Taiwanese and Hong Kong Youths Co-Host Gear Drive for HK Protest in Taoyuan, Taiwan
On the evening of August 18, 2019, a gear drive calling for supply donation for the protesters in Hong Kong was held in Taoyuan City, Taiwan. A Lennon Wall, which has been present in many locations in the world by Hong Kongers to raise awareness, was erected on a shipping container’s glass windows.
Taoyuan Empowerment, a local organization in Taoyuan, held the event to gather supply such as gas mask, gas filters, and hard hats.
Other Lennon Walls are held elsewhere on the same day at the same time in other cities in Taiwan, such as Taipei and Taichung. Tzou Mi-ni, an organizer of the event and an affiliate of Taoyuan Empowerment, spoke to me describing why they chose held this.
“Our hearts are aching after seeing what is going in Hong Kong, so we got here together with Hong Konger Youths to for this drive and Lennon wall”
"We received a lot of supplies from friends in the area,”
“The police are firing more and more tear gas canisters, as we see through the news, not only at the crowd but also through crowd windows. This has not only threatened the security of the protesters but also bystander residents”
Young people are mobilizing to help Hong Kong as their friends back home are threatened. Hong Konger students in the protests were very careful about giving information to journalists, carefully vetting me as I presented myself as a freelance journalist.
As the anti-extradition bill protest spreads, the message is now no longer focused entirely on the bill. Instead, police violence, poor handling by the Hong Kong government, and anger towards China’s ever-growing influence in Hong Kong are now the focuses.
This is perhaps what “foreign influence” the Chinese Communist Party has been describing, that are supposedly inciting and prolonging the protests. But can Taiwanese aid be “foreign” when Taiwan, according to CCP claim, is an “inalienable part of China”?