Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2020-08-10)

P O L I T I C S

5

30

Edited by

Amanda Kolson Hurley

and Anthony Lin PHOTOGRAPH

BY

BILLY

H.C.

KWOK

FOR

BLOOMBERG

BUSINESSWEEK

● Pro-democracyrestaurants

getcreativeaboutspeechas

Beijingclampsdown

Thestrikingred-and-whiteprotestpostersonthe

windowsofa HongKongrestaurantproclaimin

Chinese,“RevolutionIsNoCrime!ToRebelIs

Justified!”and“CarrytheRevolutionThroughto

theEnd.”Oncemeanttorallytheproletariatin

MaoZedong’sChina,theycarrya newmeaningin

HongKong:TheoppositiontoChina’sclampdown

onHongKong’sautonomymaybestruggling,but

it isn’tdead.

Across HongKong,amongthethousandsof

restaurants,shops,andothersmallbusinessespar-

ticipatinginwhat’sknownasthe“yelloweconomy”

insupportofanti-governmentprotests,signsof

defiancehaveemergedintheweekssinceBeijing

officialsimposeda sweepingnewnationalsecurity

law.Almostimmediately,yellowestablishmentstook

downposterswithprotestslogansthatgovernment

officialswarnedmaybeviolatingthelaw.Theyellow

economy got its start with restaurants that provided

food and drink to protesters last year and has since

come under heavy criticism from members of the

pro-China establishment as well as China’s official

representatives in Hong Kong.

At least one popular cafe announced it was with-

drawing from the yellow economic circle, and others

began to hide their affiliation. But many businesses

replaced protest signs with blank Post-it notes or

plainpaper—theabsenceoffreespeechbeingits

ownformofdissent.Andtheboldesthavebegunto

embraceChineseCommunistrevolutionary slogans

in an ironic appropriation of the language of China’s

own revolutionary leaders and in an effort to keep

speaking up without prosecution.

“Using politically safe, politically correct, and

politically cynical slogans is a way to continue to

protest against the Hong Kong government,” says

Sonny Lo, a Hong Kong academic and political

commentator. “The yellow economy members are

now adjusting their strategy to be more flexible,

more strategic, more underground.”

Following a year of anti-government protests

that sometimes turned violent, China imposed the

law on Hong Kong on June 30. It includes broadly

worded provisions against subversion, secession,

Hong K g’s

Counter Revolu tionaries