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 gave an exclusive telephone interview to the Voice of America.
The Hong Kong Hammer, who speaks English, Cantonese and Mandarin, told Voice of America that he could not use his real name or disclose his real face “or else his mom, dad and friends in Hong Kong would be in big trouble.”
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; when that march of more than a million people broke out in Hong Kong on June 9, he had already finished taking the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education DSE.
Originally, he planned to travel that summer after high school graduation, and then possibly apply for the Hong Kong Police Force. He said, “However, 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. “
The “courageous” faction of the anti-China movement has been portrayed as “thugs” by the Communist propaganda machine and its controlled “red media” for their vandalism of Hong Kong’s public facilities and pro-Communist businesses in an effort to pressure the authorities to change their attitude. “.
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.
According to public information, the police fired 1,002 tear gas canisters, 170 rubber bullets and 28 sponge rounds in response to the riot. They also arrested 148 people, the youngest of whom was 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 brought to Hong Kong by his own father in 1945 when he was still an infant, “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 bear a particularly heavy responsibility for improvement.”
In mid-November, the Hong Kong hammer and fellow participants in the defense of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, that is, the second bridge defense, “I held a hammer, Zhen guard in the Chinese University of vehicle entrance and exit one of the second bridge, fought the fortress war, in order to block the Ta Kung Pao, Wen Wei Po and CCTV and other red media 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, with police forcing their way into the university after protesters threw miscellaneous objects at the main road. Demonstrators 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 demanded to negotiate with the police commander, who ignored him and instead fired tear gas at him.
Hong Kong Hammer said he joined the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s defense of the university after the battle for 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. The 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, ‘Holy shit, I can go down and blow his head off with a stick,’ and I was woken up by the 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, was a former KMT soldier who “unfortunately” did not evacuate the mainland with the KMT.
When her grandfather was designated 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 the procedure according to Hong Kong law The office …… police ran over to me and said, ‘You’d better pay bail to get out, or I’ll send you to court.’ The family followed the rules, paid the HK$2,000 bail, and I was released.”
More than a month later, on Dec. 24, police announced his bail was cancelled and he was released without charge and his bail money was returned after Hong Kong Hammer refused to post further bail.
The police release document said, “You are today granted a cancellation of police bail and released unconditionally, the police investigation into the case in which you were arrested is still ongoing and if at a later date the police have sufficient evidence to bring charges against you, you will be arrested and charged again.”
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 viciously. 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 says he felt the situation would worsen and “figured I would be arrested again sooner or later,” so he made a snap decision to flee the city.
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 unlawful assembly.
While he worried for these fellow protesters, he also felt more grateful than ever for his slightly earlier sharp judgment and decisive 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 on 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 young people in Hong Kong escape danger.
A photo of “Hong Kong Hammer” on January 10 of this year when he crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. (Photo provided by me, he asked to hide his real face)
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