Ich Bin Ein Hongkonger!
German Parliamentarians declare 'Ich Bin Ein HongKonger!'
Joshua Wong at his court hearing on violating the mask ban
Berlin - The news of Joshua Wong's arrest In Hongkong took the world by shock. A day before his court hearing last week, he attended a special screening and a panel discussion by Cinema for Peace at the German Bundestag on the topic “Ich bin ein Hongkonger! - Discussing Human Rights and Democracy". “There is a high chance that I’ll be sentenced to jail”, he said at the parliament through his zoom appearance and won the support of the German parliamentarians. The spokesperson for Human Rights from Chancellor Merkel's CDU party, Michael Brand said "In Hong Kong, Joshua Wong is not just one person on trial, we are all on trial. All of our fundamental rights and freedoms". The court adjourned the ruling the next day.
The panel was joined by Ai Weiwei, student activist Nathan Law, FDP foreign policy spokesperson Bijan Djir-Sarai, CDU human rights spokesperson Michael Brand, Die Grünen human rights spokesperson Margarete Bause, General Secretary of Amnesty International Germany, and Cinema for Peace committee member Markus Beeko, Founder and Chairman of Cinema for Peace Jaka Bizilj, and the President of the World Uighur Congress, Dolkun Isa.
Joshua Wong at the Bundestag
The panel discussed the current political situation in Hong Kong, as well as steps that the German government should take in order to fight against Chinese oppression. Markus Beeko: "We saw that people were not intimidated, even with the passing of the new security law, a law which, according to its wording, includes all of us sitting here - because what we do here may be punishable if we enter mainland China or Hong Kong". Margarete Bause stressed: "The ones (Human Rights) in the West are not different from the ones in the East, South, or North - they apply worldwide (...) That is why the commitment to human rights is not an interference in internal affairs. Because they are universal, we all have the obligation to work for human rights worldwide".
Joshua Wong further added that he “sincerely hope that the world would still keep a close watch and direct attention to the trial of young activists and the parliament of the Hong Kong Congress (…) Hong Kong is the new East Berlin is the new Cold War”. Joshua Wong's statement was followed by an intense emotional exchange with Ai Weiwei at the Bundestag in Chinese, which Ai Weiwei clarified later saying “I just told him how much I respect him, and that he’s so young and that he’s fighting (since he was) 14, he has a very strong belief system. I don’t think the Communist Party can crush him, his spirit, and that he’s very intelligent. I also told him that if the West(ern) government(s) can understand what he’s saying, even just 10%, it would not be behaving like today". Cinema for Peace Founder Jaka Bizilj assured Joshua Wong that Cinema for Peace will be there for him and will extend support as needed.
Furthermore, the screening and discussion also revealed the #IchBinEinHongKonger Tshirt, which will be used to campaign for Hong Kong's freedom.
Ai Weiwei's planned art installation at the Sony Center in Berlin that was canceled on short notice
The issues discussed in the panel discussion ironically manifested itself the next day, reinforcing the urgent need to examine and react to Chinese influence in western democracies. Following Ai Weiwei's attendance in the panel discussion, a specific case followed two days later - First, an agreed art installation by Ai Weiwei for the Human Rights Film Festival was canceled shortly before it was set up in the Sony Center by the owners of Sony Center, Oxford Properties. During the course of the day, Ai received a notification that special film screenings of "Coronation" (2020) and "Vivos" (2019) at IMAX during the festival were also canceled. It's no coincidence that IMAX recently reopened 369 theaters in China and is dependent on Chinese state censorship for the approval of its theaters and the films they show.
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A similar petition to the UK parliament resulted in 146,344 signatures, and the parliament will debate the petition on the 12th of October. The debate can be watched on the parliament's Youtube channel.