Hello everybody, I am AU Loong-yu.
I’m based in Hong Kong.
I am an activist and writer.
I would like to talk about the present situation in HK
The current situation is of course not good : the Beijing government has been more and more aggressive and attacking HK’s autonomy.
Firstly, several weeks ago it aggressed 15 pan-democrats leaders.
They have been always very moderators, and Beijing government had attacked them but had never raised criminal charges against them until this time.
Beijing are aware of that these democrat leaders have pretty connections with the British and American governments. But still they tolerate them for more than 20 years
But now, they no longer tolerate them. So, they arrested them, and charged them for unlawful assemble.
Apart from them in a wider picture, is that Beijing and the HK government, which is just its puppet, is trying to use the current pandemics to crackdown on, to repress on the HK opposition movement especially the grassroots resistance and so on.
For instance, because of the pandemics, they now have implemented a ban on assemble.
You can’t assemble for more than 4 persons.
And now with the pandemic under control the ban is relaxed a bit, now you can’t have more than 8 persons assemble.
It is quite likely that even if HK, for more than 2 weeks now, we don’ have no new local cases. This likely that the pandemics is contained in HK here.
It is very likely the HK government still enforce bans on assemble all along the way.
So what in a month, because they will be our June Fourth memorial assembles, which usually draw hundreds of thousands of people to commemorate the 4 June 1989 massacre in Beijing.
But we worry that this might be the first year that we cannot commemorate this event, because of this ban on assemble from the government.
So, if the government decided to implement the ban on mass assembly on June Fourth Memorial the it will put challenge to us wether we dare to practice civil disobedience and to have this commemoration meeting anyway. But because of the pandemics, people are still worry. So it is a dilemma we are facing
And secondly, a more fundamental issue : what is Beijing want to do to Hong Kong?
I thing it is now quite clear. It is going to do away HK autonomy altogether in a very short period of time, maybe 5 years, maybe 10 years, although it also depends on the opposition, how intensive the resistance and so on.
Our resistance is not easy to deter Bejing from imposing its aggressive policy against us.
Actually it is quite interesting to analyse why Beijing is getting so aggressive, that they even today they target their previous allies.
Interesting to see is that previously, the HK tycoons were always their allies. But now they also, in a limited way, but still they even target some local tycoons. Especially developers (please explain / big landlord, estate developers) ;
Of course developers are no friends of the working people. They are actually a force of upper conservative upper class.
- But the problem is because the Beijing also targeting them, so it actually force more people to join the camp of the oppositions and so make it larger.
Because many people, many middle class are angry of these arrests.
So, it is a situation which is quite interesting.
- But on the other hand, this broadening of the opposition also carries a bit of challenge.
Because recently we can witness the conservative wings of the resistance right now is getting more and more vocal, getting more and more stength, and getting more and more conservative.
In some sense, that this is also more and more localist.
Which means that it is sometimes exhibits certain kind of racism against the Chinese
So, this kind of conservative elements we must counter, and oppose against it .
Thank you so much.