Hundreds of Hongkongers joined demonstrations against the Chinese regime in British cities including London and Manchester on Oct. 1, the 72nd anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) one-party rule.
The “Resist the CCP Day” rallies were jointly organised by several Hong Kong groups and human rights bodies representing Tibetans and Uyghurs.
Finn Lau, founder of Hong Kong Liberty and one of the organisers of the demonstrations, said the various persecuted groups chose to protest together on this “symbolic day” because “we are all suffering, we are victims under the CCP.”
The human rights situation in the former British colony has deteriorated rapidly under a new national security law, which the Beijing regime imposed on Hong Kong in June 2020.
Lau told The Epoch Times that his friends were among those who were imprisoned in the Hong Kong authorities’ intensified suppression of pro-democracy activists. But he said he will not give up and will continue to fight on behalf of the people of Hong Kong.
“Some people may say that the collapse of the CCP is impossible, but I don’t think it’s a dream,” Lau said. “Look at the history of the USSR: 40 years ago they thought that it was impossible the USSR would collapse.”
Lau said he believes the fate of the Soviet Union, which disintegrated in 1991, will happen to the CCP as well.
Simon Cheng, a former employee of the British consulate in Hong Kong, said he wanted to join the rally in London because there is no longer any room in Hong Kong for freedom of expression.
Cheng was tortured and forced to make a TV confession when he was detained for 15 days in August 2019 by mainland Chinese police. He later arrived in the UK and became the first British National (Overseas) passport holder to be granted asylum.
Cheng told The Epoch Times that, by imposing the national security law, the CCP has installed its own political system in Hong Kong, making it unrecognisable to Hongkongers who had become used to freedom and autonomy.
“The Hong Kong of the past no longer exists,” he said. “So we must do our best to protect the spirit of Hong Kong.”
Many of the protesters were more recent arrivals who came to the UK thanks to a new visa scheme for holders of the British National (Overseas) status, which allows them to live, study, and work in the UK for five years and eventually apply for citizenship.
Among them was a family of three who only identified themselves by their family name Ng.
Mrs. Ng said they chose to come to the UK as soon as they could because they did not want their child to be poisoned by the CCP’s propaganda, which has tainted Hong Kong’s school textbooks.
“We just had to come to support this rally because we in the UK still have the freedom of expression, which is no longer available in Hong Kong,” she told The Epoch Times.
