00:12 | SAVE•12 — Laser Action on Lion Rock for the Hong Kong 12
- Project
- EXH-015
- Location
- Lion Rock, Hong Kong
- Date
- 13 October 2020
One year earlier to the day, we had carried Lady Liberty to the summit of Lion Rock. On 13 October 2020, we returned — not with a statue, but with twelve beams of light.
On 23 August 2020, twelve Hongkongers were intercepted by Chinese coast guard vessels while attempting to reach Taiwan. They were taken to the Yantian District Detention Centre in Shenzhen. By the night of this action, they had been held for 51 days.
In those 51 days: Yantian police repeatedly refused to answer calls from the families of the twelve. Lawyers privately commissioned by the families were repeatedly blocked from visiting. Chinese authorities warned those lawyers — human rights attorneys commissioned directly by families — not to intervene, and instead imposed state-appointed lawyers on the detainees. Families refused to accept state-appointed counsel, recognising this for what it was: the stripping of basic legal rights. In September, families reported that medication sent for the detainees had not reached them.
The Hong Kong SAR government, for its part, offered no substantive assistance to families and gave no account of the inadequacy of Chinese judicial process — following Beijing's lead without question.
We were concerned for the physical and mental wellbeing of twelve young people in custody with no independent legal representation. We were more concerned still about what might be happening to them in the absence of any oversight.
Twelve laser beams from Lion Rock. Twelve young people. In Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan, friends of the movement spelled out SAVE 12 in light.
Exactly one year before, Lady Liberty had stood at this same summit. The Lion Rock Spirit — resilience, determination, the refusal to accept a fate handed down from above — had not changed.
We called on governments and people of conscience everywhere to keep attention on the Hong Kong 12, and to continue pressing for their release. We pledged to do the same until every one of them came home.