Joshua Wong

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Joshua Wong (2019)

Joshua Wong Chi-fung ( Chinese 黃 之 鋒 / 黄 之 锋, Pinyin Huáng Zhīfēng , W.-G. Wong Chi-fung , Jyutping Wong 4 Zi 1 fung 1 , Yale Wong 4 Ji 1 Fung 1 , born October 13, 1996 in Hong Kong ) a dissident , student activist and politician . Until June 2020 he was general secretary of the Hong Kong party Demosistō(“Stand for the people”) until it was dissolved on June 30, 2020 after the implementation of the national security law in Hong Kong. He co-founded the 2011 high school activist group Scholarism in Hong Kong and gained wide international attention in 2014 as a spokesman for the protests in Hong Kong . Wong's central role in the umbrella movement resulted in TIME magazine naming him the Most Influential Teenager of 2014 and his 2014 Person of the Year nomination . He was also named one of the “Greatest Leaders in the World” by Fortune magazine in 2015 and was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017 .

In August 2017, Wong and two other democracy activists were convicted and detained in prison for their role in occupying Citizen Square in the early stages of the 2014 Hong Kong protests . In January 2018, Wong was convicted again and detained in prison for failing to obey a court order to clear the Mong Kok protest area during the 2014 Hong Kong protests. He also played an important role in getting US politicians to pass the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Ordinance during the 2019/2020 Hong Kong protests . Wong has been disqualified by the Hong Kong government from participating in the upcoming county council elections. In June 2020, he announced that he would run for a seat on the Hong Kong Legislative Council in the upcoming elections , and officially applied on July 20, 2020. On July 30, 2020, his candidacy became alongside that of 11 other pro-democracy figures declared invalid.

Private

Wong was born in Hong Kong to Grace and Roger Wong. He was raised in an Evangelical Lutheran way . In his early childhood he was diagnosed with dyslexia . As a young boy, he already walked the memorial marches for the Tian'anmen massacre in Hong Kong. His social awareness comes from his father, a retired IT professional who often took him as a child to visit the less privileged people.

Wong studied at United Christian College in Kowloon , a private Christian middle school. By working in church groups, he developed organizational and speaking skills. Wong then studied political science at the Open University of Hong Kong . Due to his political activities, he took a training leave from his studies and is reportedly still a student (since 2019).

Political thinking and creating

Wong sees the decline in freedom of the press in favor of the Beijing perspective and the existing nepotism with which Beijing-friendly politicians reach top positions as the greatest dangers for the city. He laments that Hong Kong is on the way to becoming just like any other Chinese city under centralized administration. Wong's great hope is that one day Hong Kong people will be able to choose their own future. In his opinion, Hong Kong should not automatically be fully integrated into the People's Republic of China in 2047.

Wong's political role model is the history student Wang Dan , who was one of the leaders of the 1989 protests on Tian'anmen Square in Beijing . Unlike the Beijing students in 1989, however, he does not want to risk a violent crackdown and therefore avoid a confrontation with the military.

Wong entertains u. a. Contacts with politicians in the United States, including Republican Senators Ted Cruz , Josh Hawley , Marco Rubio , Rick Scott and Tom Cotton . Rubio and Chris Smith suggested Wong (alongside Nathan Law and Alex Chow Yong-kang) for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Participation in protests

Planned change in curriculum "Moral and National Education"

In June 2011 he founded the student activist group Scholarism with his friend Ivan Lam Long-yin. She turned against ideologized learning content and organized, as the first group, protests against the planned introduction of the school subject "national and moral education" , which Wong described as "brainwashing". 70 members occupied the area in front of the Hong Kong government building. After the protests, supported by other groups, reached a size of 120,000 people, the administration finally decided not to introduce the new school subject.

Hong Kong Protests 2014

Joshua Wong in an interview at the Hong Kong protests

After the decision of the National People's Congress in Beijing at the end of August provided only conditional free elections for Hong Kong 2017, Wong led the student protest on September 22, together with Alex Chow and Lester Shum , calling on students to boycott classes. 5,000 pupils and students protested illegally in front of the Hong Kong seat of government. On the evening of September 26th, around 100 people, including Wong, stormed Civic Square , a public square adjacent to the seat of government that had been cordoned off for months. As a result, Wong was arrested for trespassing on government property, disturbing the peace, and gathering. He and two other students remained in detention for over 43 hours. A judge ruled his release following a Hong Kong Common Law detention test . The Hong Kong Basic Law passed by the Chinese Parliament and protected by the Sino-British Joint Declaration on Hong Kong stipulates that the personal rights of every resident of the Special Administrative Region are inviolable and that they are therefore protected from unlawful arrest, arrest or detention. After his release, he affirmed his political goal of universal suffrage in Hong Kong through civil disobedience .

After the civil rights movement Occupy Central with Love and Peace joined the student protests, this culminated in the 2014 Hong Kong protests , with parts of the financial and administrative districts of Central and Admiralty , the entrance to the seat of government and also parts of Mongkok and Causeway Bay being occupied. Scholarism called for the free direct election of the next local head of government and the resignation of incumbent Leung Chun-ying .

In late November 2014, Wong was arrested for obstructing the evacuation of the occupied Mong Kok area by the police. Until the trial date in mid-January, he was forbidden to enter a large area of ​​Mongkok. On December 1, Wong and two other demonstrators went on a hunger strike , demanding that the government resume talks that had failed in October. On December 6th, Wong declared the hunger strike over for health reasons.

In mid-January 2015. Joshua Wong over three hours in individuals custody arrested and questioned by police about his involvement in the protests. On July 21, 2016, Wong was found guilty together with Alex Chow and Nathan Law as the responsible leaders of the large demonstrations in 2014. A Hong Kong court overturned the verdict in August 2017 and sentenced Wong to a six-month prison term.

Hong Kong protests 2019/2020

As part of the 2019/2020 protests , Wong demanded that Germany “impose entry bans and freeze the assets of those who want to oppress people in Hong Kong”.

In the run-up to the Hong Kong local elections in November 2019, the Hong Kong government banned Joshua Wong from standing as a candidate. Among the more than 1,100 candidates, he is the only one who has been banned from standing.

Without mentioning Wong's name, the Hong Kong government stated that an applicant had not been admitted because he violated electoral law, which makes self-determination "or support for Hong Kong's independence incompatible with the constitutional and legal status of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" .

Joshua Wong was forbidden to travel to Europe to give a series of lectures.

On July 30, 2020, Wong and 11 other candidates were excluded from the upcoming parliamentary election in September.

On September 24, 2020, Wong was arrested for attending an unauthorized meeting in October 2019. He was also accused of violating the ban on masking that applied at the time. After several hours of detention, the police released him. The arrest of Wong was apparently unrelated to the new national security law, which provides for heavy penalties. Wong had previously said in an interview that he feared he could be extradited to the judiciary in mainland China and disappear into a secret prison. On December 2, 2020, Wong was sentenced to 13.5 months in prison for an unauthorized protest in June 2019 in front of Hong Kong Police Headquarters. The involved activists Agnes Chow and Ivan Lam (all three were members of Demosistō ) received sentences of ten and seven months in prison, respectively.

Criticism of the state media

For the Chinese state, Wong is an extremist . The Xinhua news agency accuses him and his group Scholarism of wanting to "take public opinion hostage" for his personal interests. The Hong Kong daily Wen Wei Po portrayed his role in the mass protests as that of a violent rebel. A Hong Kong newspaper published an article on Wong's links with the United States government . It said he had received donations from Americans and that the US intelligence service CIA could carry propaganda in Hong Kong's schools through its activist group . Wong has denied the allegations as baseless.

miscellaneous

Due to his influence on the protests in Hong Kong, American Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential teenagers of the year at the end of 2014. The London daily The Times voted him Young Person of the Year at the end of 2014 and the American magazine Foreign Policy voted him together with Benny Tai among the “Leading Global Thinkers” 2014.

Web links

Commons : Joshua Wong  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Die Welt: A slender 17-year-old teaches China to fear. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  2. ↑ https://time.com/4992800/hong-kong-joshua-wong-bail-trial-umbrella-democracy-demosisto/
  3. ↑ a b Die Zeit: Joshua Wong: His opponent is called China. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Alexis Lai, 'National education' raises furor in Hong Kong , CNN, July 30, 2012, Archived from the original, accessed July 22, 2020
  5. ↑ Steven Hsieh, Hong Kong Students Fight for the Integrity of their Education , The Nation, Hong Kong, Archived from the original, accessed July 22, 2020
  6. ↑ Elizabeth Barber, Hong Kong Student Leader Joshua Wong Charged With Obstruction , Time, Nov. 27, 2014, Archived from the original, accessed July 22, 2020
  7. ↑ Lam Yik Fei, World's Greatest Leaders: 10: Joshua Wong , Fortune, 2015, Archived Wayback Machine , accessed July 22, 2020
  8. ↑ HK's Joshua Wong among 'world's greatest leaders': Fortune , AFP, March 27, 2015, accessed July 22, 2020
  9. ↑ Carol Mang, Toby Chopra, Activist Joshua Wong says he plans to run for Hong Kong legislature , Reuters, June 19, 2020, accessed August 12, 2020
  10. ↑ Carol Mang, Yanni Chow, Democracy activist Joshua Wong launches bid for Hong Kong legislature , Reuters, July 20, 2020, accessed August 12, 2020
  11. ↑ Kelly Ho, Tom Grundy, Jennifer Creery, Hong Kong bans Joshua Wong and 11 other pro-democracy figures from legislative election , Hong Kong Free Press, July 30, 2020, accessed August 12, 2020
  12. ^ The Telegraph: Portrait of Hong Kong's 18-year-old protest leader. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Aleksandra Sagan, Joshua Wong: Meet the teen mastermind of Hong Kong's 'umbrella revolution' , CBC News, October 3, 2014, archived December 11, 2014, accessed August 31, 2020
  14. ↑ Ming Pao, 《黃 之 鋒 ： 好 學生 重新 定義》 (Huang Zhifeng: A Good Student Redefined) , sina.com.hk, September 30, 2012, Archived April 30, 2013, (in Chinese), accessed August 31 2020
  15. ^ Li Xueying, Joshua Wong, the 17-year-old battling Beijing for greater democracy in Hong Kong , The Straits Times. Asia, October 2, 2014, Archived from the original, accessed August 31, 2020
  16. ↑ Little Newspaper: The Hope of Hong Kong. The student Joshua Wong Chi-fung (17) defies China's rulers. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  17. ↑ a b Badische Zeitung: Joshua Wong Chi-fung: Hong Kong's young hope. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  18. ↑ Jailed Hong Kong activist Wong back in court on 21st birthday , Hong Kong Free Press, October 13, 2017, Archived from the original, accessed August 31, 2020
  19. ↑ Justin Wm. Moyer, The teenage activist Wunderkind who was among the first arrested in Hong Kong's Occupy Central , The Washington Post, September 30, 2014, archived August 12, 2017, accessed August 31, 2020
  20. ↑ Leah Marieann Klett, Joshua Wong, Christian Student Leading Hong Kong Protests Will Continue To Fight For Democracy , The Gospel Herald, October 8, 2014, Archived December 9, 2014, accessed August 31, 2020
  21. ↑ Par Brice Pedroletti, Les leaders de la mobilization citoyenne à Hong Kong (The leaders of the civil mobilization in Hong Kong), Le Monde, September 29, 2014 (in French), Filed December 3, 2014, accessed on August 31, 2020
  22. ↑ Joshua Wong, Scholarism on the March , New Left Review, London, England, 92, March – April 2015, Archived from the original, accessed August 31, 2020
  23. ↑ Joshua Wong, the poster boy for Hong Kong protests , BBC News, June 25, 2019, accessed August 31, 2020
  24. ^ A b South China Morning Post: Scholarism's Joshua Wong embodies anti-national education body's energy. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  25. ^ South China Morning Post: 'I was never a top student': Scholarism leader Joshua Wong to study at Open University. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  26. ↑ Eddie Lee, 'I was never a top student': Scholarism leader Joshua Wong to study at Open University ' , South China Morning Post, August 13, 2014, accessed August 31, 2020
  27. ↑ 政情 ： 歷 DQ 兼 坐監 羅冠聰 終 大學 畢業(in Chinese), Oriental Press Group Limited, January 16, 2019, accessed August 31, 2020
  28. ↑ CNN: Echoing Tiananmen, 17-year-old Hong Kong student prepares for democracy battle. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  29. ↑ a b Tages-Anzeiger - A 17-year-old challenges Beijing. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  30. ↑ Mark Pinkstone: Ted Cruz flaunts his convenient ignorance of riots in Hong Kong China Daily Hong Kong, October 15, 2019.
  31. ↑ Cindy Wan: Masked faces at rally pressing for HK act The Standard , October 15, 2019; US senator warns Hong Kong becoming 'police state' France 24 , 14 October 2019; Iain Marlow, Daniel Flatley, Dandan Li: China threatens to retaliate if US passes Hong Kong bill Bloomberg News , October 16, 2019.
  32. ↑ Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong seeks Trump, US Congress support Japan Times , September 14, 2019.
  33. ↑ Hong Kong activist Nathan Law to attend State of the Union address in US as senator's guest Coconuts Hong Kong , February 4, 2020.
  34. ↑ Alex Lo: Watch out for Joshua Wong's new-found friends in Washington South China Morning Post , November 19, 2016; Ng Weng Hoong: Hong Kong's Joshua Wong backs Black Lives Matter, risks wrath of US conservatives The Georgia Straight , June 2, 2020; Zheping Huang: US senators introduced a bill to punish Chinese officials suppressing freedom in Hong Kong Quartz , November 17, 2016; Cotton, Rubio Introduce Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act Tom Cotton , November 16, 2016.
  35. ^ Evan Fowler: The US senator's Peace Prize proposal is surprising and not particularly welcome Hong Kong Free Press , February 10, 2019.
  36. ^ The Guardian: Joshua Wong: the teenager who is the public face of the Hong Kong protests. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  37. ↑ YAHOO News - 70 多名 學 民 思潮 成員 政 總 外 紮營 請願. Retrieved October 8, 2014 .
  38. ↑ Die Zeit: Hong Kong's future is decided on the street. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  39. ↑ Business Insider: REPORT: Hong Kong's 17-Year-Old 'Extremist' Student Leader Arrested During Massive Democracy Protest. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  40. ↑ USA Today: Meet the 17-year-old face of Hong Kong's protests. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  41. ^ A b The Guardian: Keith Oderberg: Hong Kong's respect for individual rights allowed us to free Joshua Wong. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  42. ^ "Public Enemy" Joshua Wong: Hong Kong's protest has a young face. In: n-tv.de. October 2, 2014, accessed September 24, 2020 .
  43. ^ Erning Zhu: What does "Occupy-Central" want? In: Deutsche Welle. September 29, 2014, accessed October 3, 2014 .
  44. ↑ NWZ Online - 17-year-old scares Beijing. Retrieved October 8, 2014 .
  45. ^ RTHK News - Joshua Wong banned from Mong Kok areas. Retrieved August 27, 2015 .
  46. ^ TIME - Hong Kong Student Leader Joshua Wong Charged With Obstruction. Retrieved August 27, 2015 .
  47. ↑ BBC - Hong Kong protesters warned not to return to clash site. Retrieved August 27, 2015 .
  48. ↑ CNN - Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong ends hunger strike. Retrieved August 27, 2015 .
  49. ^ TIME - Hong Kong Student Leader Joshua Wong Questioned Over Pro-Democracy Protests. Retrieved August 27, 2015 .
  50. ↑ Democracy Movement in Hong Kong: leader of the protests found guilty. tagesschau.de, July 21, 2016; accessed on July 21, 2016.
  51. ↑ "Hong Kong: Prison Terms for Democracy Activists - SPIEGEL ONLINE" . Accessed August 17, 2017
  52. ↑ Paul Ronzheimer: Protests in Hong Kong: “Why is Germany leaving us alone?” August 17, 2019 ( welt.de [accessed on August 18, 2019]).
  53. ↑ Hong Kong: Activist Wong is not allowed to run in local elections . In: Spiegel Online . October 29, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 29, 2019]).
  54. ↑ Joshua Wong: Court forbids My Europe trip . September 19, 2019 ( twitter.com [accessed September 19, 2019]).
  55. ↑ Hong Kong: Joshua Wong and eleven other democracy activists excluded from the election. In: Der Spiegel. July 30, 2020, accessed July 30, 2020 .
  56. ↑ https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/hongkong-wong-festnahme-1.5043026
  57. ↑ Activist Joshua Wong free again , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 24, 2020.
  58. ↑ https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/02/asia/hong-kong-joshua-wong-agnes-chow-intl-hnk/index.html
  59. ↑ Global Times: Student boycott a naïve manifesto of HK extremists. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  60. ^ South China Morning Post: 'Preserve stability', Vice-President Li Yuanchao says, in appeal to Hong Kong's youth. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  61. ↑ Global Times: Over 60 arrested in HK protests. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  62. ↑ RT: Hong Kong's 'Semi-Autonomous Democracy' is still a leap forward. Retrieved October 15, 2014 .
  63. ↑ Time: The 25 Most Influential Teens of 2014. Retrieved March 10, 2015 .
  64. ^ Young Person of the Year - Joshua Wong courageously insists on a democratic future for Hong Kong. Retrieved March 26, 2015 .
  65. ↑ NTD.TV - 2014 Leading Global Thinkers: Benny Tai and Joshua Wong. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 12, 2015 ; accessed on March 26, 2015 .
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Wong is the family name here, Joshua Chi-fung is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Wong, Joshua
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 黃 之 鋒 黄 之 锋 (Chinese); Wong Chi-fung (Wade Giles Romanization); Wong4 Zi1 Fung1 (Jyutping Romanization); Wong4 Ji1 Fung1 (Yale Romanization); Huáng Zhīfēng (Pinyin Romanization)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese student activist
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1996
PLACE OF BIRTH Hong Kong