British expat on frontline of Hong Kong protests says UK has abandoned former colony

As pepper balls and rubber bullets rained down on the crowd of Hong Kong protesters crouched by the entrance of a carpark tunnel, protecting themselves from the riot police with flimsy umbrellas, a chill of terror swept over one young man as he dived for cover with his girlfriend. “I remember the moment when it felt like a truck hit the end of my umbrella, it was like it didn’t even exist. I put my arm under [her] and said get your head down and our umbrellas were caving in,” said the protester, who asked to be identified as Mark. That night in October Mark blended into the crowd of mainly black-clad protesters, most of them wearing face masks. But as one of the only British expats to join the front lines of the protests, he had a unique background. Speaking to the Sunday Telegraph as protests got back under way in Hong Kong last week he said he had taken to the streets of his adopted city because his own government had “turned its back” on the people of Hong Kong. The UK government this week offered a "path to citizenship" to almost three million Hong Kong residents as it condemned China's move to crush dissent in the former British colony. But Britain has been criticised for failing to act against the steady erosion of Hong Kong’s rights and freedoms for years. It stands accused of doing too little too late to support the pro-democracy movement over the past year of civil unrest.

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