This week we received an unusual piece from a student for publication. Published in the comment section this week, we initially struggled to know what to do with it. A comment article is usually an attempt to convince. It is open about its opinions, but it hopes, through humour, reason or conviction to bring the reader round by the end of the piece. This article we received was nothing like that. It doesn’t try to convince anyone or expect that anyone reading will change their mind. It is a sigh of resignation and there are no jokes. I recommend you read it before continuing this editorial. The piece, by an anonymous contributor, talks about the experience of being a Hongkonger witnessing the country that they grew up in being taken over and crushed before their very eyes. The writer mentions things with which we are all familiar. So-called ‘re-education’ camps in Xingang, the seizure of people off the street, unlawful prolonged detention and beating of political dissidents. Yet what struck me about the article was the longanimity of the tone. The author does not expect anyone’s mind to be changed by this piece.

I would like to write that I am sympathetic to the Hongkonger cause. These are a people that have been abandoned by the rest of the world to the bully that is the CCP. The threat of falling out with the world’s second largest economy is seemingly great enough Western nations are holding their noses and offering up the ~7 million people living in Hong Kong as the price of a quiet life. Shame. My thoughts go out to any students here who feel worried or scared by the events unfolding at home. In sympathy, the front page of Felix will carry the image of a flag bearing Hong Kong protester. I can’t begin to understand what you must be feeling. I am sorry we can’t do more.

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