Chow Hang-tung, December 22, 2022 In September 2021, the National Security Department of the Hong Kong Police Force accused the Hong Kong Alliance of being a “foreign proxy,” demanded organizational documents from the seven members of the Alliance’s Standing Committee, and arrested five of them after the demand was rejected. Two of the five pleaded guilty, but the other three — Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), Tsui Hon-kwong (徐漢光), and Tang Ngok-kwan (鄧岳君) — denied the charges. The case went to trial this July, and continued since late October at the West Kowloon Magistrates Court. After a total of thirteen days of hearing and argument, the trial concluded on Friday, December 22, and designated National Security Law judge Law Tak Chuen (羅德泉) announced that a verdict will be […]

On June 1, 2, and 3, 2021, Stand News in Hong Kong ran a three-part feature story titled The Battle of the ‘Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China’: 1989-2021. This 17-minute short, subtitled by China Change, is a documentary accompanying the feature story in which you see and hear some key members of the Alliance speaking before their arrests.

Chow Hang-tung, September 7, 2022 On September 2, 2022, a preliminary inquiry into the strength of the national security case against Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤), former vice-chair of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, was held at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts. Hong Kong Free Press has a detailed report of the hearing: “Chow, along with the Alliance and two of the group’s former leaders Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人) and Albert Ho (何俊仁), stands accused of incitement to subversion under the Beijing-imposed national security law. All intend to plead not guilty.” The hearing will resume on September 8. Below is a China Change translation of Chow’s testimony in court. – The Editors My earliest experience with the Hong Kong Alliance went […]

By Olivia Cheng, Siaw Hew Wah, translated by China Change, August 26, 2022 (Continued from Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five and Part Six) On June 1, 2, and 3, 2021, Stand News published a three-part feature of the ‘Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China’ (which China Change recently translated and posted in six installments). On September 24, 2021, the day before the Hong Kong Alliance voted to disband itself, Stand News published a follow-up piece providing a timely update on the situation the Alliance found itself in and the issue of the historical narrative surrounding June 4th and the 1989 democracy movement.  Below is a full translation of Stand News’ last piece, also China Change’s 7th and last installment in […]

By Olivia Cheng, Siaw Hew Wah, translated by China Change, August 18, 2022 (Continued from Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, and Part Five) Continuing crackdown pre- and post-’97 In the years after 1989, the situation for the Hong Kong Alliance was relatively uneventful. But with the approach of 1997, the storm picked up again.  Lo Wai-ming (盧偉明), who was the president of the CUHK Student Union in 1996, recalled that every May and June, the student union would participate in the Alliance’s joint signature drive (as part of offering respects for the dead at Tiananmen), but that year’s discussion was particularly intense:  “Many of the students were concerned. There were questions like ‘[you say] hold those who massacred the city [of Beijing] accountable, did they kill […]

By Olivia Cheng, Siaw Hew Wah, translated by China Change, August 15, 2022 (Continued from Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four) At the 1996 Vigil at Victoria Park, a gigantic banner fluttered in the wind on the backdrop of the stage: “Crossing Past 1997.” Before it on the stage stood a row of people holding up candlelight. Among them a man with a white headband read a tribute with a loudspeaker:  “To the compatriots who died during the 1989 democracy movement: in 391 days, Hong Kong will be turned over to China. The troops that killed you will march on the streets here; the tanks that crushed your flesh will roar into Hong Kong; the machine guns that left your bodies peppered with […]

By Olivia Cheng, Siaw Hew Wah, translated by China Change, August 8, 2022 (Continued from Part One, Part Two, and Part Three) Keeping the memory alive: the June 4 Memorial Museum Who will maintain the historical record and collective memory if, one day, the people of Hong Kong forget the events of June 4?  Before 1997, a Netherlands-based international organization supporting social movements once offered funding for the Hong Kong Alliance to archive and make backups of documents from the 1989 democracy movement. This year, in an ominous twist, the same organization has coming knocking again in 2021, and this time around it felt like the end was near, given the menacing National Security Law.  On July 18, 1989, the Alliance created its Center for Materials […]

By Olivia Cheng, Siaw Hew Wah, translated by China Change, August 6, 2022 (Continued from Part One, Part Two) Candle lights have carried on the memory For the first time, candle lights lit up the faces of 150,000 Hong Kongers.  “Looking down the field from the stage, it was a sea of candle lights, like all the stars had fallen on the ground. The flame of each candle seemed to symbolize a solid teardrop; I had never seen a more solemn and moving scene before,” Szeto Wah (司徒華), the late chairman of the Alliance, remembered in one episode of The Common Sense (鏗鏘集, now known in English as the Hong Kong Connection). Ever since, each year and each June, as pictures of the candle vigil dominated […]

By Olivia Cheng, Siaw Hew Wah, translated by China Change, July 31, 2022 (Continued from Part One) Supporting the Chinese democracy movement, from Hong Kong to overseas Among all political organizations in Hong Kong, the Alliance is the only one that continuously worked to support the Chinese democracy movement. In 1989, after the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Alliance made resistance a new normal: it hosted parades and rallies almost every month, each time with 10,000-20,000 participants. Only a year later did such events change into commemoration; at the same time, the public began to perceive that it was very unlikely for China to democratize in the short term. Two years after the Tiananmen massacre, in 1991, when Szeto Wah was interviewed by Open Magazine (《開放雜誌》), the […]

By Olivia Cheng, Siaw Hew Wah, translated by China Change, July 29, 2022 Those without a keen familiarity with Hong Kong’s democracy movements, especially our English-speaking readers, might not have heard about the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, but you’ve likely seen photos of the annual June 4th Vigil in the city’s Victoria Park, where a sea of candle lights flickered year after year for 30 years. The Hong Kong Alliance was the organizer of the June 4th Vigils from 1990 to 2019 until it was banned in 2020 under Covid rules and outlawed in 2021 and since, following the imposition of the National Security Law in the Hong Kong SAR. The Alliance was disbanded on September 25, 2021 under […]

Ye Du, January 12, 2022 Ye Du (野渡) is a Guangzhou-based dissident writer. Chow Hang-tung (鄒幸彤) is a barrister and human rights defender in Hong Kong. Until its disbandment in September, 2021, she was one of the vice-chairs of the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, a grassroots advocacy group established in 1989 to campaign for the release of Chinese political prisoners and democratic reforms in China, as well as the organizer of the annual June Fourth Massacre Vigil in Victoria Park in Hong Kong for three decades until 2019. This essay was written in July 2021 when Chow was first detained. She was later granted bail. In December 2021 and January 2022, Chow was convicted for inciting and taking […]

Andréa Worden, April 21, 2021 There are many reasons why rights-respecting governments should stay far away from Xi Jinping’s Winter Olympics. To name just a few: the Uyghur genocide, the crushing of political and civil freedoms in Hong Kong, the deepening assault on Tibetan culture and religion, the forced erasure of Mongolian and other ethnic minority identities, “hostage diplomacy,” the unremitting attacks on human rights lawyers, rule of law, freedom of expression, freedom of religion ––the list goes on. If diplomats and government officials attend Xi Jinping’s Olympics, they will, simply by virtue of their presence, bestow legitimacy on a high-tech totalitarian regime that is currently engaged in a scorched-earth strategy to neutralize anyone or anything that might be perceived by the tetchy Chinese Communist […]

Chang Ping, September 4, 2020 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas in Berlin [on September 1], marking a successful end to the former’s multi-country visit to Europe. However, the way the visit was concluded was not determined by Wang Yi, nor the Chinese government he represents, but in line with the human rights valued by Germany and other democratic nations. At the press conference, Foreign Minister Maas presented a rare tough stance by the German government, calling on China to withdraw its Hong Kong “national security law” and demanding that the city be allowed to hold legislative council elections as soon as possible. Maas also spoke bluntly about human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and expressed hope that China would […]

Yasuhiro Matsuda, December 13, 2019 China Change transcribed and translated parts of Yasuhiro Matsuda’s recent Chinese language interview with Radio Free Asia (here and here)for his sharp insights on Hong Kong and the structural political problems in Xi Jinping’s decision making. Subheadings added by China Change for easy reading.  — The Editors Beijing Will Feel Secure Only When Hong Kong’s Freedoms Are Completely Crushed Hong Kong is also going to pass the National Security Regulations (国家安全条例), which are in fact even more serious because they will clear the path for rounding people up. Should the Regulations be passed, Hong Kong’s freedoms will cease to exist. So it’s more severe, since the fugitive regulations (逃犯条例) would send suspects to Taiwan or to mainland China and in […]

Chu Chia-An, December 1, 2019 Some people think that if we hold the Hong Kong police to account in using violence, we must also place the same standards on the use of violence by the protesters. I oppose this argument, and my reasoning is as follows: Saying “both sides should be equally condemned” unfairly favors the police, and ignores the fact that ultimate responsibility for the violence lies at the feet of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments. During the protests, the Hong Kong police have used batons, pistols, and tear gas to beat back the crowds. According to later rumors, even a sonic weapon would be deployed. On the internet, you can see video clips of police firing guns, as well as reports confirming […]

Chang Ping, November 15, 2019 Everyone knows that if the Hong Kong government and Beijing cannot offer an affirmative response to the protesters’ demands, and if the abuse of power by the police does not end, the conflicts will only escalate and result in more violence. However, the authorities are with full knowledge allowing Hong Kong to turn into a battlefield. To help stop the violence, the international community should not stay idle or fall into the trap of victim-blaming. A mantra that some people use without second thought is “violence is unacceptable under any circumstances.” When these people repeat this mantra, are they including the police in their statement against violence? No. Quite the opposite, when they say it, they want the police to […]

Liao Yiwu, September 30, 2019 On August 11, 2019, a nurse during a demonstration against the extradition bill in Tsim Sha Tsui district in Hong Kong, had her right eye blown out by a beanbag fired by a police officer, causing lifelong disability and instantly provoking explosive public outrage. Many people regarded this incident as the start of a “Hong Kong June 4 Massacre.” Bloody images of the girl were copied and spread all over the world, leading to millions of people participating in the act of “right hand covering right eye” performance art. At the time I wrote in a poem: Today a gunshot blew out a girl’s eye Tomorrow another blows away a boy’s head The next day Hong Kong blinded, the former […]

Wang Dan, September 8, 2019 In Hong Kong, social resistance against the “China extradition” law has entered the stage of protracted conflict, with various forms of protests taking place every weekend. Hongkongers’ courageous efforts to defend their freedom have won them respect worldwide. Meanwhile, with regard to the goals they are striving for, the views of Hongkongers have steadily shifted in the course of their resistance. Of particular note is the fact that, on July 7, 230,000 Hongkongers staged protests and parades in the areas where mainland Chinese are most common. Speaking Mandarin, the demonstrators spoke out about the issues facing Hong Kong, exposed the dark reality of Chinese politics, and shouted slogans of “exporting revolution” to mainland China. The focus of my discussion today […]

Yaxue Cao, December 31, 2016     If it wasn’t for the “Safety House” in which he was hiding as he wrote, the opening paragraph of Lam Wing Kee’s personal account would be beguilingly insouciant: there he stands at the window, painting his view of the Lei Yue Mun bay in the dazzling late afternoon light, with precise, unhurried sentences. It is with this dissonant scene that Mr. Lam begins his narration of eight months of secret captivity in mainland China. Doing what he had for years – hauling suitcases of tabloid-style exposés about Chinese leaders and politics to mainland China, and then mailing them to clients – he was stopped at customs in Shenzhen one day in October 2015 and pulled aside for questioning. […]

December 18, 2016 A verified account belonging to the Ministry of Public Security issued this video on December 15 with the hashtag #警惕颜色革命 (“Beware of color revolutions”) and #是谁最想扳倒中国 (“Who wants to take China down the most”).  Two similar videos issued in August can be seen here and here.  – The Editors     [Syrian swimmer] Yusra Mardini, fleeing war-ravaged Syria. The boat had a problem, she and her sister pushed it to rescue the refugees packed in it. [Mardini’s voice]: “It’s hard to believe, but as an Olympic swimmer, I almost died in the water.” In Rio, she was a member of the Refugee Olympic Team made up of athletes who have lost their homes because of “color revolutions.” Her presence at the Olympics […]

By Alex Chow and  YANG Jianli, published: August 31, 2015   Today marks the first anniversary of the August 31 decision of China’s National People’s Congress prohibiting popular selection of candidates for Hong Kong’s chief executive by the people in Hong Kong. This so-called “Beijing 8.19 Hong Kong political reform” package, violated China’s prior written agreements promising full universal suffrage, when it acquired sovereignty  over Hong Kong from Great Britain. This betrayal so outraged the people of Hong Kong that it triggered the 79 day “Umbrella Protest Movement,” or “Occupy Central Movement.” Thanks to the momentum generated by the Movement, on June 18th of this year, the Pan-Democrats coalition there successfully blocked the pseudo-democratic package offered by Beijing’s puppets in the Hong Kong Legislative Council […]

By Leung Man-tao, published: October 26, 2014   While riding a minibus in Taipo to the MTR station the other day, I overheard a man sitting in front of me talking loudly about the current events in Hong Kong. It seems he had already seen through the situation as he confidently declared: “These are all the conspiracies of the pan-democratic camp and their intentions are too sinister. . . ” Because his traveling companion gave him a dubious look, the man more stridently and forcefully emphasized: “What, you haven’t heard yet? Actually, there is a good deal of evidence pointing to the fact that behind the scenes the Americans are supporting Occupy Central. Even the students are incited by the Americans and the British.” After […]

By Chang Ping, published: October 7, 2014   Our very first take on Occupy Central, the movement for universal suffrage in Hong Kong, is a radical protest in a society governed by law. Fully aware of the law and its consequences, participants willingly incur punishment for the sake of their ideals. We imagine the police making arrests with all due courtesy, the courts conducting trials ceremoniously, and those who break the law walking into their jail cells with graceful aplomb. Society as a whole, spurred by what they do, will rethink and debate the issues at hand in a rational manner, and all will end in a step forward for democracy. The next thing that popped up in everyone’s mind was the blood of the […]

By Teng Biao, published: June 5, 2014   In 1989, I was a high school student in a small county in Northeastern China. Two years later, I was admitted into Peking University. If I had been born two years earlier, I could have been the one overrun by tanks and my mother could have been one of the mothers who have shed all her tears but have been forbidden to speak the truth or to simply commemorate. Those who died on June 4th died for me, and died for each one of us the survivors. In other words, their death lives on in our life. Without realizing this, we will not be able to understand ourselves and the China we are living in today. Therefore […]

By Yaxue Cao, published: June 26, 2012   Erjia, who was only a couple of years older than Sheng ’s oldest son, called Sheng “Shuren Dage” (树人大哥) or Big Brother Shuren, and Sheng Shuren called Erjia “Jia Di” (“家弟”) or Little Brother Jia. Shuren Dage and Jia Di did not cook and ate in a neighborhood canteen mainly for the neighborhood factory workers. There, Erjia’s two favorite items, steamed dumpling and pickled duck egg, sold for 5 cents a piece. Going Dutch, the two men lived on twenty yuan a month. Sheng Shuren’s mother was sick, and the two men often went to a general store together to rent oxygen bags for her (she died not too long after Erjia left). When there was nothing […]

Duanwu Jie (端午节), or Dragon Boat Festival, is said to have originated in commemoration of the noble suicide of poet/official Qu Yuan roughly 2,300 years ago. The villagers who witnessed his death so respected the man that they raced in their boats to retrieve his body. Others threw balls of glutinous rice (Zongzi) into the river to distract the fish, and keep them from eating his body. According to my co-workers, “It’s just a holiday,” and they struggled to tell me even this much about the festival. Later they added that “Qu Yuan was very patriotic,” in that he loved his country so much he would rather die than see it destroyed. The story of Qu Yuan’s death isn’t only about patriotism; the poet had […]

This great guest post comes from a friend. Over the next few days she’ll be introducing her research on the Misty Poets. If you are a grad student working on a China related topic please contact Tom about the possibility of introducing here. “Misty”is the title conferred upon a group of poets known during the Democracy Movement （1976-1980）for their unique style. Some, such as Ai Qing, Ai Weiwei’s father, called their work “obscure” (古怪), even poisonous.[1] At the very least, it was certainly daring. So daring, in fact, that three of the leading Misty poets were exiled for inspiring the Tiananmen youth. Misty poet Bei Dao was not even in China when the demonstrations occurred, but he was nonetheless not allowed back for twenty years, […]

As we saw yesterday, China is a diverse country with hundreds of distinct dialects/languages that are closely connected with local culture. However, for the past 100 years, the government has been encouraging the adoption of a single national dialect based on the Beijing accent. Originally, the language we know as Mandarin, was only spoken by officials and the people who lived near the capital (the language shifted with the capital as it moved from Nanjing to Beijing). It was a necessity due to the fact that officials came from all corners of China, and would be otherwise unable to communicate orally. Near the end of the Qing Dynasty, it was decided that this language of officials should become the national dialect, known as Guoyu (国语 […]

This week, all eyes are on Wukan as the world awaits to see how the unprecedented struggle of one Chinese village develops. If Christian Bale didn’t get to see his personal hero on Thursday, he more than succeeded in throwing a hand grenade at the feet of the Party while lighting a firestorm—a joyful one—among Chinese netizens. Friday, we finally heard words from the authorities about Gao Zhisheng after he had gone missing for more than a year and a half. Also in this issue are items taken from Weibo before Yaxue’s account was obliterated earlier this week (possibly for helping spread information about Wukan). Click on date below item for link to the original. I have had a growing dread all week and it […]

If you have spent much time in China’s major cities, you have no doubt seen a few hundred new luxury cars, up and coming urbanites clutching Louis Vuitton bags or sporting a new Rolex watch, and more than a few people talking loudly on their iPhones. This rampant materialism even seems to surpass what I saw in the US a few years back. As I’ve mentioned before, when co-workers return from overseas trips, more often than not, I hear about what they bought rather than what they saw. One friend told me he had spent over $25,000 on watches during a brief trip to Taiwan. Another said she had bought 4 new designer bags on a trip to Hong Kong. This binge shopping is shrugged off when […]

‘Cake Theory’ has Chinese eating up political debate, from Louisa Lim at NPR, examines two competing ideas within the party that may one day lead to inter-party elections. Bearing Witness, from That’s Shanghai,  is an interesting collection of memories from Shanghainese octogenarians who recount what life was like many years ago. March of the Freshmen, by Eric Fish (who also writes his own blog, Sinostand), is a great piece looking at military training in Chinese schools. For the story he asked a student to keep a notebook detailing her experiences, and gives a first hand look at a program that many have described as “brainwashing”. What it means to vote in China, an essay by Xu Zhiyong that appeared this week in the Economic Observer. An […]

This week there was heated discussion about the toddler who was twice run over by a van and not helped by passersby and people around until a rubbish-collecting woman picked her up (read here).  Below is this week’s offer about the continued Weibo activism to free Chen Guangcheng; what are “socialist core values”; China’s luxurious prisons for jailed officials; and more. Click on the date under the item for link to the original. Lu Qiu Lu-wei/闾丘露薇/Journalist with ifeng TV, Hong Kong/: My book-signing and lecture tour in three Northeastern cities has come to an end. A young female reader asked me to write “Give Light to Guangcheng” on her copy. In Shenyang, about ten readers asked me to write “I want Guang (light), I want […]

I’d like to apologize for the large number of links today, but when it comes to sensitive topics it’s best to be prepared. The other day I quietly asked my co-workers where exactly Dr. Sun Yat-sen (or Sun Zhongshan in pinyin) was during the Xinhai revolution, when Imperial China was overthrown. The intern quickly replied “Nanjing” which was a good choice, since that is where his mausoleum is, and where Sun set up the Republican gov’t (his presidency lasted 3 months). My other co-worker guessed “Beijing” then switched to “Beiping”, the name used during the republican era, just in case it was a trick question. Their mouths fell open when I told them he was in the far away city of Denver, a fact that […]

On my way to the supermarket I pass a man fixing bicycles, a place that can repair virtually any article of clothing and at least three shops that can solve any problem on almost any cell phone. This culture of fixing things instead of throwing them away is something I deeply admire. In Longzhou I had a flat tire, so I went to the repairman who worked behind a newspaper stand just off campus. His body was a rich brown, and he hardly had any hair left on his head, just a few wisps combed over. He only spoke the local dialect, and I could only speak Mandarin, but he knew what I wanted when he saw the sorry shape of my bicycle. He pulled […]

By Yaxue Cao On the heel of the 2008 Olympic spectacle that awed much of the world, China celebrated its 60th anniversary of the communist rule on Oct. 1, 2009. In the ancient Chinese calendar system where 10 heavenly stems and 12 earthly branches are combined to designate the sequence of years, the 60th year marks the completion of a cycle, and after that the years start all over again. By the old concept, 60-years is a lifetime. 10,000 military members goose stepped in formation, each consisting of marchers who looked like replicas of each other with the same height, the same built, the same weight, the same haircut and the same expression. After the soldiers, 100,000 civilians paraded in nearly the same sameness along […]

I ride the bus almost everyday here in Nanjing. From home to work, the journey is just about 2.5 km, down a single straight road. In ideal traffic conditions it takes about 15 minutes by bus, during rush hour it’s closer to 30 minutes (which is the same amount of time it would take to walk), last night it took me nearly an hour. About 15 minutes was spent just waiting for a bus, which isn’t entirely unusual. Even though the stop is next to a subway station, and leads to a major residential area, there is only one bus route connecting the two. To me it seems to be a combination of rapid development and poor planning. China changes so quickly that 5-10 years […]

While China may be releasing a huge quantity of films, and producing a number of new TV shows, to most foreigners living here, there is still a dearth of entertainment (sorry CCTV). Despite efforts to promote “soft power”, China still seems unable to attract followings on par with Japanese anime or Bollywood films. So today we’ll be looking at the factors limiting China’s cultural potency. As I’ve discussed before (How long until we’re all singing Beijing Opera?), I think one of the major challenges facing China’s efforts is that the gov’t/party seems to be closely involved with these projects, which is a negative to many in the US and Europe. This has been especially true of 2011’s highest grossing film, The Founding of the Party, […]

This post was written by my good friend Heather, about her new life with her husband Huichun. I had the honor of being the best man in their wedding and wish them both all the best as they work through the immigration process. None of my friends or classmates of other racial backgrounds have EVER asked me to elucidate my experience as a “white woman.”  So now that I have been called upon to give a kernel of insight into White American woman–Han Chinese man marriages, I can understand a little better the plight of the lone Black American in some of my high school and college classes who would frequently be expected to give the “Black” outlook on the topic.  How can one person […]

Religion in China, and especially Christianity in China is one of the topics I am asked about most frequently when I return to the States. People ask if there are Bibles here, or if I worry about my safety because I work for a Christian organization, or if it is even legal to believe in God. The confusion is understandable, China was an enemy of the US for about 30 years, during a time of considerable propaganda efforts and fear mongering. So today we are going to begin a series on Christianity in China, and then look at religion in general as it exists in modern China. Are there Bibles in China? Believe it or not, China has plenty of Bibles. The Amity Printing Press […]