chan concluded that independence was the only way hong kong could become a democracya survey last year by the chinese university of hong kong found that only 114 percent of the public supported independence but efforts to stamp out such sentiment may be turning a fringe political issue into a concern at the core of hong kongs identity freedom of expressionstudents have been posting signs backing independence on university campuses where polls show support is much higherlast month after hong kong polytechnic university covered up a few proindependence posters and stickers three students staged a hunger strike and more than 2000 others signed a statement of protest two days later the university allowed students to regain control of the space where the posters were hung known as the democracy wallfreedom of expression is one of the things that has always separated hong kong from china said lam winghang 21 president of the student union and one of the hunger strikers i dont want to see hong kong become just another mainland cityimagecreditdale de la reyagence francepresse getty images