Michele Penna Oct 03, 2014
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters gather at Hong Kong’s Mongkok district Monday evening. Pic: AP.
“The Chinese authorities must immediately and unconditionally release all those detained for peacefully showing support for pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.” Amnesty International delivered a tough message on October 1 – China’s National Day, marking the anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic – but it shed the light on a sideshow of the protest in Hong Kong: what is happening to those who support the protesters from the mainland.
According to the humanitarian organization, “at least 20 people have been detained by police in several cities in mainland China over the past two days for posting pictures online with messages of support for the protesters, shaving their heads in solidarity, or for planning to travel to Hong Kong to participate in the protests.” Another 60 had ‘tea with the police,’ as questionings by authorities are informally called.
Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a coalition of Chinese and international human rights non-governmental organizations, reported similar news: “the occupation of several areas in Hong Kong, including parts of its financial and political center, has inspired many Chinese on the mainland and encouraged them to speak up for democracy, with many photos appearing on social media of activists holding signs in support of Hong Kong and demanding constitutional democracy for the territory. Police in China have harassed and warned activists in many cities, concerned that they may try to travel to Hong Kong or take to streets to protest.”
Among those who have been detained, the group wrote, are activist Luo Yaling, who reportedly “was taken away by police on September 30 after she expressed support online for the protests in Hong Kong,” and Wang Long – arrested on the charge of creating a disturbance on September 29. Chinese Human Rights Defenders also reported that on September 30, Guangzhou police “seized dozens of activists and citizens who gathered in the Martyr Memorial Gardens to show support for the Hong Kong protestors.”
The practice of arresting activists for a brief period of time whenever a sensitive event takes place is certainly not unknown, and it was perhaps to be expected at a time when Beijing is confronting a challenge to its leadership. People, and especially students, have marched in their thousands to protest against the central government’s decision to prevent the free election of the city’s Chief Executive.
That is not only an implicit declaration of hostility toward the ‘one country, two systems’ which has been the official policy invented by Beijing to manage the integration of the city back into the People’s Republic of China. It is also a show of defiance which could inspire others on the mainland, turning a local event into a much larger one.
In the eyes of the government, mainland activists must appear as dangerous fifth columns of the protest, the carriers of a virus which could spread northward from the former British Colony. For, if William Nee, one of the Amnesty’s own researchers, is right in saying that “the rounding up of activists in mainland China only underlines why so many people in Hong Kong fear the growing control Beijing has in their city’s affairs,” it is also true that the arrests expose why the turmoil in Hong Kong rattles the central government. And, while differences certainly exist, the protest is bound to remind both its supporters and its antagonizers of those fateful days in June, 1989, on another square, with other students.
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