Woke up to another lockdown and no matter the acute awareness of the conundrum policy-makers find themselves in, the negative psychological impact is immediate. Over one year since the first lockdown started – a belated measure due to an almost blind confidence in the CCPs statements and reproaches – Italy and most of the European continent are very much stuck in time. The only certain prospective offered a staggering growth in poverty rates, failing businesses, social unease and enduring restrictions.

The love for friends and families struggling with the virus eases the mental distress of living under such severe limitations to our freedoms, but nothing puts it into perspective as much as the courageous stance of men and women in South-East Asia who voluntarily offer these vital values up to the greater cause of ensuring them for all.

Witnessing their walk towards potential death or certain prison sentences with eyes wide open takes my breath away. Throughout the years, I have visited almost all prisons in Italy and remembering the incredible sense of oppression every time the main door would close behind us - knowing I would be able to walk out of there hours later, I simply cannot begin to fathom the thoughts and feelings racing through the minds of the activists in the days and hours leading up to their arrest. In the days and hours before they offer up their very lives, making their stance heads held high before mock courts. The pain of despair so real it becomes physical.

“Superheroes” is the only sensible word that comes to mind to describe them. Real-time heroes engaged in the modern-day titanic struggle between good and evil, between truth and falsehood. Each and every single one of them a testament to a true common future for humankind in which the hearts and souls of all are free to pursue happiness.

Yet saluting their bravery does not suffice. Keeping them firmly in our minds and hearts is not enough. We owe them an enormous debt. As the machinery of the CCP has been churning out its propaganda, broadcasting the falsehood of its “superior governance model” into the homes of people around the world, lauded even in completely out-of-context instances such as the Italian song festival of San Remo reaching millions of Italian citizens, one cannot but wonder how a world struck by the pandemic would have received this double-speak had it not been for the brave Hong Kongers showing them the true face of the Chinese regime ahead of time.

As these freedom fighters are being silenced and locked away, it is up to us to hold their flame up high. The extra-territorial reach of oppression of the Chinese regime is already among us, as four brave Danish citizens can testify. We must and cannot go silently into that same night. Midnight has passed. The time to make a united stance is now.

(Laura Harth, A human rights activist, she coordinates activities with the Global Committee for the Rule of Law “Marco Pannella” (GCRL). She also acts as a regional liaison for the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC).)

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