Backlight: Hong Kong's New Heroes

For months now, there have been protests in Hong Kong. We are astonished and dismayed to see how high school and university students continue to test their own leaders, and those of China, week after week. Determined and armed with new attack and defence techniques. Who are those new Hong Kong heroes that so stubbornly go head to head with the Chinese dictatorship? Meet four of the frontline soldiers in their battle for true autonomy and freedom. 

They are familiar with police violence by now. And they know the smell of tear gas. But is it normal? Over the past few months, they have seen their city change from a dull business centre and shopping paradise into a breeding ground for uprise and violence - lots of violence. Because the overzealous local authorities had come up with the idea that Hong Kong needed a law that would make it possible for anyone with a criminal record to be extradited to China without further ado. 

The people of Hong Kong disagreed and took to the barricades. Hong Kong is entitled to autonomy, but over the past twenty years, that has been dramatically eroded. And this was the last straw.