

Two months have passed since Hong Kong authorities took to the streets to clear protesters and put an end to Occupy Central, the pro-democracy movement which immobilized major parts of Hong Kong for over two months.

The move shocked, crushed and relieved respective Hongkongers, but the questions lingering following the movement are uniform: “What’s next? What does this mean for Hong Kong? Will Beijing’s attitude ever change?”.

An estimated 13,000 pro-democracy, umbrella-yielding protesters returned to Hong Kong’s financial hub yesterday, marching in the first big rally after Occupy. Police argue the number was closer to 9,000. The participants chanted against “fake” universal suffrage, a reference to the nature of the candidates Hong Kong citizens would have the choice to elect—in a nutshell, pre-approved by the Communist Party and pro-Beijing.

Concerned about another occupation of Hong Kong’s financial district, police assigned around 2,000 officers to supervise the march, which proceeded peacefully over three hours in the afternoon.

While the participants barely make up a fourth of the expected turn out (50,000), organizer Daisy Chan is not discouraged: “Today’s protest wasn’t a small one. It was smaller than we expected, but it’s wrong to say Hongkongers have given in to fake democracy.”

Other attendees of the march included student leaders Joshua Wong and Alex Chow, as well as Occupy co-founder Benny Tai, who attributed the lower-than-expected turnout to exhaustion from Occupy. “We need time to recover […] People are really exhausted,” he said.

Despite the relatively low numbers of participants and the Chinese government’s unfaltering attitude, protesters remain hopeful. “The Occupy movement woke people up,” said Chan, referring to Hongkongers not being as political in the past. Political analyst Sonny Lo argued that the march demonstrates “that the pro-democracy momentum is not dead.”

Yesterday’s rally will additionally help to determine who is willing to continue fighting the Chinese government in the name of the real, free, universal suffrage. While it looks like another occupation is not on the cards, protesters are strategizing different ways to continue pursuing free elections. Edward Lau Wai-tak, one of Occupy’s base camp guards, is launching a group to provide financial and logistical support for younger candidates wishing to run in Hong Kong’s upcoming district elections.

Alex Wong, student leader and founder of Scholarism and rally participant, continues to organize events and protests, as well as coordinating with other groups to “explore different methods to achieve the pro-democracy movement’s demands”.

Meanwhile, internet chatter indicates that even Hong Kong has started experiencing higher levels of censorship. Occupy Central caused a new wave of censorship in mainland China, including the block of Instagram (recently unblocked), along the usual propaganda (ie. the US has been secretly orchestrating Occupy for years, along with other “anti-China forces”). We’re not sure if any of this is related to VPNs recently taking a beating on the mainland.

It is difficult to understand or predict what political effect protests will have on the outcome of Hong Kong’s suffrage laws, but the magnitude of the Occupy protests coupled with Hong Kong’s economic importance has brought the divide into international news and analysis, which puts the Chinese government under an interesting spotlight.

We’ll keep you posted on developments and any hilarious conspiracy theories which surface as a result.

According to @breakandattack: Things are finally calm and just about over in Tai Po. #occupyhk #umbrellarevolution https://t.co/TiQnKVRnXw" — James Bang (@PRHacks) February 1, 2015

.@PRHacks gives an effigy of HK chief CY Leung a thorough caning. pic.twitter.com/KlrOninWj0 — Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) February 1, 2015

Live: Feels like #OccupyHK again with Long Hair & HKFS rallying the people. #umbrellamovement pic.twitter.com/GET69zBnkX — James Bang (@PRHacks) February 1, 2015

Student leaders Agnes Chow, Joshua Wong and Oscar Lai participate in the #OccupyHK march in Hong Kong. (@Reuters) pic.twitter.com/pOv4T7d360 — Andrew Peng (@TheAPJournalist) February 1, 2015

Protesters united in a sea of yellow umbrellas as #HongKong sees its first democracy rally since end of #Occupyhk pic.twitter.com/OS9ulSPIiQ — Natasha Khan (@natashakhanhk) February 1, 2015



By Giulia Sciota