Joshua Wong: The 17-Year-Old Public Face of Hong Kong’s Protests

Joshua Wong’s Arrest Galvanized the City

 

...and Beijing's afraid of this little guy!!!!? My My. The Chinese Fascist Communist Regime, The CCP, will have to get a boot big enough for his little neck.

By ISABELLA STEGER 

Updated Sept. 30, 2014

HONG KONG—A veteran activist, at 17 years old, has emerged as the face of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy demonstrations.

Joshua Wong is a student leader whose group Scholarism led the fight in 2012 against a plan by the Hong Kong government to implement so-called patriotic education classes in schools. Protesters turned out in the streets, and the government eventually shelved the plan.

At a meeting in July, when asked what he thought Hong Kong would be like in a decade, Mr. Wong said, “it will have universal suffrage.”

Thunder and heavy rain hit Hong Kong for about 10 minutes as protesters broke into song. During the rain we spoke to Benny Tai, Co-Founder of the HK Occupy movement and protesters who are entering another night of protests.

Now, the arrest and detention of Mr. Wong over the weekend has become a rallying cry among protesters who have brought parts of this city to a standstill as they call for the democratic election of the city’s top leader, a move Beijing opposes.

Mr. Wong was among 13 people arrested Friday after he and other protesting students scaled a fence to enter a square next to government headquarters. On Saturday, thousands of students turned out to occupy the area outside government headquarters. The movement spilled out into Hong Kong’s busiest streets on Sunday, prompting police to use tear gas to disperse crowds.

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Student leader Joshua Wong addresses pro-democracy protesters outside Hong Kong government offices at demonstrations on Tuesday. European Pressphoto Agency

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The main characters in the tussle over Hong Kong democracy

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Mr. Wong was held by police for more than 40 hours until Sunday evening,when he was released “unconditionally,”after the city’s high court approved an application filed by his lawyers. Other students were released soon after.

“Release the students! Students are innocent!” protesters cried out as they were surrounded by riot police on Sunday after occupying one of the city’s busiest roads.

The students “are now local heroes in the eyes of the protesting public. So if they have to go to jail or suffer some way in promotion or access to studies, it will win them even more support,” Suzanne Pepper, an academic at Chinese University of Hong Kong who studies democracy in Hong Kong, said in an emailed response.

“Joshua is brave. He can stand up for what he believes is right,” said Jerry Chik, 17, a high-school student in school uniform at a protest Tuesday. “If the arrest is politically driven, it is unacceptable.”

Mr. Wong’s fame has drawn Beijing’s ire. In September, a pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong, Wen Wei Po, publishedwhat it called an exposé into the ties between Mr. Wong and the U.S. government, alleging that he received covert donations from Americans and that the Central Intelligence Agency is infiltrating Hong Kong schools. Mr. Wong has denied the allegations.

The police said they reserve the right to prosecute Mr. Wong. Those charges could include forcible entry into government premises and unlawful assembly, according to Alvin Yeung, a spokesperson for lawyers who are offering legal services to Occupy Central.

Mr. Wong, who started university this year, said he has no plans to leave Hong Kong to study overseas, even if he were offered the opportunity to.

“I’m not that smart…I want to do social work,” he said in an interview. “How could I leave now in this circumstance. If I leave, [the government] might use the chance to ridicule me.”

—--Chester Yung and Jacky Wong contributed to this article