By Ann Wang
TAIPEI (Reuters) – A new magazine in support of Hong Kong’s struggle for democracy reaches out to the diaspora and those still living in the former British colony and comments on the security of Taiwan where it is published.
Democratic Taiwan has emerged as a haven for some Hong Kongers as a haven, especially after China’s enforcement of a harsh new national security law in Hong Kong last year.
In Chinese, the new quarterly magazine is called ‘be water’, after a tactic used by protesters to evade Hong Kong police and inspired by a maximum of homemade martial arts legend Bruce Lee encouraging them to be flexible or shapeless .
The first issue appears in January.
Flow HK is mentioned in English, and the editor-in-chief of the magazine is the exile activist, Sunny Cheung, and its editorial staff includes other well-known campaigners.
Chiang Min-yen, a Taiwanese activist who works from the small office in Taipei and also sits on the editorial board, told Reuters the publication wants to provide a forum for discussion and how to continue the fight for freedom and democracy.
“People are thinking about what is next for Hong Kong and what Hong Kongers can do – how can they support Hong Kong and oppose the authoritarianism of the Communist Party,” he added.
The magazine encourages subscribers in Hong Kong to obtain the electronic version due to security concerns that police may find a physical copy in people’s homes.
Hong Kong authorities maintain freedom of speech and the media intact, but say national security is a red line.
The National Security Act punishes anything that China views as ruin, secession, terrorism or conspiracy with foreign powers to life imprisonment.
In his piece for the first issue, Cheung urges people not to give up, saying the resistance movement is like a buried stream of fire ready to become a river.
“Overseas Hong Kongers have to fight, and will not give up their dream of going home. If you are not free in Hong Kong, then what is the use of freedom?”
(Reporting by Ann Wang; writing and additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; editing by Michael Perry)