The symbolic “hands up, don’t shoot” gesture used by protesters in Ferguson, Mo., appears to have gone global this weekend as thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong have been confronting aggressive police crackdowns with raised arms and open palms. Calling their movement “Occupy Central” – also a direct echo of the Occupy Wall Street movement in the US – Chinese students in the sprawling Asian financial center continue to protest the Chinese government’s restrictions on candidates for upcoming local elections.
Will you please show this to #MikeBrown’s parents &let them know that he changed the WORLD!
a Hong Kong protester via Twitter
Observers caution that so far there have been no direct confirmations that Hong Kong students are consciously emulating the Ferguson protests, however. Instead, protest organizers in Hong Kong, a former British colony returned to China in 1997, had previously trained marchers to raise their hands with their palms face forward to indicate their peaceful intentions to authorities, reports Quartz. Organizers have officially dubbed their protest “Occupy Central with Love and Peace,” and had publicly announced the weekend protests months in advance.