The Christian Heart of Hong Kong Activism
By Dan Hitchens, 7/8/21, Wall St. Journal

Joseph Cheng, 71, used to be one of Hong Kong’s busiest
activists: a familiar presence in the media & a leading
figure in several pro-democracy orgs. After retiring in
2015, the former poli-sci prof planned to live out his
remaining days in the city. But Cheng’s life—a microcosm
of Hong Kong’s recent history—has been turned upside down.

Last year’s so-called national-security law reclassified
much ordinary activism as a criminal offense. On April 10,
two days after I spoke to Cheng, authorities handed down
sentences for campaigners including the media tycoon Jimmy
Lai (14 mos prison) & the “father of Hong Kong democracy,”
Martin Lee (suspended sentence). Since then, the arrests
have continued & Lai’s newspaper Apple Daily was shut down.

Fearing prosecution, Cheng & his wife moved to Canberra,
Australia, in July 2020. “It’s a quiet life,” he tells me.
“Sometimes it’s a little bit lonely.” Because of Covid, his
family members in Hong Kong can’t visit. “You feel bad to
see friends arrested, prosecuted, sentenced to prison. But
I understand that there is very little I can do.”

Cheng was born in 1949 to Chinese parents who had fled the
civil war. He has, in turn, held the British colonial govt
to account as a leading member of the pressure group Hong
Kong Observers; campaigned for political reform under
Chinese rule; & now finds himself in de facto exile. He is
also a practicing Catholic, & his career is a reminder of
the remarkably strong Christian influence on Hong Kong’s
pro-democracy movement.

Only 12% of Hong Kongers are Christians, but they play an
outsize role. Messrs. Lai & Lee, the most prominent of the
activists sentenced in April, are Catholics. Benny Tai,
initiator of the 2013-14 Occupy Central campaign, is a
Protestant who held one of the movement’s early press
conferences at a church. Christian leaders like Cardinal
Joseph Zen & the Baptist minister Chu Yiu-Ming have been
at the forefront of the cause. One of the most frequently
heard protest songs has been “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord.”

Religion has also helped to bridge the generational gap
between the sober, consensual style of older figures like
Messrs. Lee & Cheng & megaphone-wielding, social-media-
savvy student leaders like Joshua Wong & Agnes Chow. The
last two, currently serving jail terms, have cited Chris-
tianity as an influence. “He is always being criticized
by the Communist Party for advocating human rights,” Chow
said of Cheng in 2019. “He is brilliant & really a very
influential figure for many of the Catholics in Hong Kong
or even all Christians.”

Was Cheng surprised to see himself described like that?
He chuckles. “I dare not say so!” But he acknowledges
that his public life has been partly inspired by “the
Confucian model of an intellectual: that he should be the
conscience of the people.” At the same time, he is “very
much a product of Catholic education.” 11 years at church
schools taught him the importance of “seeking justice”
& “empathy with ordinary people.”

One legacy of colonialism, Cheng observes, was a large
role for Christian education. “The top execs, the top
civil servants, many have come from church schools.” That
experience shaped many members of Hong Kong’s elite—
including those who have stood up to the authorities.

Church schools also educated many of Hong Kong’s social
workers, who from the 70s onward have led campaigns for
workers’ rights & fair treatment of migrants, among other
issues. These Christian leaders, Cheng says, learned the
arts of organizing grassroots movements, mounting protests,
catching the media’s eye. Their skills, more recently
applied to the pro-democracy cause, may explain the sheer
scale of the 2019 demo's, which sometimes numbered more
than a quarter of the population.

Cheng believes Christians’ affinity for activism is
natural. “You are ready to suffer in this life, & you
seek a much more meaningful afterlife,” he says. That
contrasts with an attitude sometimes found in Hong Kong:
“ ‘Keep your head low, just concentrate on making money,
don’t bother with other things. Avoid politics, that’ll
only get you into trouble.’ The Christians, by their
natural values, have a tendency to downgrade worldly goods
at least a bit.”

Despite its recent defeats, Cheng believes the pro-demo-
cracy movement has fostered “a very strong sense of
defiance,” which could well re-emerge in some new form.
In Canberra, meanwhile, he is at work on his memoirs.
There may be a few more twists before the final chapter
can be written.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-christian-heart-of-hong-kong-activism-11625783689