Joshua Wong

Having grown up under Chinese rule, I don't have any memory of colonial Hong Kong or feel any attachment to it.

I do not lead the Hong Kong protests, because no one person leads the protests.

The police force has repeatedly demonstrated an inability and unwillingness to carry out its fundamental mandate: to serve and protect the people of Hong Kong. It has been reduced to a mere instrument of repression subservient to the political agenda of Beijing's regime in Hong Kong.

Even if the CCP is willing to stick with 'one country, two systems' in principle, no one can say for certain whether Hong Kong's freedoms of speech and the press would survive in reality.

Beijing's imperial reach extends far and wide, from Taiwan and Xinjiang to the South China Sea and beyond.

China is dead set on making Hong Kong more like it.

When I was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, I felt that this should go to all of the Hong Kong people who fight for democracy.

I have been fighting for democracy since I was 15 when I organised a strike to oppose the Hong Kong government's plan to introduce the Chinese patriotic school education; 100,000 people surrounded a government building with students asking for democracy for every citizen.

I am a pro-democracy activist asking for free elections in Hong Kong.

I love the sense of belonging in Hong Kong. I love that it is such an international city. I love our food and our language. The people are energetic and passionate. I just really love this city.

I have experienced threats. Not just to me, but to my family.

Will Beijing really send out the army to suppress our protests? Never say never.

It may take a generation to achieve democracy. But our generation must accomplish this and not pass the buck to the next.

Some people say that given the government's firm stance against genuine universal suffrage, our demands are impossible to achieve. But I believe activism is about making the impossible possible.

My generation could be the first in Hong Kong to be worse off than our parents.

In a world where ideas and ideals flow freely, we want what everybody else in an advanced society seems to have: a say in our future.

My generation, the so-called post-'90s generation that came of age after the territory was returned to China, would have the most to lose if Hong Kong were to become like just another mainland Chinese city, where information is not freely shared and the rule of law is ignored.

Our city finds itself in an uncomfortable place: on the frontline between freedom and auto_cracy.

Beyond the barricades we long to see a Hong Kong free from tyranny and a puppet government.

The fight for democracy relies on community support.