Rev. Chu Yiu-ming, one of the three founders of the 2014 Occupy Central movement for fully democratic elections, should have been looking forward to retirement.
Instead, he used his status as a veteran democracy activist to urge Hong Kong's 7 million residents to occupy the Central business district until the authorities let them have proper elections.
Chu, a mild-mannered Baptist minister, joined fellow activists former politics lecturer Chan Kin-man and law professor Benny Tai at a news conference in 2013 to call for a mass, citywide civil disobedience movement to campaign for fully democratic elections, which many feared Beijing would not allow despite promises made during the 1997 handover negotiations.
The following year, the ruling Chinese Communist Party issued a plan on Aug. 31 setting out Beijing's plan for reforms of the electoral system that would give everyone a vote, but would also ensure that only candidates approved by the government would be allowed to run in elections in the first place.
The public backlash amid growing calls for genuine democratic reform took the form of a student strike, camps on major roads, sit-ins, mass rallies of hundreds of thousands of people and an unofficial referendum that came out overwhelmingly in favor of open nominations for electoral candidates.
While the authorities refused to back down, saying there was ' no room' for discussion on the electoral rules, police fired tear gas and beat protesters in clashes that began this week 10 years ago.
To protect themselves, demonstrators used umbrellas, and the “Umbrella Movement” was born.
"The National People's Congress Standing Committee once again interpreted the law and nixed all of the promises they had made in the Basic Law," Chu told Radio Free Asia in a recent interview, referring to clauses in Hong Kong's constitution that provide for steady progress towards full universal suffrage.
Back then, Chu was already 70, and had a long-running track record of campaigning for more democracy. He was also instrumental in helping to smuggle former student leaders of the 1989 pro-democracy movement on Tiananmen Square out of China to avoid the crackdown that ensued – an operation known as “Yellow Bird.”
"I and the other scholars [Tai and Chan] were very discouraged," he said. "It felt as if there was no hope of democracy."
"So when Benny Tai made his proposal, I felt it was the last step we could take," Chu said. "We knew we probably couldn't win this, but we had to do it."
"Only that way could there be any hope; we couldn't just sit there waiting for death," he said.
"The other two were willing to do it, even though they could go to prison," Chu added. "If they were willing to do that for democracy, then I was going to support them. I had no hesitation in taking part."
For Chu, Hong Kong's political awakening dates back to the mass demonstrations on the city's streets in protest at the 1989 Tiananmen massacre, which were repeated annually as the Tiananmen vigils for more than three decades before being banned amid a citywide crackdown in the wake of the 2019 protests.
"1989 was a huge stimulus to those of us fighting for democracy," Chu said. "Then we knew that this government was capable of treating its own people that way, capable of killing them."
"That was very unsettling for people in Hong Kong, because what happens in Beijing today can happen in Hong Kong tomorrow," he said. "The main issue for me in [initiating] the Umbrella Movement was that we couldn't allow the massacre that happened in Beijing to take place in Hong Kong."
"We had to fight for a democratic government that could protect our freedoms and the rule of law for the people of Hong Kong."
He likens the jailing of Benny Tai, who is among dozens of pro-democracy activists and former lawmakers currently behind bars and awaiting sentencing for "subversion" under the 2020 National Security Law after they organized a democratic primary in the summer of 2020, to sacrifices made by the late Qing Dynasty reformist politician Tan Sitong, who was executed on Sept. 28, 1828 at the age of 33.
"Tan Sitong could have left, but he said he couldn't, because his sacrifice would inspire a lot of people," Chu said. "He was willing to burn up his own life to be a torch [for others]."
"Benny Tai was willing to do that too, as a form of encouragement to those in Hong Kong who feel powerless and helpless," he said.
"Maybe that encouragement will last a long time," Chu said. "Why then should we give up? Not giving up is an expression of hope."
To that end, Chu has written a book in Chinese titled The Words of the Bell-Ringer: Memoir of the Rev. Chu Yiu-ming, recording Hong Kong's struggle for democracy. He also writes postcards including verses from the Bible to his comrades in prison.
Chan and Tai were tried and sentenced in 2019 to 16 months' imprisonment for "conspiracy to cause a public nuisance" with their public encouragement of the Umbrella Movement, while Chu, who is now 80, was given a suspended jail term due to ill-health, and left Hong Kong.
[ INTERVIEW: Umbrella Movement changed the face of Hong Kong politicsOpens in new window ]
[ EXPLAINED: How the umbrella became a Hong Kong protest symbolOpens in new window ]
[ Key figures in the Umbrella Movement: Where are they now?Opens in new window ]
Now in exile in democratic Taiwan, Chu often feels intense grief over the activists back in Hong Kong who are now behind bars.
"I am worried for so many people in prison and I often pray for them," he said. "I often shed tears when I think of them -- it's painful."
"What can we [overseas] say about this? They're the ones suffering, and my thoughts are really with them, so I am sad now," Chu said. "I may be here in body, but in spirit, I'm with them."
Translated by Luisetta Mudie.