A five-minute primer on an issue making headlines: the Queen's Pier hunger strikers
Three protesters used a five-day hunger strike to highlight their opposition to the planned demolition of Queen's Pier this week, before being removed from the site by police.
What was the point of the hunger strike?
As well as the additional publicity the hunger strike garnered, the idea was to shame the government into backing down and giving in to protesters' demands. Hunger strikes also supposedly add weight to grievances, giving magnitude to an issue as a cause to die for.
Did it work?
No, not in this case. The government still moved in, retook the pier, evicted the activists and plans to demolish it.
Do hunger strikes ever work? Many Hong Kong hunger strikes - those that last a preset number of days, sometimes just one, and where you see the strikers drinking soup and vitamin drinks - are obviously publicity stunts rather than a serious threat to starve to death to force the government's hand. But hunger strikes can work. Take Mahatma Gandhi who used periods of fasting as an effective political weapon.
