'I have a moral obligation to participate in the Hong Kong protests'
Billy Lau, 39, says he hasn't seen Hong Kong this united in five years.
Thursday 4 July 2019 16:20, UK
China has told the UK to keep its "hands off Hong Kong and show respect" in a sign of worsening relations between Beijing and London.
There have been mass protests in the former British colony against a controversial extradition bill - and tensions rose further on Monday evening when protesters stormed the legislative council.
One of the protesters, 39-year-old production designer Billy Lau, explains why he is part of this movement.
On 12 June, when the first tear gas canisters were fired, I found myself next to a teenage girl, no more than 15 years old, sobbing, coughing, trying to get on the phone. As I tried to get her help, all she could say was "I can't see".
Thirty years earlier, I held my father's hand at a rally for the Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Over the past decades, we have developed a culture of protest, ever evolving in organisation, but the ultimate aim is to preserve some semblance of a representative government. We, in our middle age, are out to protect and support young people, who have always been on the front lines in the fight for democracy.
I have not seen Hong Kong as united since Occupy in 2014.
During the protests, we show the world the best side of ourselves, our deep commitment to non-violent resistance, our resourcefulness and our creativity. Sometimes we come across as a cold dog-eat-dog kind of city, but on those days, it is a kinder, more tolerant and resilient Hong Kong.
The words of African-American civil rights leaders in the 1960s echo in our minds because they reverberate sentiments of all people. We want a vote. That is why we protest.
We have seen evidence of China's heavy-handed tactics in dealing with dissidents.
The push to pass this extradition law is an extension of Beijing's encroachment on Hong Kong.
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We hope to show the world that what we are fighting for is not a Hong Kong or Chinese struggle, but a universal struggle for human rights.
We owe it to the next generation. These values that we are willing to bleed for, to sweat for, go to jail for and sadly to die for are not to be compromised.
It is a matter of moral obligation, a sense of justice and a right to be represented.
The universe is unpredictable, perhaps Hong Kong will be the seed to a democratic China. Far greater empires have fallen, the ultimate hope for Hong Kong is to have a free, just, equal and open society.
If democracy is the best system that we have, then let's move towards that. And my conscience is clear if I can make some small contribution.