Hong Kong Occupy co-founder awarded German democracy prize
Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, honoured for his 30-year political campaign, says he hopes the recognition will inspire frustrated young activists to continue their struggle
Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, a co-founder of the Occupy Central movement, has become the first Chinese to be awarded the Pfarrer-Georg-Fritze Memorial Gift for his 30-year contribution to the democratic movement in Hong Kong.
Chu said he hoped the award would give a boost to the city’s young people, many of whom were left frustrated after the unprecedented sit-ins in 2014 failed to bear fruit.
“The accolade should be bestowed to all Hongkongers,” Chu told the Post on Thursday before he boarded a flight to Germany for the prize ceremony on Sunday.
“The award is a recognition of the movement and I hope society will be encouraged and understand that our efforts will not be wasted.”
‘If we bow to fate, we will lose everything’, says Occupy Central’s Reverend Chu Yiu-ming
The Pfarrer-George-Fritze Memorial Gift, founded in 1981, is delivered by the Evangelical Church District of Cologne, Germany, every two years to a person or an organisation that had made a special effort in standing up for victims of dictatorship and violence via peaceful means.
The panel chose Chu not only for his decades-long devotion to the city’s pro-democracy drive but also his efforts in helping dissidents in the wake of the Tiananmen Square bloody crackdown in 1989.