The 19-year-old Hong Kong man, who calls himself “Hong Kong Hammer”, grew up in Hong Kong. He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border from Tijuana, Mexico, to the United States on Jan. 10 of this year with the help of a human snake, and landed in Los Angeles, California. A month later, he was interviewed by the Voice of America by phone.
A photo of “Hong Kong Hammer” as he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 10. (Photo provided by me, he asked to hide his real face)
Hong Kong Hammer, who speaks English, Cantonese and Mandarin, told Voice of America that he can’t use his real name or reveal his real face, “or else his mom, dad and friends in Hong Kong would be in big trouble.”
A local photo taken by “Hong Kong Hammer” as he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on Jan. 10, 2021. (Courtesy of myself)
In March 2019, when Hong Kong began its anti-Send-China movement, Hong Kong Hammer was less than 18 years old, in his senior year of high school and about to graduate; he had already finished his Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education DSE when that march of more than a million people broke out in Hong Kong on June 9.
Originally, he planned to go out on a trip that summer after high school graduation and then possibly apply for the Hong Kong Police Force, he said, “but that will never be possible …… Hong Kong now has no more police officers to protect the people of Hong Kong, only the SAR Public Security Bureau.”
Hong Kong Hammer joined the anti-China movement and also participated in the Million Man March, becoming a “thug” against the police. “But I was just a little turnip,” he told Voice of America, “and after becoming a ‘thug,’ I wasn’t in the mood to travel anymore, thinking that things in Hong Kong were more important. “
In an effort to pressure the authorities to change their attitude, the “courageous” faction of the anti-China movement has vandalized public facilities and the renovations of pro-Communist businesses in Hong Kong, and has been portrayed as a “thug” by the Communist propaganda machine and the “red media” it controls. “.
As of November 30, 2020, Hong Kong police have arrested more than 10,000 people, ranging in age from 11 to 84 years old, in a number of anti-China demonstrations; at least 2,389 of them have been charged with rioting, assaulting police officers, and possession of offensive weapons.
Hong Kong Hammer said the Aug. 5, 2019, riots were “particularly powerful” with strikes, school and market strikes, and the MTR non-cooperation movement. “These are all things the Communists themselves have done before,” he said with a laugh.
He took part in that action, had been hit by tear gas fired by police, and had his liver blown out by police during a face-to-face confrontation with them, and still has vague pains after being hospitalized.
Publicly available information shows that the police fired 1,002 tear gas canisters, 170 rubber bullets and 28 sponge rounds to disperse the riot. They also arrested 148 people, the youngest being 13 years old.
I wore a bulletproof vest and gas mask that day and attended the rally over in Wong Tai Sin,” Hong Kong Hammer told Voice of America. Before I left the house, my father, who was in his 70s, watched me pack my bags and didn’t stop me, just said, ‘Oh son, you have to be careful.'”
Hong Kong Hammerhead said his father, who was still a young boy and brought to Hong Kong by his own father in 1945, “had not experienced the Communist-ruled mainland and had no ill feelings toward the Chinese Communist Party.”
The only child of his Parents, Hong Kong Hammerhead was politically enlightened by his mother from an early age. His mother once told him, “In a normal country, the responsibility for politics lies with the adults; in a perverted country, where there is no organ representing public opinion, the responsibility for interfering in politics falls on the young students.”
This quote comes from Hu Shih’s essay commemorating the first anniversary of the May Fourth Movement – “Our Hope for Students.” Hu Shih also said, “…… Only in countries with a very low degree of civilization, such as China at present, do students have a particularly deep relationship with society, and the responsibility for improvement they bear is particularly heavy.”
“Hong Kong Hammerman” participated in the defense of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in November 2019. (Photo courtesy of “Standpoint News”)
In mid-November, Hong Kong Hammer and his colleagues participated in the defense of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, also known as the No. 2 Bridge Defense, “with a hammer in my hand, I guarded the No. 2 Bridge, one of the vehicular entrances and exits of the Chinese University, and fought a fortress battle to stop the red media such as Ta Kung Pao, Wen Wei Po and CCTV from coming in… …we set up barriers and defended. This scene was seen by a reporter from Hong Kong’s ‘Stand News’ (Stand News) and filmed. This photo is what I looked like at the Time with a gas mask on my head and a bulletproof vest. I spray-painted the word ‘entry’ on the sign, haha.”
The clashes at the Chinese University of Hong Kong took place between Nov. 11 and 15, when protesters threw miscellaneous objects at the main road and police forced their way into the university. They demanded that the police evacuate the Chinese University and leave Bridge No. 2; they also wanted the government to promise that the 2019 Hong Kong District Council elections would not be cancelled or postponed, etc.; Chinese University President Duan Chongzhi asked to negotiate with the police commander, who ignored him and fired tear gas canisters at him.
Hong Kong Hammer said he joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in defending the university after the battle to defend the Chinese University of Hong Kong ended. The PolyU clashes were sparked by the previous Chinese University defense battle, the fall of Chow Tze Lok, and riot police dispersing protesters near PolyU.
On November 11, anti-revision protesters again launched the “three strikes” of strike, strike and strike, with some protesters entering the PolyU campus to avoid police pursuit. Police broke into PolyU without the university’s consent and fired tear gas into the campus. On the same day, PolyU issued an emergency suspension of classes and asked the protesters to leave the campus.
On November 13, protesters began to set up a defense line at Polytechnic University. Their clashes with police continued until Nov. 29.
Hong Kong Hammer told Voice of America that he had been guarding PolyU for three days and was arrested on campus after 2 a.m. on November 19: “We were surrendering to go out. At first I was sleeping on my chair, and I vaguely heard what seemed to be the police rushing in, and a policeman said, ‘Oh my God, I can go down with a stick and blow his head off,’ and I was awakened by shock.”
Before the arrest of the Hong Kong hammer man, his mother, along with dozens of parents, held a sit-in with a mask at the bridge entrance to PolyU, hoping to see her child, and expressed her wishes for her son through a media video, wishing him well and not to harm himself, and cried, “Mom is heartbroken, Hong Kong has encountered an unprecedented humanitarian crisis… …”
Hong Kong Hammer said his mother, a native of Sichuan, came to Hong Kong in 1999. She was born in the 1960s to a Family of Kuomintang veterans. His mother’s father, his maternal grandfather, had been a KMT soldier and was “unfortunate” not to have been evacuated from the mainland with the KMT back then.
When her grandfather was designated as a “counter-revolutionary” by the Chinese Communist Party, the family was implicated and her mother and sister-in-law used to hide under the bed to watch the family being criticized.
Hong Kong Hammer says her mother has been attending the June 4, 1989 commemorative events since she arrived in Hong Kong, “I remember when I was in third grade, I was taken by my mother to Victoria Square for the first time to attend a commemorative event. I didn’t know what it was, I just saw many candles flickering in the night with fire, and heard that those tanks ran over protesters and shot at their own people in Beijing.”
He told Voice of America that on Nov. 19 at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, he was arrested with “an estimated several hundred people …… police station is not enough to release …… off 48 hours later I was released, which is according to the procedures of Hong Kong law …… police ran over to me and said, ‘You better pay bail to get out, or I’ll send you to court.’ The family followed the rules and paid the HK$2,000 bail, and I was released.”
More than a month later, on Dec. 24, Hong Kong police announced his bail was cancelled, he was released without charge and the bail money was returned after he refused further bail.
The police release document said, “You are today granted cancellation of police bail and released unconditionally, the police investigation into the case in which you were arrested is still ongoing and you will be arrested and charged again if the police have sufficient evidence to charge you at a later date.”
This bail cancellation document has a long tail of “settling scores after the fall”.
Hong Kong Hammer recalls, “About three months later, at eight or nine o’clock one morning, a dozen police officers from the Anti-Triad Unit found me at Home. They said they suspected the possession of offensive weapons and searched my house, very vicious. I was naked and they ordered me to put on my clothes. My mother recorded the video on the sidelines, however, they were forced to delete it.”
On July 1, the “Hong Kong version of the National Security Law” came into force. The law gives unparalleled status to the central authorities, while giving the Hong Kong government and police enormous powers.
Hong Kong Hammer said he felt the situation would worsen and that he “figured I would be arrested again sooner or later,” so he made the decision to flee Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong Hammer crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into the United States on Jan. 10, 2021, with the help of “human snakes. This is a photo he took at the border. (Courtesy of myself)
In August, he flew to London’s Heathrow airport with £1,000 and was taken in by a local friend in the U.K. In September, he learned from the media that 25 protesters like himself who had been released unconditionally from the PolyU siege had been re-arrested and charged with illegal assembly. While worried for these fellow protesters, he felt more grateful than ever for his slightly earlier keen judgment and bold decision.
Arriving in the UK, Hong Kong Hammerhead could only stay legally for six months as he did not have British overseas citizenship. So he decided to move on and flew to Mexico in early January this year, and with the help of human snakes, smuggled himself into California from Tijuana at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Currently, Hong Kong Hammer is staying in a Los Angeles-area bed and breakfast with the financial support of fellow Hong Kong residents, and is busy making preparations for subsequent landings, including submitting an application to the U.S. government to request political asylum.
He told Voice of America that he is worried about his parents who remain in Hong Kong and intends to join the U.S. military and have his mom and dad come to the U.S. for reunification as soon as possible after he is allowed to stay legally. In the meantime, he will do what he can to help the young people in Hong Kong escape the danger.
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