Pro-democracy activists clash with the police during a protest outside the hotel where China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee Deputy General Secretary Li Fei is staying, in Hong Kong, Sept. 1, 2014.
September 04, 2014 7:08 PM
HONG KONG—
After Beijing announced election rules for Hong Kong this week, activists in the former British colony said they will stage rallies in opposition.
And adults are not the only ones considering action. A group of middle school students is discussing a boycott of classes to protest Beijing’s decision and fight for democracy.
The effort is being led by a group called Scholarism, which was established three years ago by 15- and 16-year-old high school students in opposition to nationalistic curriculum. It plans to launch a strike by high school students in two months.
Citizen Classrooms
This week, the group held three “citizen classrooms” at a church in Kowloon. Several key members who entered college this year, including co-founder Joshua Wong, explained political reform and civil disobedience to more than 40 high school students.
Wong told VOA that Scholarism will call for high school students to wear black and yellow ribbons during the boycott, and to attend gatherings in their spare time. Middle school students’ boycott will be planned only after a conference held by Scholarism next week.
“We will stick to it to fight for the citizen nomination and to reject the decision. This is our right, we will not be afraid. We are confident to win, because we believe that if we stick to it we’ll succeed some day,” he said.
The group already has had some experience in protesting on the streets.
Rehearsals
In the “rehearsal of Occupy Central” on July 1, Scholarism led hundreds of students and citizens who surrounded the chief executive’s office all night to ask for dialogue. After the decision by the Standing Committee on August 31, Scholarism organized more than 600 students and citizens who marched to the Grand Hyatt Hotel at Wan Chai to protest an appearance by a senior Chinese official.
