Taiwanese and Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are starting to see each other as kindred spirits with similar goals (democracy), similar opponents (mainland China) and similar means (civil disobedience), writes Grace Tsoi for Foreign Policy magazine.
Tsoi claims that the solidarity between Hong Kong and Taiwanese activists is newfound, having blossomed only in the last year or two. Wu Jieh-min, a Taiwanese academic, told Foreign Policy that “the China factor has become a global anxiety with profound influences in Asia … but Hong Kong and Taiwan bear the brunt”, for it is their civil liberties that are at stake in the face of an authoritarian mainland Chinese government.
Chen Wei-Ting, 23, and Lin Fei-fan, 26, both leaders of the Taiwanese anti-mainland Sunflower Movement, flew to Hong Kong to join Hong Kong’s annual pro-democracy rally on July 1 this year. Having flown separately, they were both denied entry into the S.A.R. and were forced to return to Taiwan the same day.
State-owned media outlet People’s Daily wrote an article about the incident, quoting pro-Beijing lawmaker Wong Kwok-hing as saying: “The behaviour of these Taiwanese separatists is worrying. Aside from damaging ‘one country, two systems,’ such collaboration will be detrimental to Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability.”
In protest of a free-trade agreement between Taiwan and China, the Sunflower Movement orchestrated a sit-in in Taiwan’s parliament from March 18 to April 10 of this year. A frequently-heard slogan during the protests—in which many Hong Kong tourists and students joined in—was “today’s Hong Kong, tomorrow’s Taiwan”.
A photo allegedly taken during the protests went viral (shown above). It depicted a Hongkonger holding a sign that said: “I am a Hong Konger. Taiwan, please step on Hong Kong’s corpse and contemplate the path you want to take.”
Hong Kong organised a protest in solidarity with the Sunflower Movement’s sit-in, attracting roughly 1,000 protestors.
Tsoi believes that Hong Kong’s recent political struggles, including the decreasing freedom of press, and Beijing’s assertion of its claim over Hong Kong in its white paper, serve as a warning to Taiwan as to what may be in their own future.
