A student from Boston wrote, "I come from Hong Kong. An assault of Chinese anger followed.

HONG KONG – Sitting in a bus in Boston, thousands of miles from her home in Hong Kong, Frances Hui, a student, crossed the path of a curious passenger.

Where are you from? the passenger pressed.

When she finally answered "Hong Kong," the man began to become aggressive, Hui said. He insisted that she define herself as "a native of China", who had taken control of the former British colony in 1997.

"He would not stop telling me:" You are Chinese, you have to correct your identity, "said Hui, a junior at Emerson College, during an interview. . "I felt really insulted, the identity is really personal, it's my thing."

Hui wrote a column in Emerson's student paper, entitled "I'm from Hong Kong, not from China." She opened with the line: "I come from a city belonging to a country to which I do not belong."

This was quickly followed by a violent and sometimes threatening reaction on the part of Chinese students from his continent to his college.

The quarrel was far from Hong Kong, but it reflected wider issues that arose in the former colony about identity at the time of the rapid erosion of the autonomy of the country. territory and which promised a relationship "one country, two systems".

Five years after the mass protests in the streets of Hong Kong against Beijing's controls, China has gradually tightened its grip on the territory and its young pro-democracy movement. Many are now worried about witnessing an accelerated end to Hong Kong's special status, including its political and commercial freedoms.

And they wonder how to react – by evoking the possibility of new manifestations.

The conditions of the British handover were aimed at guaranteeing Hong Kong a high degree of autonomy, allowing the territory to maintain its own political, judicial and economic systems until 2047.

But Beijing's checks intensified after the 2014 street protests, which saw hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets for months in one of the biggest acts of defiance against the Chinese Communist Party since decades. The protesters hoped to extend their democratic rights and put an end to China's plans to select candidates for the city's top leadership position.

In recent months, the Hong Kong courts have charged and imprisoned the leaders of the democracy movement for up to 16 months, while the protests were extremely peaceful. A court of appeal ruled Thursday that Joshua Wong, one of the movement's symbols, aged 22, would return to jail.

Last year, a party that advocated the independence of Hong Kong was banned and a chief editor of the Financial Times was expelled. No official explanation was given for the expulsion of the editor, but he had led a discussion with the founder of this independence party a few weeks previously at the Foreign Correspondents Club.

The Hong Kong government has also passed a bill insulting the Chinese national anthem with a criminal offense. Across Hong Kong, commercials and posters sell the "Great Bay Area", a plan developed by Beijing that will bring the city closer to the continent.

The most controversial is that the Hong Kong government is pushing for an extradition bill that would transfer fugitives from the enclave to any jurisdiction in the world, even without a formal agreement, which would extend Beijing's powers to Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong legislature fell into chaos on May 11 because of the bill. Scuffs erupted between lawmakers and one of them was rushed to the hospital.

A congressional committee in Washington said the extradition law, if passed, "could pose serious risks to US national security and economic interests in the territory" and would constitute a violation of the US-Hong Kong law authorizing Washington to treat the city separately. from China.

"At the heart of each of these projects and efforts is a political calculation from Beijing, which asks: What can we do to reduce Hong Kong as a place," said Jeffrey Ngo, democracy activist in Hong Kong and PhD candidate at Georgetown University. "It's really sad, but it certainly motivated people to assert, even more firmly, the identity of Hong Kong."

Earlier this month in Washington, the US Congress held a hearing on the future of Hong Kong's independence and on how the US government should react. Streamed live on YouTube, commentators flooded a chat box while the live video aired comments such as "Hong Kong is not China" and "Free Hong Kong".

In this context, Hui's article was published in late April on the website of the Emerson College newspaper, the Berkley Beacon. She cited experiences of students like herself from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Tibet and other countries that have struggled to assert themselves in the face of China.

A Taiwanese friend, she wrote, felt compelled to adopt a "Chinese" identity despite her love for Taiwan, too scared to "fight for her identity" with her Chinese friends.

Articles in the student journal usually get between 20 and 40 views. Hui's text quickly became viral – attracting hundreds of comments and thousands of readers.

"I had a lot of attention, which I really did not expect," Hui said.

Students from Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries such as Singapore have launched messages of support and encouragement, she said. Among them, Natalie Law, a 22-year-old student from Hong Kong and a student at Boston University, who connected to Hui via Instagram. They have become friends since.

"She can speak for us all, or maybe a majority of us [who are worried about Hong Kong], "Says the law.

The article began to appear on all Chinese forums, including the WeChat messaging application, shared on Facebook and Instagram pages and distributed to Boston's distant students. Chinese students have started tagging their accounts on social networks, with comments such as "shame on you" and "your parents should be ashamed of you".

A person from a WeChat group with more than 200 Chinese students described her as "psychopathic". Another person said to have seen on campus and to be aware that she was a "little girl" without real power.

"It made me very uncomfortable, as if I was under surveillance," she said.

The most shocking comment is that of a Chinese student from Emerson, who made public Hui's personal publications on Facebook. In an article, he wrote a comment that translates as: "All those who oppose my biggest China, no matter how far away, must be executed."

"I panicked," she says.

Hui has not suffered any physical harm since the publication of his article.

His experience, however, reflects that of other Hong Kongers in foreign universities.

Kacey Wong, visual artist in Hong Kong, recalls several events at an exhibition at which he participated last year at the University of Essex, near London. The exhibited works were about the 2014 Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong – the name of the umbrellas worn by many protesters – and showed pictures of the police's hostility.

"They said my show was biased, and they asked why we only show students beaten by the police and not the other way around," said Wong. "They created Facebook groups at events, which seems like a pretty standard procedure."

Hui was a student activist when she was in Hong Kong, with countless other young people inspired by leaders like Joshua Wong, who was only 17 at the time of the protests.

"It was the moment of rebirth," said Wong.

However, the pressure on Hong Kong and its quest for greater freedoms are only intensifying.

"It's like trying to fight the weather," said Wong. "What can you do? Maybe you can bring an umbrella or a raincoat, but you can not scream at the sky and tell it to stop raining."