Hong Kong independence activist Edward Leung Tin-kei, who authored the 2019 Great Democracy Movement slogan, was released from prison on Wednesday (January 18th), Hong Kong authorities said.
Edward Leung Tin-kei, 30, was imprisoned in 2018 for a protest organized two years earlier. He is the origin of the slogan now banned “Free Hong Kong, revolution of our time”, which protesters have taken up as a rallying cry against China’s authoritarian governance.
The Fishball Revolt
Figure of the independence movement, he was sentenced in 2018 to six years in prison for having “actively participated” to riots two years earlier. The police, responsible that day for dispersing street vendors in the Mongkok district, had to face hundreds of demonstrators who had come to defend this Lunar New Year tradition and denounced the disappearance of local customs under the influence of Beijing. Described as the “fish ball revolt” in reference to a traditional and popular dish of the region, these riots left 130 injured, including 90 police officers.
Edward Leung Tin-Kei was one of the leaders of the “localist” movement, fed by a strong anti-Chinese sentiment, which led the “umbrella movement” of autumn 2014. For three months, thousands of Hong Kongers demonstrated to demand a more democratic system from Beijing. In vain. Edward Leung Tin-Kei, who had hoped to be elected with his Hong Kong Indigenous party in the 2016 legislative elections, was finally banned from running.