A New Generation Speaks in Hong Kong
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by Emily Rauhala,
The city’s protests may be waning—but the battle for democracy will continue.
On a wall just outside Hong Kong government offices, protesters leave words of support for one another and demands for political action.
They have been pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed by police, pushed and punched by their opponents, drenched by torrential rain. Still, they stay. Since Sept. 22, in a historic act of civil disobedience, pro-democracy demonstrators—the overwhelming majority of them students—have occupied key financial and retail districts in one of the world’s great cities: Hong Kong. When their camps were attacked by thugs who the protesters say were backed by the state, more than 100,000 people rallied for peace. When the authorities set an Oct. 6 deadline for them to clear out, they held fast. Says 17-year-old Jennifer Wong, who is in high school: “I choose to stand up.”
The protesters are standing up for a say in government …
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