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Some Hong Kongers are preparing for the worst as the city descends into mayhem. Hundreds of thousands in Kowloon defied the protest ban, some blocking roads, setting fires, and throwing Molotov cocktails. Police have responded with water cannons, projectiles, and tear gas. Hong Kong police even hit a mosque with blue dye from a water cannon.
All this chaos is causing some young Hong Kongers to prepare for the end of their very lives. One 22-year-old protestor began this letter to his parents:
“When you find this letter, I might have already been arrested or killed.”
Nor was this young man the only one writing such a letter. Other protestors have written their Wai Shu, or “last letters,” to their families, which they might carry in their backpacks. Others may keep theirs at home, hidden in drawers.
Naturally, they are frightened, these young protestors desperate to keep the boot of Beijing from their necks. After watching an undercover policeman fire into a crowd last month, a young protestor told a New York Times reporter:
“Right in front of me, live bullets. At that moment, I learned that my life was at stake.”
After witnessing that event, the young man composed his Wai Shu to his parents.
Another young protestor named Ming, aware of his traditional responsibility as a son, wrote in his letter:
“Dad, I’m unfilial for leaving you so early, before I could fulfill my obligations as a son, to be there for you. When I’m gone, please take good care of yourself.”
And there was “Nobody,” who wrote to his grandmother:
“I actually worry that I will die and won’t see you anymore. I worry that you will cry and feel devastated.”
Yet he remained undeterred in his quest for liberty:
“But there is no way that I don’t take to the streets.”
“The evidence leaves little room for doubt—in an apparent thirst for retaliation, Hong Kong’s security forces have engaged in a disturbing pattern of reckless and unlawful tactics against people during the protests.”
And the specter of the Tiananmen Square massacre always looms large in their fears. Student protest leader Joshua Wong tweeted a comparison in this side-by-side image:
Furthermore, China’s President Xi Jinping recently warned of further bloodshed to come during a visit to Nepal:
“Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones.”
I fear for the young Hong Kongers who seek liberty from tyrannical Communist Chinese overlords. I’m also afraid that Xi will make good on his threat to end their dreams of liberty with “crushed bodies and shattered bones.” After all, it’s the way Communist despotism has worked over the past one hundred years, from the Soviet Union to Cuba, from China to North Korea. The Wai Shu letters are heart-breaking, and I fear that many a Hong Kong mother will be weeping over them soon.
Featured image: Steve Webel/flickr/cropped/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
StrontiumHat says: At this point I think its purely a numbers game. How many Honk Kong citizens does Xi have to kill to end it. And on the flip side how many before the rest of the world can’t keep its head in the sand. Ten thousand, will get some angry tweets. But what about 100k, or more? I don’t think many people here in America have the moral fortitude, attention span, or pocket book to support say a blockade if Xi kills a 100k protesters. Unless we as a nation are willing to spend LARGE sums of money and Blood Honk Kong will fall, many will die or be sent to camps. And then? Well I am glad I don’t live in Taiwan, because that’s going to be round two.
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