DEEPER UNDERSTANDINGS Struggles for democracy in Hong Kong By Kunihiko Terasawa Series editor’s note: Throughout 2020, “Deeper understandings” will engage the ELCA’s commitment to authentic diversity. The United States is not the only country experiencing widespread public protests this year. Similarities between the protests in Hong Kong and in the United States include an emphasis on justice and human rights for minoritized groups and challenging excessive use of force by police. —Kathryn A. Kleinhans, dean of Trinity Lutheran Seminary at Capital University, Columbus, Ohio During a sabbatical last semester, I taught at the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong as a visiting professor. This reflection draws from my direct communication with students and other Christians in Hong Kong in a tense situation of their struggle for freedom and autonomy. Their freedom should have been guaranteed by the agreement of “one country, two systems” between the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) government and the United Kingdom when Hong Kong was returned to China from the U.K. in 1997. But Hong Kong’s autonomy has been eroded over the years, most recently by the Beijing government’s enactment of a new national security law on June 30. Students in Hong Kong receive a liberal arts education that cultivates independent critical thinking. Many excellent schools are, in fact, Christian-affiliated. High school education includes a global ethics course based on the work of prominent Christian theologians. In recent years, students have strongly opposed the so-called “patriotic” education promoted by the government. The pro-CCP Hong Kong government is now suppressing liberal arts education. This includes removing from schools books that are deemed a threat to China. Christians make up 15% of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million population, and many Christian students have 42 SEPTEMBER 2020 participated in the pro-democracy movement. Joshua Wong, a pro-democracy leader, is Lutheran; Christian faith is intertwined with the pro-democracy movement. During protests in June 2019, even non-Christian demonstrators joined in singing the chorus “Hallelujah to the Lord.” Such themes as the justice of God’s kingdom and the Samaritan reaching out to care for others are prominent. Students describe this movement as “a revolution of water,” an image influenced by the classic Chinese text Tao Te Ching , which says, “Under heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water. Yet for attacking the solid and strong, nothing is better; it has no equal.” Water is flexible. The student movement, like water, has no central leader, no hierarchical organization. Water simply flows, penetrating everywhere. Like water, the protests create movement in different locations at the same time so police power is diluted. By utilizing a Taoist wisdom of water, Hong Kong Christian students demonstrate their openness to insights from other religions. Hong Kong Lutherans have been actively engaged in interreligious dialogue with Buddhists since Norwegian Lutheran missionary Karl Reichelt founded a dialogue center at Tao Fong Shan in 1930. Currently, Hong Kong has 3 million Muslims who have emigrated from Indonesia and Malaysia. When police and demonstrators clashed near the Kowloon