Tiananmen student leader sees hope for Hong Kong during emotional visit to Occupy protests
A former leader of the Tiananmen Square protest 25 years ago says Occupy site feels familiar, but that the ending will be far different
Zhou Fengsuo had hardly taken his first step among the tents and banners of Harcourt Road before the tears began.
The peaceful, determined occupation of the roads outside government headquarters brought to mind the 1989 pro-democracy movement on the mainland, of which Zhou was one of the leaders.
“[The scenes] are completely new [to me], but it’s also so familiar with what [happened] 25 years ago,” he said in an interview with the South China Morning Post on Monday morning.
“The fact that today’s China is still a totalitarian regime with no political freedom has made me very angry and sad,” he said. “But I am also very hopeful [to] see that this generation can stand up and take their future in their own hands... it’s very encouraging.”
The 1989 movement ended in failure amid a bloody crackdown in Tiananmen Square that cast a long shadow over China’s rise in the decades that followed. Zhou ranked fifth on Beijing’s most-wanted list at the time.
Watch: Former Tiananmen student leader: I see the future of China's democracy in Hong Kong