‘Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times’: Who came up with this protest chant and why is the government worried?

First conceived as a localist election slogan in 2016, ‘Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times’ took awhile to resonate fully with discontented residents

Now the rallying cry has become the most commonly heard chant in the city amid anti-government protests

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‘Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times’ spray-painted on a wall at Western Police Station. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 8:30am, 6 Aug 2019Updated: 4:15am, 7 Aug 2019

When pro-independence activist Edward Leung Tin-kei first declared his election slogan “Liberate Hong Kong; revolution of our times” in 2016, not many could relate to it, let alone understand what it meant.

But over the past week, the rallying cry of the now-jailed student leader has become the most commonly heard chant in the city as long-running protests against the extradition bill have morphed into a full-blown anti-government movement.

Black-clad young protesters in balaclavas, masks and helmets have been leaving their imprint wherever they go by spray-painting the catchphrase since July 21 – the night scores of them vandalised Beijing’s liaison office in Sai Ying Pun and defaced the national emblem on the front entrance.

The slogan’s growing resonance prompted the city’s leader Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to cite it on Monday as solid proof the nature of the movement had changed. She mentioned the slogans twice in her news conference, her first in two weeks.

“They … called for a revolution to liberate Hong Kong. These actions challenge national sovereignty, threaten ‘one country, two systems’, and will destroy the city’s prosperity and stability,” she said.

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