British expat on frontline of Hong Kong protests says UK has abandoned former colony

As pepper balls and rubber bullets rained down on the crowd of Hong Kong protesters crouched by the entrance of a carpark tunnel, protecting themselves from the riot police with flimsy umbrellas, a chill of terror swept over one young man as he dived for cover with his girlfriend.

“I remember the moment when it felt like a truck hit the end of my umbrella, it was like it didn’t even exist. I put my arm under [her] and said get your head down and our umbrellas were caving in,” said the protester, who asked to be identified as Mark.

That night in October Mark blended into the crowd of mainly black-clad protesters, most of them wearing face masks. But as one of the only British expats to join the front lines of the protests, he had a unique background.

Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph as protests got back under way in Hong Kong last week he said he had taken to the streets of his adopted city because his own government had “turned its back” on the people of Hong Kong.

The UK government this week offered a "path to citizenship" to almost three million Hong Kong residents as it condemned China's move to crush dissent in the former British colony.

But Britain has been criticised for failing to act against the steady erosion of Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms for years. It stands accused of doing too little too late to support the pro-democracy movement over the past year of civil unrest.

When Mark first moved to Hong Kong he expected, and initially experienced, a “very privileged life” of enjoying the city’s glamour, wealth and nightlife.

But as strife gripped the city in opposition to a controversial extradition bill and, more widely, against Beijing’s rule, he said he could no longer take his human rights for granted or stand on the sidelines.

“For me being British and seeing that the British government had done nothing, even now, it really made me want to do my part on behalf of what the British government isn’t doing,” he said.

A sense of duty “to do what’s right” motivated him to continue supporting the pro-democracy cause, risking being caught up in the mass arrests of this week, or being crushed in a carpark tunnel last October, he said.

The day of that protest was China’s National Day, and the streets of Hong Kong had erupted into some of the most violent clashes of the then months-long pro-democracy protests.

Tens of thousands had been marching to protest Beijing’s grip on the city but the rally spiralled into running street battles with the riot police after an officer shot a teenager. Protesters hurled petrol bombs and stones from burning barricades, while the police turned water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets on the crowds.

The 50 or so people who had been trapped in the narrow tunnel had a lucky escape. A sympathetic security guard unlocked the exit into the carpark allowing them to flood in, gasping for air and scrambling to hide. An office worker then helped them to leave safely in twos and threes from a neighbouring building.

The “terrifying” incident was a turning point for Mark. In shock he concluded that the police “wanted to trap and brutalise us. They knew there was probably no way out of this tunnel so it was just target practice for them. They knew that this tunnel was going to be toxic with tear gas.”

Hong Kong’s police force face multiple accusations of excessive force during anti-government protests, a charge they repeatedly deny.

Mark had initially held back towards the middle of mass marches, helping to provide water and First Aid, but the lack of justice over allegations of police violence had pushed him and his girlfriend closer to the protest frontlines, sometimes helping to construct street barricades, he said.

He recalls blood pouring from his knee after being injured by glass. “Two lads grabbed hold of me and helped me limp towards a back alley. A First Aider came and then an old lady gave me some water,” he said.

He was injured on the night he held a Molotov cocktail in his hand for the first time, which he lobbed at a barricade to try to set it alight. “That’s the only time I’ve thrown a Molotov and I wouldn’t do it again,” he said, reconging the moment he set fire to the structure built to defend besieged students at Polytechnic university from the advance of the riot police.

Although the stakes were high and the authorities would make an example of him if he was caught protesting, the risk was worth it to defend people's rights, said Mark.

“For me, it’s simply the freedom of being able to express myself and to stand against an injustice and not..fear that my life might come to ruin simply because I spoke about a political event,” he said.

“Teachers are losing their jobs, people are losing their livelihoods, simply because their employer or the government has found out they are pro-democracy.”

His Hong Kong friends – too young to qualify for the British National Overseas passport to escape to the UK – were resigned to the lack of support from the UK government, and to resisting Chinese encroachment on their city on their own.

“A lot of people have said if Hong Kong is going to become part of China, then I’m not going to have kids..I’m going to emigrate and then the Chinese government gets the land but the people will just move on,” he said. He and his girlfriend would leave together if they needed to for safety.

But he warned that China would not stop if the international community did nothing to stop it taking control of Hong Kong.

“In 20-30 years what happens if they want to take Taiwan? And they say ok we didn’t get much resistance, we can politically play this? What’s next?” he said.