practical gain. Now there are overseas Hong Kong people who are willing to volunteer to organize a platform to explore the thinking of the World Bureau and the future of Hong Kong, not unprecedented, but also precious and commendable. I hope that when we meet and celebrate at the bottom of the pot one day, we will be grateful for the contribution that the ideological nourishment of “Ru Shui” has made to the victory. That day will surely come.
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