Hong Kong in Grief

Students mourn the death of Chow Tsz-lok who died this morning

Hong Kong has been in mourning since this morning when news broke that a 22-year-old student who was in a coma for several days had cardiac arrested and died in hospital.

Chow Tsz-lok fell from the third floor to the second floor of the car park at Sheung Tak Estate in Tseung Kwan O in the early hours of November 4. It is quite murky about what happened to Chow, a second year computer science undergraduate student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

At lunchtime people came out to protest against the police

During that time the police were firing tear gas in the area and there are reports Chow was trying to flee the tear gas and fell, while others looking at videos from that evening think that he might have been pushed or thrown because of the height of the barricades in the car park.

The other issue with this incident that isn't clear either is that it is believed the police were obstructing an ambulance that may have been rushing to get to Chow.  And there are video clips of someone who is believed to be Chow being pushed by someone... but who? And is that Chow?

There are too many questions, but the main thing now is that everyone is upset and they believe the police obstructed paramedics from getting to Chow by at least 20 minutes.

Some volunteer first aiders tried to help Chow at the time, but the injuries he sustained were so serious they were unable to help him. One described the diagnosis in detail on Twitter and at the same time talked of his feeling of helplessness, as he didn't have the proper equipment to help him.

Central was clogged with angry protesters at lunchtime

In hospital, two operations were carried out to relieve the swelling in his head, but they were not enough to help Chow recover. The pressure in Chow's head was give times the normal level, making it a life-threatening condition.

During a graduation ceremony at HKUST today, the university president Wei Shyy was in tears as he announced Chow's death, where the audience observed a moment of silence. Some of the graduating students wore masks and held up their hand, a symbol of the five demands.

At lunchtime, just like when the anti-mask bill was announced over a month ago, people flooded the streets in Central, Taikoo Shing, and the HKUST campus. Some wore masks and shouted slogans, denouncing the police and that the government should meet all five demands that were laid out months ago.

They stopped traffic in Central and Taikoo Shing, and would not disperse until around 2pm.

This evening people converged to the parking lot where Chow fell to pay their last respects. There were so many people that they stood for a long time just to inch their way forward, some clutching flowers, others handmade posters.

#LIVE: It is now 8.09 pm, 12 hours since 22-year-old HKUST student Alex Chow was certified dead. With their eyes turning scarlet, many of the people who have gathered at the carpark starts to sob. The gloom has suffused the building. #HongKongProtests pic.twitter.com/eN2YudDSCF

— Ezra Cheung (@ezracheungtoto) November 8, 2019

 

This unprecedented outpouring of grief is for a young person who was a promising student, but it is also mourning for the state of Hong Kong. It allowed people to grieve for Chow and the city, after months of frustration and anger.

And to top it off, six pan-democratic lawmakers, including Eddie Chu Hoi-dick, Au Nok-hin, and Ray Chan have been contacted by police tonight to say they are going to be arrested for trying to obstruct the passage of the extradition bill in the Legislative Council back in May.

Is this even legal? And what has prompted these arrests?

There are far too many questions than answers in Hong Kong, leaving all of us confused and even more frustrated...