Democracy activists from Hong Kong and other Chinese territories rallied in major cities around the world on Sunday for a "day of mourning" as China celebrated 74 years since its founding.
The U.S.-based Hong Kong Democracy Council posted photos on social media showing demonstrations against the Chinese Communist Party in locations including London, San Francisco and Tokyo. Uyghurs activists, who came out against China's rights violations in the northwestern Xinjiang region, also attended.
Hong Kong has seen a rapid erosion of basic freedoms since Beijing-backed authorities launched a crackdown in 2019, in a move widely considered to be in violation of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, a treaty that guaranteed the former British colony would retain its autonomy and civil liberties for 50 years.
Organizers in New York City held an exhibit focused on the CCP's infiltration of free societies, including in the form of extraterritorial surveillance. Hong Kongers and Uyghur activists who have fled China in recent years said they were targets of Chinese state-backed harassment campaigns, a practice the U.S. Justice Department calls "transnational repression."
In London, demonstrators were photographed with signs reading "Tibetans demand freedom" and "We resist the Chinese Communist Party." In Washington, D.C., protesters wore shirts with the message "Stop Uyghur Genocide," referring to Beijing's years-long mass internment and reeducate of its Muslim-majority population in Xinjiang.
Nathan Law, a London-based former student organizer and member of Hong Kong's Legislative Council who in 2020 went into exile to escape the pro-Beijing authorities, said the city's freedoms have continued worsening since the national security law introduced that year.
"Political freedom and the freedoms of speech and assembly are fantasies, and more people have been arrested because they exercise these rights," he told Newsweek.
As Chinese soldiers held a flag-raising ceremony on Tiananmen Square on October 1, video emerged of a man in black clothing being violently arrested in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay shopping area, allegedly for holding up a white flower.
The white petals of the Hong Kong flag have become a symbol of resistance in the city, where even seemingly unobtrusive protests such as holding blank sheets of paper can see individuals run afoul of the draconian national security law.
The Hong Kong Police Force didn't return a written request for comment before publication.
On September 26, democracy supporter and former media mogul Jimmy Lai marked the 1,000th day of his nearly six-year prison sentence. The 75-year-old former owner of the Apple Daily newspaper is being kept in solitary confinement in Hong Kong's Stanley Prison, having previously served a 20-month term in connection with the pro-democracy protests that gripped the city in 2019.
He awaits yet another trial, also on national security charges, that could result in life imprisonment.
A "day of mourning" was also held by protesters in Taiwan on Sunday. The democratically governed island has welcomed some, but not all, asylum seekers from Hong Kong.
Last week, as part of China's 74th anniversary celebrations, Chinese leader Xi Jinping reiterated his goal to see Taiwan and China unified under one flag. Taipei, meanwhile, has long rejected the proposal.
China's embassy in Washington, D.C., didn't return an emailed request for comment.
Update 10/2/23, 8:25 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional comments from Nathan Law.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Micah McCartney is a reporter for Newsweek based in Taipei, Taiwan. He covers U.S.-China relations, East Asian and Southeast Asian ... Read more
