History Has Its Eyes on – Hong Kong

Review by Bill Doughty––

The soundtrack to Joshua Wong's account of the trials and tribulations in Hong Kong can be found in Lin Manuel Miranda's "Hamilton."

"Unfree Speech: The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act, Now" by Joshua Wong (Penguin Books, 2020) is written by a young man who is "young, scrappy and hungry" and ready to "rise up." He seems to echo Hamilton: "I'm not going to waste my shot."

Wong's is the voice of a boy becoming a man –– a self-described "diehard fanboy" of Gundam, OnePiece, Marvel and DC comics, as well as a student of Gandhi and MLK. He and his close friends Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam (top photo) were sentenced to prison this week by a court in Hong Kong for a pro-democracy protest they held last year.*

Wong offers a brief history of the situation in Hong Kong since the time of the transfer of sovereignty from Great Britain to China, July 1, 1997: The recession in '97, the SARS outbreak in 2002, "misguided housing policies," the National Security Bill, the barring of political organizations, growing demands for more democracy, and the rise of the Umbrella Revolution/Movement.

"The movement didn't happen in a social vacuum. The broken promise of electoral reform and subsequent police crackdown catalysed the unrest, but they didn't cause it. It took decades of pent-up frustration over income inequality, social immobility and other injustices for public anger to finally boil over. Martin Luther King Jr famously said that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor and that it must be demanded by the oppressed. The Umbrella Movement was our way of making our demands heard."

"The movement's symbol, the yellow umbrella, captured both the humility and humanity of the non-violent protesters," Wong writes. From Hamilton: "I was aiming for the sky," "Forgiveness, can you imagine it?" and "Tomorrow there'll be more of us."

As important as the history is Wong's explanation of structure of Hong Kong's government: The Executive is chosen by Communist Party loyalists and controlled by Beijing. The Legislature is not truly representative (two 35-member chambers: GC-geographical, chosen by region, and FC-functional, chosen by Beijing-friendly business and industry. The Judiciary, supposedly independent, is becoming more deferential to the executive, where "the criminal justice system is increasingly used as a political tool to silence dissent."

Voter suppression, election interference and punishment of free speech are hallmarks of Communist China's war on democracy. "Hong Kong is gradually becoming an autocracy," Wong writes. He calls it ominously like Star Wars's "The Empire Strikes Back."

Much of this book, disjointed and rough at times, comes from his diary from prison, both at the Stanley Prison for adults and earlier while at the Pik Uk Correctional Institution for juveniles. He gives a commentary on friends, prison food, entertainment, and hunkering down during a hurricane. Again from Hamilton: "In the eye of a hurricane, there is quiet" ... "Blow us all away" ... "Look around, look around" ... "I'll write my way out, overwhelm them with honesty."

Wong describes a "perfect storm" building, and even though this book was published this year, it was before COVID-19 was part of that storm.

Agnes Chow

Wong and many of his fellow protesters, including Lam and Chow, began their activism at a tender age. They venerate earlier freedom advocates such as Ai Weiwei, who writes this book's introduction, and they commemorate the young students killed in the Tiananmen protests and massacre of June 4, 1989.

The cover of the book features a quote from Greta Thunberg: "Together we are one loud voice that cannot be silenced." Young people are at the heart of global calls for freedom and equality. Wong was inspired by Malala's memoir. We're reminded of the young people of Parkland, Florida who sparked a movement for gun safety in the wake of the killing of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. 

The subtitle of this book is "The Threat to Global Democracy and Why We Must Act, Now."

"From Turkey and Ukraine to India, Myanmar and the Philippines, citizens are pushing back oppressive regimes in defence of their diminishing rights. But nowhere else in the world is the struggle between free will and authoritarianism more clearly demonstrated than here. In the new trans-Pacific cold war, Hong Kong is the first line of defence to stop or at least slow down the dangerous rise of a totalitarian superpower. Like the canary in the coal mine or the early warning system on a tsunami-prone coastline, we are sending out a distress signal to the rest of the world so that countermeasures can be taken before it is too late. As much as Hong Kong needs the international community, the international community needs Hong Kong. Because today's Hong Kong is the rest of the world's tomorrow."

Wong points out Russia's aggression and annexation of Crimea, India's invasion of semi-autonomous Kashmir, and Turkey's military regime's imprisonment of journalists and displacement of millions of Kurds. "Their motivation is singular: self-perpetuation. To consolidate and maintain power," he writes.

Military power is flexed, Wong writes, to impress and intimidate –– and so leaders can remain in power. "Oceans rise; empires fall" ... "The world was wide enough for both."

Ensign Ashley Welker, a Los Angeles native, along with other Sailors, speaks to a tour group visiting Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett (DDG 104) during the ship’s port visit to Hong Kong, May 2, 2017. (MC1 Byron C. Linder)

In a call to action, Wong offers a 10-point action plan for civil action. He expresses appreciation to and for the United States and speaks glowingly of the support he received in Washington D.C. In September of 2019 he testified to the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC).

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Wong

He received support directly from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sen. Marco Rubio, Rep. Jim McGovern, and Rep. Eliot Engle. Rubio sponsored the "Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act." Pelosi told Wong, "You are an inspiration to young people everywhere. Thank you for your courage and resolve."

As "Hamilton" says, "It must be nice to have Washington on your side."

"Who lives, who dies, who tells your story,” in the words of Lin-Miranda.

Wong and U.S. Senator Marco Rubio

The late U.S. Representative John Lewis personified democracy and called for the "good trouble" as practiced by Wong and friends. Lewis, of course, played a pivotal role in passage of the Voting Rights Act signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. And he advocated strongly for each reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act in 1970, 1975, 1982, and 2006.

In the face of voter suppression in some states, the House of Representatives passed Bill HR 1 –– The "For the People Act" in 2019. But "wait for it," as Hamilton intones: HR 1 is still awaiting a vote by the U.S. Senate.

*(Wong was sentenced to 13.5 months in prison; Chow, called the “Goddess of Democracy,” was sentenced to ten months in prison; and Lam received a sentence of seven months for inciting the pro-democracy protest.)