Three Years after the Umbrellas: An Interview with Student Activist Joshua Wong

How did you get started in protest and advocacy in Hong Kong? In 2011, the Hong Kong government tried to introduce the patriotic national education school curriculum to all primary, middle, and high school students. In Hong Kong, patriotic education is just forcing every student to show their loyalty to the Communist Party of China. So what we tried to do was organize and found a student activist group, and let people in Hong Kong recognize the political propaganda of the Chinese government. That's the year I founded Scholarism. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In 2012, with street demonstrations, rallies, and protests including high school student hunger strikes, we successfully forced the Hong Kong government to put aside the curriculum. Later on in 2013 and 2014, we continued to fight for direct elections because in Hong Kong only 1,200 pro-Beijing elites and tycoons can vote in the chief executive election. In 2014, this resulted in the Umbrella Movement--more than a million Hong Kong people participated in the movement. Even though wc not could achieve concrete change, we strengthened civil society and made the international community keep their eyes on Hong Kong. In 2015, I decided to found a political party, because it is time for us to have a long-term battle with the Communist Party. We hope to bring the spirit and faith of the social movement to get into institutions. In 2016, we ran in elections and the chairperson of my political party, Demosisto, Nathan Law, became the youngest lawmaker in Hong Kong history, at 23 years old. I can't run in the election because of the age limit of 21, I am still 20. What do you think changed in Hong Kong during the Umbrella Revolution? Most people believed that Hong Kongers were just economic animals, living in a global financial center, only focused on money, economic benefit, or infrastructure development. But after the Umbrella Movement, at least we proved to the world that Hong Kongers are ready for democracy. And we have waited for the promises of the Beijing government for more than thirty years already. There was a promise to Hong Kong to have democracy in the Sino-British joint declaration in 1984. From 1984 to 2017, Beijing has put aside their promises and continued to erode the rule of law and high degree of autonomy in Hong Kong. What do you think pro-democracy activists should have done differently during the Umbrella Movement? This was the first time we organized a large-scale movement, which means that before the Umbrella Movement no one would expect Hong Kongers to gather on the street with peace and non-violence and occupy for 79 days amid tear gas and suppression from the police force. But I would say that the bargaining power that we generated in the Umbrella Movement was still not enough to force the Communist Party to respect us and to give Hong Kongers democracy and direct elections and universal suffrage. It just shows that it's a long-term battle for us because fighting against the largest communist regime in the world is not really an easy thing. What hope do you have for the future? Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Lawmakers in Hong Kong, democratically elected, face disqualification from the Beijing government. I would say before this we believed that Hong Kong was a place without democracy but with an approximation of freedom. But now we realize that the Chinese government is trying to turn Hong Kong into a place more similar to Singapore, [into] an electoral authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regime. Given that, what are your immediate political goals, to stop Hong Kong from becoming somewhere like Singapore? We tried to get into institutions by running in the election, because we can be legitimized by getting a seat in the Legislative Council (LegCo). Through the process of election, we get a mandate from the people and we can let people know no matter whether they agree or disagree with us that we are already representing the people and we get people behind our political wishes. …