The student activist, who found fame as Hong Kong’s teenage “face of protest” during the 2014 demonstrations, had hoped to run for political office after turning 21 in October. It has also delivered a body blow to Hong Kong’s wider democracy movement, already reeling from the disqualification of four its lawmakers from parliament and the growing sense that the international community has abandoned it for fear of upsetting Beijing. The sentences constituted an attempt to intimidate young Hong Kongers who were considering taking to the streets to protest against Beijing’s refusal to grand them genuine democracy. “Never give up!”Benedict Rogers, a British human rights activist who knows all three of the campaigners, said he could also see a silver-lining to the storm clouds that have been gathering over Hong Kong’s democracy movement. But he insisted the tactic would fail: “Hong Kong people will not be defeated.”

Source: The Guardian August 17, 2017 13:07 UTC