[Visas are only a lifeboat for Hong Kong. You must stand up to China] Joshua Wong tells Ben Machell that Beijing needs to learn that its power has limits.
thetimes.co.uk/article/visas-…
thetimes.co.uk/article/visas-…
1/ In Sep, the extradition bill was finally withdrawn, but Wong reflects on the aftermath of the protests — and the police repression they resulted in — with anger rather than any sense of triumph. “High school students were being fired on with live rounds,” he says, indignant.
2/ “More than 3,000 students have been arrested since last summer. A 16-year-old kid was prosecuted on riot charges and faces a jail sentence of ten years. The youngest arrested student was 11. That is the nightmare Hong Kong is facing.”
3/ “Right now, if anyone calls upon Carrie Lam to step down, it would be recognised as free speech. But if anyone calls for Xi to step down in Beijing, he or she might be disappeared. If the security law is introduced, then anti-subversion legislation will apply in here as well"
4/ “Beijing is trying to turn HK into another mainland city.” On the one hand, Wong says, this is positive. “Most HKers welcome the visa offer, and it’s good to let Beijing know that other countries still stand with HK,” he says. Last year, after the police brutality witnessed...
5/ ...in the summer protests, “the UK was the first country to say it would stop the export of riot weapons to the HK police. Which is a remarkable move. Really impressive”. But then, Wong continues, Mr Johnson’s visa plan is only really “a lifeboat” for the people of Hong Kong.
6/ By which he means, if they end up having to use it, it will only be because something disastrous will have happened. And why should Britain, if our ties of history and friendship really are so profound, allow something disastrous to happen to HK?
7/ “The focus should be ‘how can we stop the implementation of this evil law?’,” Wong says. “That’s why we call on the UK to impose the necessary sanctions in order to push for the withdrawal of the bill, and for China to honour its promise of autonomy.”
8/ He also politely suggests that we expel Huawei from our 5G infrastructure plans. “This kind of state-directed telecom company will just export authoritarian ideology. It will erode the liberal values we all believe in.”
9/ He's sympathetic to the fact that we have our own problems, which make throwing our diplomatic weight around a little harder. “After Brexit, maybe Britain has to kowtow more to China, because after leaving EU, they have to maintain business relations.
10/ But ofcourse UK could do more. What would have to happen for the UK to openly declare Beijing to be in violation of the Joint Declaration and file a complaint with the United Nations Security Council? That’s the thing the UK has always hesitated to do in the past.”
11/ Wong was born in 1996, which means he should be eligible for one of Mr Johnson’s proposed visas, though he seems unsure about this. “I don’t hold a BNO passport and I am not sure whether I fit the qualification or not.”
12/ And while he is too young to remember British rule and of God Save The Queen being broadcast on the radio, he and his friends grew up reading Harry Potter, something that would have been impossible just a few miles away on the Chinese mainland.
13/ “The most important issue now is how we keep momentum building on a local level, but also keep the spotlight on HK globally. “We need the world to stand with us. We need vocal allies,” he says, frustration creeping into his voice for the first time.
14/ “Even though China is the second-largest superpower in the world, they need to see that they can’t just do whatever they want.” 
