Chinese 周永康 Jyutping Zau Wing Hong Hanyu Pinyin Name Alex Chow | IPA [tʂoʊjuŋkʰaŋ] Role Social activist Romanization Ziu Yun Kong | |
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Education University of Hong Kong | ||
..it's just all now / Marshall McLuhan
Alex Chow Yong-Kang (born 1990) is a social activist in Hong Kong, and a student of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Hong Kong and former secretary-general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students. He was the Vice-President (External) of the Hong Kong University Students' Union.
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Occupy Central with Love and Peace
He was one of the main organizers of the Occupy Central campaign. On 1 July 2014, following an annual pro-democracy rally, he organised a sit-in on Chater Road in central Hong Kong which was forcibly dispersed by police. 511 people were arrested. He was quoted as saying at the time that "It’s not enough to repeat the march and the assembly every year. We have to upgrade it to a civil disobedience movement." He later wrote that "In the past 30 years, the democracy movement has been too slow and too painstaking. The power of civil disobedience lies … in the blood and tears of everyone who is behind the struggle."
Umbrella Movement
In the early stages of the Umbrella Movement, he was an influential organiser and speaker. He was reported as announcing to protesters, "This is not a student movement; this is a Hong Kongers' movement"; he warned the New York Times that "residents may occupy various government departments". On 5 October, when the Federation of Students agreed to enter into dialogue with the government, Chow announced that the talks would be called off if attempts were made to forcefully remove protesters. In a speech at the main protest camp, he explained, "A dialogue is not a compromise. We will start arranging talks with the government, because we understand that there are people in both the government and here who want to solve society’s problems. We will not back down."
Having attempted and failed to organise meetings with officials through local channels, Chow and two other students were prevented from travelling to China to petition mainland government officials when they attempted to leave on 15 November. The group, consisting of Chow, Nathan Law and Eason Chung, learned from airline officials that mainland authorities had revoked their Home Return Permits, effectively banning them from boarding the flight for Beijing.
Chow, along with two other prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy student leaders Nathan Law and Joshua Wong, were jailed for six to eight months on 17 August 2017 for storming the Civic Square at the Central Government Complex in Tamar during a protest that triggered the 79-day Occupy sit-ins of 2014. The sentence also "halted their budding political careers", as they are barred from running for public office for five years.
