At the trial of the first case in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region related to national security, Lau Chi-pang, a professor who acted as an expert witness in court, said that the opposition's slogan, "The revolution of our times" is one linked with "Hong Kong independence". His claim is objected by some, who ask, what about the phrase, "toilet revolution".

The foolishness and ignorance of some in Hong Kong are always beyond expectation. How much folly does one need to mix "toilet revolution", a move to improve the living conditions of Hong Kong people, with a treacherous move to secede Hong Kong from the motherland?

According to a survey by the Hong Kong Urban Renewal Authority, over 10,000 of the 39,000 residential buildings in Hong Kong were aged above 50; many of the facilities inside lacked maintenance. And, Hong Kong uses salty sea water to flush its toilets, which more easily causes pipeline erosion.

All these made the toilet one of the biggest headaches there. Many toilets were without toilet paper, many without proper washing sanitizer, and it was common for a person to walk into a toilet with eight stalls only to find five of them were unusable and had to be locked.

From 2016 to 2019, the Hong Kong Food and Environment Hygiene Department, which is in charge of 799 toilets, received over 8,400 complaints about them. Anybody who has traveled to Hong Kong must remember the bad smell of the toilets there.

It was in 2019 that the Hong Kong SAR government promised to invest over HK$600 million ($77.2 million) to improve 240 public toilets there, which job is undergoing.

So the "toilet revolution" is something that benefits Hong Kong residents' livelihood, those objecting to Lau in court included. How could it be compared with an evil plot to secede Hong Kong from the motherland? The illegal slogan "revolution of our times" was raised by Edward Leung Tin-kei in 2016, who openly supported Hong Kong "independence". He was found guilty by a local court in June 2018 for attacking the police and is now serving a six-year-term in prison.

On July 2, the HKSAR government also confirmed that the "revolution of our times" slogan is pro-"independence" and illegal. Please stop comparing that with "toilet revolution" and do something that benefits Hong Kong people.

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