![\"12sino-wong02-tmagArticle\"](\"http:\/\/www.chinesepen.org\/english\/files\/2015\/10\/12sino-wong02-tmagArticle.jpg\")
<\/a>Joshua Wong, the student activist who spearheaded pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong last year.Credit Philippe Lopez\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/p>\nJoshua Wong was 17 \u2014 not even old enough to vote \u2014 when he helped set off major sit-in protests in Hong Kong last September calling for a greater public role in the election of the Chinese territory\u2019s leader.<\/p>\n
He celebrated his 18th birthday last October in the middle of a tent city that protesters set up outside government headquarters. The first thing he did as a legal adult, he told reporters, was to register as a voter so he could \u201ckick out\u201d legislators he saw as a hindrance to Hong Kong\u2019s democratic future.<\/p>\n
A year later, he has decided that being able to vote might not be enough. Mr. Wong, who turns 19 on Tuesday, is seeking to lower the minimum age for candidates to the Legislative Council to 18, from 21. On Monday, he filed an application for a judicial review of Hong Kong\u2019s election laws. If he succeeds, he says he would consider running in the election next year, when he will be 20.<\/p>\n
Mr. Wong said the current age requirement \u201cprevents 18- to 20-year-old youths from having equal rights to vote and to be voted for,\u201d arguing that it violates the Basic Law, Hong Kong\u2019s Constitution, which says residents \u201cshall have the right to vote and the right to stand for election in accordance with law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even the National People\u2019s Congress, China\u2019s rubber-stamp parliament, sets its minimum age requirement for delegates at 18, he told reporters outside Hong Kong\u2019s High Court on Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
In a statement, Mr. Wong said the Legislative Council failed to represent the voices of the young. By opening the door to young people like himself, he said, he hopes to focus discussion on Hong Kong\u2019s future after 2047.<\/p>\n
That is when the 50 years of considerable autonomy that Beijing promised the former British colony when it reverted to Chinese rule under the rubric \u201cone country, two systems\u201d is set to expire. Mr. Wong, who will be 50 then, is advocating \u201cself-determination\u201d and a referendum that would allow Hong Kong residents to decide their own fate after 2047. Options such as a continuation of the \u201cone country, two systems\u201d arrangement or outright independence are likely to be opposed by the Chinese government, which sees safeguarding sovereignty as an imperative.<\/p>\n
In January, discussions of \u201cself-determination\u201d in university student publications drew warnings from Hong Kong\u2019s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying.<\/p>\n
Mr. Wong entered politics in 2011, when he was 14, helping found Scholarism, a student activist group, and organizing protests against the Hong Kong government\u2019s plan to mandate \u201cnational education\u201d in schools. He criticized the proposed curriculum, which described the Chinese Communist Party as \u201cprogressive, selfless and united\u201d and denigrated multiparty politics. \u201cWe don\u2019t want the next generation of Hong Kong people to be brainwashed,\u201d Mr. Wong said.<\/p>\n
The plan was halted a year later. Scholarism, which recruits high school and university students as members, has since played pivotal roles in the protests. By OCTOBER 12, 2015 7:01 AM October 12, … Continue reading
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