Alex Chow facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alex Chow
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Chow on grant of bail, 7 October 2017
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Alex Chow Wing-hong
18 August 1990 |
| Education | University of Hong Kong (BA) London School of Economics (MSc) University of California, Berkeley |
| Occupation | Social activist |
| Alex Chow Wing Hong | |||||||||||||
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| Chinese | 周永康 | ||||||||||||
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Alex Chow Wing-hong (Chinese: 周永康; born on August 18, 1990) is a young person from Hong Kong who works to make society better. He is currently studying for a very advanced degree in geography at the University of California, Berkeley. He used to be a leader in a big student group called the Hong Kong Federation of Students. He was also an important student leader at the Hong Kong University Students' Union.
What was Occupy Central?
Alex Chow was one of the main people who helped organize a protest called Occupy Central with Love and Peace. On July 1, 2014, after a yearly march for democracy, he helped arrange a sit-in. This was on Chater Road in the center of Hong Kong. Police later asked people to leave. About 511 people were stopped by the police during this event.
Alex Chow said at the time that just having a march every year was not enough. He felt they needed to do more to show their feelings. He wrote that the movement for democracy had been too slow. He believed that peaceful actions where people refuse to obey certain laws could make a big difference.
The Umbrella Movement
Alex Chow was a very important organizer and speaker during the start of the Umbrella Movement. This was another big protest in Hong Kong. He told the protesters that it was not just a student movement, but a movement for all people in Hong Kong. He also mentioned that people might protest at different government buildings.
On October 5, a student group agreed to talk with the government. Alex Chow said that these talks would stop if the police tried to remove the protesters by force. In a speech, he explained that talking did not mean giving up. He said they wanted to arrange talks because both sides wanted to solve problems. He made it clear they would not back down from their goals.
Alex Chow and two other students tried to go to mainland China to talk with government officials. This was on November 15, but they were stopped. The group, which included Alex Chow, Nathan Law, and Eason Chung, found out that their travel permits had been taken away. This meant they could not get on the flight to Beijing.
Alex Chow, Nathan Law, and Joshua Wong were important student leaders for democracy in Hong Kong. They faced legal issues on July 21, 2016, for their actions at a protest. This protest happened at Civic Square in 2014 and led to the 79-day Occupy sit-ins.
Alex Chow was first given a sentence of three weeks in prison, but it was put on hold. A year later, his sentence was changed to seven months after the government appealed. Many politicians and human rights groups from other countries spoke out against this. They called the three students "political prisoners". Chris Patten, who used to be the governor of Hong Kong, said that their names would be remembered for a long time. If the sentence had not been changed later, Alex Chow would not have been able to run for election until 2021.
In February 2018, Alex Chow, Nathan Law, and Joshua Wong won an appeal. This means a higher court decided to overturn their prison sentences. The court said that the sentences had used a new rule that should not have been applied to their case. Before this, Wong and Law had done community service, and Chow had a suspended prison term.
A human rights researcher named Maya Wang said that the Hong Kong government used this case to see how far it could go in stopping people who support democracy. She added that no one should face legal action for a peaceful protest.
When Alex Chow was in prison, the London School of Economics, where he was studying, asked both the UK and Hong Kong governments about his well-being. This happened after many people signed a petition. Alex Chow was about to start a very advanced study program at the University of California, Berkeley when he was unexpectedly put in prison in August 2016. He had started his master's degree at the London School of Economics in 2016, and then went on to study at the University of California, Berkeley.
See also
In Spanish: Alex Chow para niños
