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SATURDAY,OCTOBER19,2019 | THEGLOBEANDMAILO NEWS | A

I

n the midst of a street crowded
with young protesters de-
nouncing Chinese authoritar-
ianism, Leo Chang walked with a
full-sized Nikon camera around
his neck, scanning the scene for
images that might tell a different
story.
“Of course I don’t support
them,” he said of protesters who
have used violence to call for a list
of demands, including greater
democratic freedoms. “I just want
to use my camera as a weapon.”
He scrolled through his phone
to show what he meant.
In one image, he is holding
shards of glass with a crumpled
Coke can in the background. Mr.
Chang calls itCrystals of Democra-
cy. “Both democracy and Coca-
Cola come from the Bestern
world. And now they are all bro-
ken like this,” he said. In another
photo, he has tossed a yellow pa-
per with the text “Hong %ong suf-
frage” into a metal pot filled with
bricks that protesters have
thrown at police and businesses
they fault for being friendly to
China. “This is what they want
Hong %ong suffrage to be, which
means they use violence,” he said.
As he walked the streets, Mr.
Chang, 25, looked little different
from the crowd chanting “Fight
for freedom,” save that he was not
dressed in black. But unlike most
of the people gathered for one of
the protests that have brought tu-
mult to this Asian financial capi-
tal for 19 weeks now, he had ar-
rived by high-speed train from the
nearby Chinese city of Guangz-
hou, where he is a PhD finance
student in his home country.
And his perspective suggests
that Beijing has little to fear from
the Hong %ong protests. Instead,
the lengthy outbreak of violence
has served to underscore the skill
of China’s leadership in address-
ing the shifting demands of a dig-
itally connected generation while
buttressing the Communist Par-
ty’s long-held argument that it
alone can hold firm the ground
beneath the feet of the Chinese
nation, even if that means em-
ploying increasingly severe meth-
ods of social control.
Among young mainland Chi-
nese exposed to the protests, the
violence that has erupted has on-

ly served to validate that dogma.

At The Chinese University of

Hong %ong, a student-run survey

assessed views among 268 main-

land young people in the city.

Those surveyed chose rule of law

as their most important value, fol-

lowed by stability and prosperity.

Democracy was dead last. Free-

dom was second-last.

Support for the protests varied

considerably, with those who

have spent the most time in the

city showing the most sympathy,

according to the survey, which

found a subtlety of views. Only 12

per cent, for example, opposed an

independent investigation into

police conduct, one of the key de-

mands of protesters, and fewer

than 20 per cent opposed with-

drawal of a proposed extradition

bill that initially sparked the pro-

test movement.

But as a group, they showed a

clear difference in priorities from

those on the protest lines.

“It’s quite typical Chinese

thinking,” said Daisy, the student

who organized the survey. The

Globe and Mail is identifying her

by her English first name alone

because she supports the protests

and fears reprisal over her views.

In general, people in China

“have a different understanding

of freedom. They think freedom

of expression should be re-

strained to helpthe government

maintain social stability,” she

said. For youth, the message in

their childhood homes and in pa-

triotic instruction at school is that

while private expression of views

is acceptable, “you cannot chal-

lenge the system,” she said.

For Hong %ong’s own youth,

protests have been sustained by

fear of losing freedoms to an en-

croaching authoritarian state

some see as so tyrannical they call

it “Chinazi.”

Mr. Chang could hardly be

more different. He has no prob-

lem with the idea of peaceful pro-

test, although he fiercely opposes

violent tactics. But, he said of the

protesters, “I feel sad for them. I

think they might be brain-

washed.” Because “the enemy

they are fighting against doesn’t

even exist,” he said. “China is

more and more open, and more

and more free. They must have

some misunderstanding of us.”

It’s true that mainland youth

“don’t have the freedom to use

foreign websites, like Google and

Twitter,” he said – although he us-

es circumvention tools to post

photos to Instagram and Twitter.

“But we have the freedom to go

out at night alone and don’t have

to worry about being robbed. So it

depends on how you define free-

dom.”

The violence in Hong %ong has

only served to emphasize that

feeling, particularly as it has in-

creased in explosiveness. In re-

cent days, Hong %ong police said

someone had remotely detonated

a home-made bomb in what Su-

perintendent Suryanto Chin-chiu

of the Explosive Ordinance Dis-

posal Bureau called an act “with

only one motive, which is to kill

and maim officers in the field.” A

protester also attacked an officer

in the neck with a knife. President

Ci $inping on Monday vowed that

“anyone who attempts to split

any region from China will be

crushed with shattered body and

bones.”

The protests in Hong %ong

have frequently been dubbed one

of the greatest challenges Mr. Ci

has faced as ruler of China. But vi-

olent scenes in the city may in-

stead help to secure the suprema-

cy he and the Party enjoy.

“They’ve always made the ar-

gument that democracy equals

chaos,” said David Gweig, a Cana-

dian social scientist in Hong %ong

who has studied China’s transna-

tional relations and issues relat-

ing to its overseas students. “The

protesters are feeding perfectly

into this vision.” Chinese state

media, too, have ignored peaceful

protests and amplified scenes of

conflict, “feeding the people the

idea that there’s nothing going on

here except chaos and violence,”

said Mr. Gweig, who is now direc-

tor of Transnational China Con-

sulting Limited. At the same time,

the dim view among mainland

youth of Hong %ong protesters

and the values they represent also

points to the success of the Chi-

nese Communist Party, which has

ruled China for 70 years but has

still secured broad support

among new generations radically

different from those in 1949.

People in the Best might think

of the party as a dictatorship, said

Du Ge, a friend of Mr. Chang’s who

travelled together with him to

take pictures in Hong %ong. But

an average person in China who

could only afford to buy a sack of

rice seven decades ago can now af-

ford 60. “Aery few countries

around the world can achieve

something like that,” he said.

“No matter how the Bestern

world describes China, or what

the Communist Party looks like,

it’s a fact that the party is leading

its people to a better life.”

As for Mr. Chang, he knows a

person of his age and skill has op-

tions. He could study and live in

China, Hong %ong or, if he chose,

somewhere in the Best.

“But I still think mainland Chi-

na is the best choice,” he said. He

cited China’s continued prospects

for economic growth and the de-

gree to which its leadership has

improved life in other ways, in

part by clearing the way for a tech-

nological flourishing. Most days,

he walks to a campus shop to buy

groceries, authorizing payment

with nothing more than his face.

Such systems have raised pointed

concerns about privacy and the

increasing reach of China’s indus-

trial-government complex.

But other places in the world

“are not as convenient as we are,”

Mr. Chang said. Staking his future

on China “is a rational choice.”

InHongKong,freedomisintheeyeofthebeholder

AChinesephotographer

attendingtheralliesin

theterritorysaysthe

mainlandismorefree,

andit’stheprotesters

whoare‘brainwashed’

NATHANVANDERKLIPPE
ASIACORRESPONDENT
HONGKONG

PhotographerLeoChang,frommainlandChina,hasbeendocumentingtheHongKongprotests,includingbytossingayellowpaperwiththetext

‘HongKongSuffrage’intoametalpotfilledwithbricksprotestershavethrownatpoliceandbusinesses.LEOCHANG