Class boycott is planned at high schools and universities
By Natasha Khan
Updated Sept. 1, 2019 11:31 pm ET
HONG KONG—Government authorities had hoped that the unrest and upheaval of the past few months would recede after youthful protesters returned to school on Monday. But thousands of students plan to prove them wrong by boycotting class.
As the city enters its fourth month of an uprising that has been stunning in both scale and ferocity, students this week are taking center stage. They say if the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, doesn’t respond to their demands, they will escalate their actions on Sept. 13.
While the summer of dissent has been powered by a vast cross-section of society, it is students and other young people who have been key drivers of near-daily actions across the city.
The boycott—which is planned at high schools and universities—could galvanize even more students to join the opposition.
“Their idea is to promote a wider understanding among all students: of the reasons why Hong Kongers are protesting,” said Suzanne Pepper, who studies democracy in the city at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “Students are saying there is more to education than just book-learning and formal classroom lectures, so they plan to hold all kinds of activities to explain all that’s going on so people will understand.”
The Platform of Class Boycotts in Secondary School—an alliance of student and youth activist groups—last month said that in a survey of 19,473 high-school students, a majority of whom were in 10th grade or above, nearly 90% support boycotting classes “to express their concerns on the social injustice and show their determination for democracy in Hong Kong.”
It isn’t clear how many students would ultimately join the protests, though on Monday morning, some students wearing uniforms were standing outside schools chanting slogans across the city.
The secondary school alliance planned a rally Monday, where civil lectures, music shows and sharing sessions would be given by parents, teachers and local lawmakers.
“Class boycotts have become our inevitable step to reiterate our five demands,” the group said when it announced its plans last month, referring to a slate of requirements that includes democratic reform and an independent inquiry into how police have handled the demonstrations. “We believe students from various schools can work in solidarity to maximize the impacts of class boycotts.”
On Aug. 17, the government said that it shared, with the education sector, a belief that schools “should not be used by anyone to express political demand as it will not only affect normal school operations but also drag innocent and immature students into political turbulence, losing their normal learning opportunities.”
Children as young as 12 have been arrested on the front lines of protests this summer.
Students at universities here also said they would organize a boycott and planned a sit-in at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Monday, followed by lectures on campuses. They sought to emphasize that they were boycotting classes but not education. A general strike from a cross-section of industries has also been called for Monday and Tuesday.
“Students provide extraordinary energy for any movement because they are a massive and readily organized population which can sway public opinion with their strong moral appeal,” said Ching Kwan Lee, chair professor of social science at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Five years ago, the 2014 pro-democracy Umbrella Movement protests were sparked by a week of class boycotts. Street occupations ran for 79 days beginning in late September. The first major rally this year—which drew an estimated one million people on June 9—was preceded by a citywide signature-gathering campaign conducted by high school alumni associations.
Over the weekend, the city saw some of its fiercest clashes between protesters and police—a large fire raged near the city’s police headquarters, police shot volleys of tear gas to disperse crowds on Saturday and access to the airport was effectively shut down for several hours on Sunday. Initially ignited by a proposed extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent to China for trial—and as the government has made few concessions—it has since become a broader movement. Protesters now want all five of their demands to be met before they step back from the front lines.
In the last school year, 325,498 students were enrolled at 506 high schools in Hong Kong, according to the city’s education bureau. There were 98,034 students at the city’s eight publicly funded universities, according to the bureau’s data. Hong Kong has a population of about 7.4 million.
Some people are worried that the radical mood on the streets will spill onto campuses.
A lecturer at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said she was concerned about what could happen on campus if boycotters clash with students who don’t support the pro-democracy movement. She says she won’t talk about the movement during class to prevent tensions from rising.
“The professors and lecturers here, especially the ones from overseas, are also nervous about being in this politically charged environment,” she said. “We’re all very worried. My family back at home is worried about my safety.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hong-kong-students-go-back-to-school-but-protests-wont-cool-11567392576
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