How to Help Hong Kong

A student at PolyU captures a rare moment of rest during a police siege.

Here’s what I saw today:

I saw Hong Kong police officers tear-gassing a hospital.

I saw Hong Kong police officers pepper-spraying journalists.

I saw a photo of a pool of blood on the ground where police officers smashed a protestor’s head with a baton.

I heard accounts of police lying to protestors, telling them they could leave a barricaded university peacefully, and then proceeding to fire tear gas, chase down, beat, and arrest anyone who attempted to run away.

I saw this photo:

(all from https://guardiansofhk.com/)

And I was ashamed.

I come from a nation borne from a violent revolution; a nation that fought against tyranny in order to become a bastion of freedom. That nation has become an inspiration for these protesters. They’ve adopted our cries of “Give me liberty, or give me death.” They’ve erected a makeshift Lady Liberty. They’ve sung our national anthem while waving our flag.

I’m ashamed at how little we seem to care.

Police have shot tear gas at hospitals, arrested hundreds of children, shot an 18-year-old in the chest, brutally beaten teenagers, and are currently quarantining protesters in Polytechnic University in Hong Kong, telling them that they all will be arrested and charged with rioting, regardless of any evidence, a crime that comes with a 10-year sentence.

Now, I understand that the issue in Hong Kong isn’t black and white. The protesters aren’t perfect, mistakes have been made, and there are some who have gone too far. But that’s true in any protest movement or revolution, yes, even our own.

Millions gather at Hong Kong’s largest-ever protest

The actions of a few bad actors do not invalidate the entirety of the movement. Call them out and keep marching.

The protesters have five clear demands, all focused on distinctly democratic principles, the right to self-governance, free from the interference of tyrants. And only one of those has currently been met.

Here are some little strokes we can all do to make this situation better:

• Write your representatives. The United States Congress can’t solve this problem, but they can help. When Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong testified in Washington, he expressed support for the PROTECT Hong Kong act, which bars commercial exports of military and crowd control items to Hong Kong, and The Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act which requires Congress to review Hong Kong’s autonomy from Beijing yearly in order to renew its special economic status and places sanctions on those who have violated the human rights of Hong Kongers. This is crazy easy. Find your Representative here and your Senator here. For suggestions on what to write, check out the standwithHK website which offers actions for US policymakers to take. Feel free to write your own email to your representatives in Congress, or to just copy and paste the template I’ve written here. I have these letters saved and have started to send them every day. It takes two minutes. These bills have already passed the House; the Human Rights and Democracy act is headed to fast-track the Senate and land on the President’s desk, but even if these are passed, the pressure doesn’t end there. The United States and China are negotiating a trade deal, and Congress needs to know that its constituents are outraged. This is how a Democratic Republic is supposed to work.
• Call your representatives. Calls to representatives have been demonstrated to be more effective than emails. Use the above email template as a guide, outline the human rights atrocities in Hong Kong, and urge action. People in the following states: Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming should especially call, as both Senators in each of these states have not stated whether they would vote for this bill.
• Send protective gear. There’s a charity group here that have used photos to verify the safe arrival of past donations and can verify their contacts with some of the main organizers of the movement. The protesters have given a list of needed supplies. You can go to an Amazon wishlist on the above link and directly by the items needed, which will send them to a US contact who can export the necessary supplies to Hong Kong.
• Donate to the 612 Humanitarian Relief Fund. The group provides medical and legal aid to the protesters. They’ve raised tens of millions of dollars so far and have demonstrated impact.
• Donate medical supplies. This group has posted photos and receipts of their purchases and donations to medical supplies for the Hong Kong protesters. For those who are unsure of whether to fully endorse the entire protest movement, this is a perfect option. This group specifically provides medical assistance to protesters who have been attacked by police.
• Sign petitions. This website has a list of petitions which anyone can sign in order to spur change.
• Buy and wear t-shirts. Show your support in public and support HK charities here. An American kid famously flashed one at an NBA game and got on the jumbotron. Phenomenal.

Hong Kong activist Sunny Cheung testifies before Congress.

Feel like you don’t understand exactly what’s happening in Hong Kong? You aren’t alone. Here are some great resources:

• Guardians of HK. A stellar resource run by HongKongers who are documenting everything happening as it happens. They send dozens of messages daily on their telegram channel and update their Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter with the day-to-day occurrences.
• Learn. Here’s an explainer by CNN, one by Amnesty International, Vox, and BBC.
• Hong Kong Free Press. A nonprofit, English language news service based in Hong Kong, the HKFP has been providing accurate and timely coverage of the protests.

On November 18th, HongKongers form a human chain to deliver supplies to students trapped in PolyU.

I know it seems like we can do nothing. But we can write, we can donate, we can read. We must stay aware and stay loud. One of the greatest things about living in the West is that when our leaders commit perceived atrocities, we get mad, and we shout.

The problem is that it’s uncomfortable to think about the horrors that go on outside of our borders. Harsh realities have to be faced, so we often ignore them for complacency, thinking that our voices can’t do anything.

If HongKongers thought the same, there’d be no protests, no fighting for freedom, their fates would be sealed into the silence of forgotten history.

They’re using their voices. Let’s do the same.