Thread by @laurelchor

Quite the turnout for the rally for Uighurs/Tibet/Hong Kong outside the Chinese Embassy in London for the 100th anniversary of the CCP and the 24th anniversary of the HK Handover. It’s a sharp contrast from the somber day that Hong Kong had.

There’s a man in all yellow and he’s begun leading the HKers to another rally in Chinatown.

Rally starts in half an hour and these are all the people leaving the Chinese embassy protest to head to the next rally.

Just hours after a man in Hong Kong stabbed a police officer then died after stabbing himself, HKers are chanting something I haven’t heard in a while: “Corrupt cops, may your whole family die”. (Not heard in this video.)

People are holding these faux editions of Apple Daily: the logo says “Apple Grows” and the front cover says “The Stronger We Stand”.

The marches in HK often felt repetitive: the same route, the same chants & signs. They don’t happen anymore, of course. Right now, the London march feels just like the one on June 4, along Regent St again. I wonder if the London protests will begin to feel similarly… similar.

Addendum: the full English headline on the front page of the faux Apple Daily says “the harder you ban… the stronger we stand”. (The other side is in Chinese.)

This man says he came to the UK in July 2020, “after the nat sec law”. He’s carrying white flowers in honor of the HK man who stabbed a police officer & killed himself hrs ago. He says it shows how desperate HKers are. “You can either give money or yourself. He chose his path.”

I can’t say for sure, but it seems as if people in London are less clueless about what the protest is about and are more curious than on June 4. I would guess it’s because HK and China have been in the news a lot more in the last month. This man clapped the protesters on.

We’ve arrived to Chinatown, where a crowd of people were already gathered.

Got distracted by this dog in a backpack on a scooter

This man was leading the crowd into chants of “Free Hong Kong! Free Tibet! Down down CCP!”

Large banner for “The Incarcerated Brothers”

First protest dog sighting of the day. Her name is Mila.

I did NOT expect to see actual copies of the final edition of Apple Daily passed around in London less than a week after it was published. The man passing them out says he spent HKD5,000 buying and shipping 150 copies to the UK.

This man is in his late 60s. He says he came here in March with his family and that he had to leave and probably can’t go back because he published a book about the protests. He’s a reverend, and his wife is a pastor.

His wife asked me if I knew anything about the man who stabbed the police officer and died today. I said I didn’t. She said that his death was a sacrifice, that it “had value”. She said that it was just a pity that the “corrupt cop didn’t die too”…

“I didn’t used to hate the cops so much, but now I do,” she told me. She says they’re still figuring out how to transfer their money from HK to the UK. Their teenage son hasn’t graduated from high school yet and now has to work to save up to pay for school fees.

A video of former HK lawmaker @tedhuichifung, now in exile in Australia: “Let’s declare that the CCP is the biggest enemy of freedom and democracy; it’s a threat not only to HK but to the whole world.”

Overheard a convo between 2 men comparing the quality of the 糯米雞 (a classic dim sum dish consisting of glutinous rice with chicken wrapped in a lotus leaf) at a restaurant around the corner with those back in HK. The men were holding the banner of the “Incarcerated Brothers”.

Lawmaker-turned-political-refugee @nathanlawkc speaks in English warning of the reach of the CCP, influencing even the “political elite” of the UK. “My arrival is an alarming signal to the UK community… my story alone can tell the story of the deterioration of HK’s freedom…”

The protest is definitely attracting curious onlookers. Twice I’ve heard passersby ask protesters what the rally was about, and they gave nods of comprehension when they heard that it was for Hong Kong.

@EnglandGoodNei1 pastor Roy Chan talks about the “sacrifice” of the man who died by suicide in HK today after stabbing an officer. Like the two protesters who died in 2019, he has instantly become a martyr for the movement.

The crowd is now marching through Chinatown to the HK Trade & Development Office.

The crowd is marching past al fresco diners eating at Chinese restaurants. I saw a couple people join in the “Hong Kong is not China” chants.

Someone threw an egg. It appears it was thrown by men watching from the second floor of a Chinese restaurant.

The march has arrived to the HK Economic and Trade Office. Protesters began shoving hell money into the office’s mailbox and lit smoke bombs (not sure what to call them). Police eventually grabbed a kid who went up onto the steps to light another smoke bomb.

The police officers are saying the demonstration was supposed to end at 9pm and that this part was not authorized. They are saying the kid is not under arrest right now. I heard someone say he’s 17 years old. Some protesters shouted “thank you officer!”

Officer: “Tensions and emotions are running high but you can’t do those sorts of things. It makes our job harder and it makes it harder to facilitate these demos.” Explaining that the kid and everyone else have to leave the area now. They let the kid go.

The crowd claps for the police officers and ask if people have wet wipes and water to clean up the remnants of smoke. Pretty remarkable to see the officers de-escalate the situation so well.

Police explain that the main concern was that the smoke sticks (?) were fire hazards and that they didn’t know if anyone was inside the building. People are dispersing now. Signing off.

Protesters extinguish the candles and wipe up what they can. “You missed a spot!!”