The pan-democrats in the Legislative Council have reaffirmed their refusal to vote in support of any bill that will be presented to the Legislative Council based on the August 31 decision of last year. They have just affirmed this two days ago.
Of course, as far as the university and secondary school students who participated in this beautiful umbrella movement are concerned, they are now all back to university or schools, studying hard, I hope. These young people, having been baptized into democracy, have got in their hearts, each of them, the fire of democracy burning, and no iron fist is going to quench that fire in the future. That gives me great hope, because instead of old people like me continuing the fight for democracy, we now have a totally new generation, and of course it is Hong Kong's future.
I remember in the early days of this umbrella movement, young Joshua Wong, who just turned 18 at that time, said that he is going to fight for democracy for himself and the next generation. A young guy of 18 fighting for democracy for the next generation. When I heard that, I thought to myself, “I could now retire.” Instead of me fighting for him, he's now fighting for the next generation.
Yes, things have quieted down, but everybody is waiting for the government to produce a bill to the Legislative Council, which is going to happen maybe within the next month or two. However, the decision is going to be made in Beijing. Now that is the all-important thing, because if the Beijing leader, the paramount leader Xi Jinping, has the wisdom, commitment, and vision, he could well overturn what has been done during these 18 years, which is the Chinese government departing from the blueprint of Deng Xiaoping. He can certainly and easily bring us back to that blueprint.