Hunger strikers, protesters march to chief executive’s residence to demand audience

Fourteen hunger strikers, accompanied by hundreds of protesters, marched to the official residence of Chief Executive Carrie Lam from Admiralty Centre last night to demand a conversation with the city’s leader and Police Commissioner Stephen Lo.

The group of activists had been on hunger strike for 12 days, and one of the strikers — a 73-year-old surnamed Chan who has come to be known as “Uncle Chan” among local media and netizens — has been a fixture at recent protests, including standing in between protesters and police during violent clashes in Sha Tin on Sunday night.

The strikers last night urged the government to stop making “mistakes” and “respond to the people,” and to “stop unreasonably suppressing Hong Kong citizens,” Apple Daily reports.

According to the Stand News, the hunger strikers, along with the contingent of other protesters, arrived at the Government House at around 9:30pm, demanding Carrie Lam come out to meet them.

Representatives of the chief executive’s office came out and accepted a a letter, but Lam herself declined to come out. At around 11pm, protesters left the scene and said they would return to Admiralty to continue with the hunger strike.

Chan first became involved with the protest movement when he was allegedly threatened by a police officer on June 12, the day of a massive rally at the Legislative Council that was forcibly dispersed by police, Sing Tao reports. As the officer was allegedly not displaying his ID number, Chan said he had no avenue to report the case, prompting him to file for a judicial review of officers’ failure to wear their warrant cards on June 25.

He launched his hunger strike — which was later joined by other participants — on July 3 to show the city’s mostly young protesters that “they are not alone,” and that the “older generation like [Chan] are willing to protect them,” according to Stand News.

Chan has said the strikers have been in contact with doctors to make sure they are in healthy enough to continue. Though the strikers have eschewed solid food, they have been drinking herbal tea and “vitamin drinks,” according to local media reports.