Hong Kong Activist Group Forced to Delete Social Media

In order to comply with China’s recent national security law, a well-known pro-democracy group was ordered to scrub its online presence. 

A  2015 vigil for the 1989 Tiananmen Square Protests. VeryBusyPeople. CC BY-SA 2.0

In early September 2021, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, a well-known activist group in Hong Kong, received notices from officials to delete all online content to comply with the recent national security law. As a result, the group has closed its website as well as all social media pages, including their Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The Hong Kong Alliance is most well known for hosting vigils for the 1989 Tiananmen Square student protests that resulted in hundreds of deaths. The protests in 1989 called for political and economic reform, and Chinese police responded violently and arrested tens of thousands of protesters. In addition, the group is known for advocating for democratic movements and does not hesitate to criticize the government online. Officials also used the national security law to arrest several leaders of the group who refused to provide information to police regarding the group’s funding and membership.

The security law went into effect on June 30, 2020, causing concerns that Hong Kong was losing its judiciary independence and other democratic freedoms such as freedom of speech and assembly. Under the initial 1997 agreement, when China gained control of Hong Kong from Britain, there was always supposed to be a national security law in Hong Kong. However, Hong Kong would retain a separate judiciary system. Hong Kong has previously had protests starting in 2019 in response to a law that allowed extradition to the mainland. The protests turned increasingly violent, and eventually, the extradition bill was withdrawn. The controversial security law criminalized succession, subversion of state power, terrorism and collusion with foreign entities. The law takes precedence over a local Hong Kong law, and a National Security Committee will be put in place with no local oversight. In addition, crimes considered to be serious national security threats will be tried on the mainland in Chinese courts, essentially a version of the extradition bill that was thrown out as a result of the 2019 protests. 

The Hong Kong Alliance was not the first group that faced the consequences of the recent security law. Shortly after the law was enacted in 2020, many people deleted their social media, and pro-democracy media outlets deleted old posts and entire archives. The Hong Kong alliance has restarted a Facebook page. Still, it is unclear how the group will be using social media in the future.

Dana Flynn

Dana is a recent graduate from Tufts University and holds a degree in English. While at Tufts she enjoyed working on a campus literary magazine and reading as much as possible. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she loves to explore and learn new things.

The Glaring Sexism of the Sudanese Revolution

Although the Sudanese revolution was a success, the women of Sudan continue to fight against the sexism that is so latent in their country.

The forefront of the Sudanese revolution. Hind Mekki. CC BY 2.0.

Located in the northeast corner of Africa, Sudan gained its independence in 1956 from British and Egyptian rule. The young country has struggled internally ever since, with a multitude of political and religious divisions between the south and the north which broke out into multiple civil wars. South Sudan formed as the newest nation in the world in 2011, as a result of a majority vote for independence in a referendum created by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement. Present-day Sudan is majority Muslim, while South Sudan is mostly Christian.

Amid the turmoil which defined Sudan’s geopolitics rose Omar al-Bashir, the last president who was known for his cruel dictatorship, human rights violations and war crimes. Bashir came to power in 1989, overthrowing Prime Minister Sadiq al-Mahdi through a nonviolent coup. His autocratic reign at first introduced Sharia, or Islamic law, thus creating more tensions between the Islamic north and the Christian south. Under Sharia, floggings for adultery and drinking alcohol were commonplace. Through the strict interpretation of Islamic law, women and girls were made victims of political persecution, violence, and genital mutilation. Bashir’s laws were indifferent toward cases of domestic violence against women, child marriage and marital rape. Sudan’s Article 152 of the penal code validated the flogging and imprisonment of women for what they wore. 

Sudanese protesters gathered in December 2018 to confront President Omar al-Bashir’s strict measures for economic relief. Bashir made cuts to bread and fuel subsidies, which exacerbated the dissent which was already festering among citizens. Although the movement was initially made up primarily of men, women soon became the driving force behind the revolution. Women made up about 70% of the protesters and were targeted for gender-based and political violence, including battery and rape, by Sudan’s security forces. 

The success of the coup took the media by storm, but there remained sexist overtones within the movement itself. The Sudanese Professionals Association, which has been organizing resistance against Bashir’s dictatorship throughout all three decades, suggested that female protesters come gather on the streets to clean on a day which was scheduled for a protest. This devalued the women who were fighting alongside men against Bashir’s regime, making them feel dismissed as mere cleaners instead of as members of the  uprising itself. This led to a more pressing concern for women’s rights in Sudan, which have been shot down for decades. 

 
 

A photo of a Sudanese woman, clad in white and towering over the crowds on top of a car, became the icon of the movement itself. Her defiance and resilience moved millions of onlookers around the world, and she became dubbed as “Kandaka,” which refers to the Nubian queens of the Kush kingdom who reigned in Sudan centuries ago. This apparition of gender equality left female protesters disgruntled, as it was sorely evident that women were still oppressed by the patriarchal society in Sudan. 

After the coup, Alaa Salah, the celebrated icon herself, told Time magazine that the Sudanese government still limits the role of women in the legislature. Salah is pushing for 50% female representation in Sudan’s parliament, and works alongside women’s rights activists to change the restrictions placed on women. The public law, which tormented women in Sudan for their behavior and their ways of dressing, was finally repealed in November 2019. Although Sudan’s systemic violence against women is entrenched in its society, women’s rights activists remain optimistic about the progress already seen since the ousting of Omar al-Bashir. 

Heather Lim

Heather recently earned her B.A. in Literatures in English from University of California, San Diego. She was editor of the Arts and Culture section of The Triton, a student-run newspaper. She plans on working in art criticism, which combines her love of visual art with her passion for journalism.


Is There Hope for a Hong Kong Revolution?

Hong Kong may seem like an unlikely place for a revolution. In this relatively affluent and privileged city, young people might be expected to be more concerned with making money than with protesting in the streets. Yet day after day, demonstrators in Hong Kong risk injury and death confronting security forces backed by the massive power of the Chinese government.

Among their demands are democratic elections for the city’s Legislative Council and chief executive. Their desire for fundamental change has mounted, and they increasingly see their own lives as lacking meaning unless circumstances change.

Historians have long argued that revolutions are built not on deep misery but on rising expectations. Since the 18th century, societies, clubs and associations of intellectuals have been seedbeds of radical change in countries throughout the world. They provided leadership for the French Revolution in 1789, the European revolutions of 1848 and the Russian Revolution of 1905.

The situation in Hong Kong is revolutionary, too, although the history of past revolutions may not provide much hope of immediate change.

A view of the Hungarian Revolution before the Soviet tanks rolled in. Gabor B. Racz/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

A look at Hungary

The most compelling parallel to Hong Kong may be the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, which attempted to wrest power from a communist regime. It, too, began with a student uprising in favor of democratic elections.

Within a few days, the communist government resigned and a reformist administration was formed under Imre Nagy, who allowed noncommunists to enter political office. This went too far for communist leaders in the Soviet Union. The USSR invaded Hungary, overthrew Nagy’s regime and secretly put him to death.

As with the Hong Kong protests today, the United States gave little official support to the Hungarian Revolution and was unwilling to offer material assistance. Keeping peace in Europe was of vital importance to U.S. policy in 1956, just as good relations with China are now central.

The Hungarian example may provide little solace to the Hong Kong protesters – except, perhaps, if they consider its long-term consequences.

In October 1989, with Soviet influence in Eastern Europe collapsing, the democratic Republic of Hungary was declared on the 33rd anniversary of the 1956 revolution. Those who died during that revolution are now remembered as martyrs.

A contemporary print depicting the battle at the Ta-ping gate at Nanking, part of China’s Revolution of 1911. T. Miyano, Wellcome Library/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY

In China’s own history

Chinese history supplies a more heartening example of a successful student-led uprising: the Revolution of 1911. It was fomented by young men returning from study abroad, who formed political societies to “revive” their country, often disguised as literary discussion groups.

The 1911 Revolution mobilized networks of intellectuals and students throughout China, but it also drew on other social groups: military officers, merchants, coal miners and farmers. The revolution erupted in many parts of China simultaneously and had various outcomes, from utter failure, to the massacre of ethnic Manchus to declarations of Mongol and Tibetan independence. A provisional government emerged by the end of the year in Nanjing.

The Hong Kong protests, however, are too limited in geographical scope and social support to repeat the success of the 1911 revolutionaries.

The subsequent Chinese revolution in 1949, like the 1917 Russian Revolution, followed Leninist theory and was spearheaded by professional party insiders, not by intellectuals. The communists regarded mass protests as potentially counter-revolutionary and as threats to the new order.

On June 5, 1989, a Chinese man stood alone to block a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square. AP Photo/Jeff Widener

What’s next?

The young protestors in Hong Kong seek to avoid the fate of the student demonstrators of Tiananmen Square in spring 1989. Three decades ago, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of protesters were massacred after the communist government invoked martial law. The pro-democracy agenda of the Tiananmen protesters was vague, and they relied on reformers within the party apparatus, who finally betrayed them.

The Hong Kong crowds are focused on specific changes and lack illusions about the party. They will go down fighting desperately, not standing with faint hope in front of tanks. That may give pause to the forces of repression. As the Communist Party of China and any student of history knows, martyrs are the fuel of future revolutions.

Paul Monod is a Professor of History at Middlebury College

THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON THE CONVERSATION