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Ticking Clock Drove Wounded Hong Kong Protester, Friends Say

Associated Press

   HONG KONG - Born after the historic July 1 day when Britain handed Hong
   Kong back to China in 1997, the 18-year-old protester who was shot at
   close range in the chest by a police officer during violent
   demonstrations this week and then arrested in the hospital is part of a
   generation for whom the clock is ticking.

   In the lifetimes of young Hong Kong citizens born after 1997, the sands
   will run out on China's promise -- enshrined in the territory's
   constitution -- that Hong Kong's "capitalist system and way of life
   shall remain unchanged for 50 years."

   That looming deadline and uncertainty about what, exactly, will happen
   after 2047 hang like a sword of Damocles in the minds of many people in
   Hong Kong.

   Fears for the future

   But protesters who have flooded the streets since June are certain
   about what they don't want: For Hong Kong to become like all of China's
   other cities, its special freedoms snuffed out, its status lost as a
   freewheeling international hub for business and ideas.

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