"This feels like a carnival of freedom": 25 years later, a Tiananmen veteran visits Hong Kong HONG KONG - It was almost like stepping back in time. A quarter of a century after helping to lead the Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, Zhuo Fengsuo found himself back in a familiar situation Tuesday as he paid an emotional visit to Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests. "The atmosphere feels very much like Tiananmen Square 25 years ago," he said, talking amid the tents, umbrellas, artwork and banners that mark Hong Kong's main protest site. This feels like a carnival of freedom for Chinese people. One of the 21 most-wanted student leaders after the Tiananmen protests, Zhou was turned in by his own sister, spending a year in jail and another year in a re-education program, before immigrating to the United States and settling in San Francisco. In June, he slipped back into China, visiting a detention center where several old friends and other activists were being held, and even driving through Tiananmen Square on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on the protests he helped lead. Shortly afterward, police turned up at his hotel room and arrested him again. After about 16 hours of interrogation, he was put on a plane back to the United States. But this week, he was back in China on a much happier mission, reliving memories that had inspired his life. He said he was happy, excited and relieved - that the ideals he struggled for remained alive in his country. I see the hope, I see the proof that the Chinese people love freedom, they enjoy it, they can talk, they can express themselves freely, truthfully - and they can be really peaceful and powerful at the same time. That's very similar," he said. To me, it's like back to the future - it's coming back, but it is also the future of Hong Kong, the future of China. Zhou was a 21-year-old physics student at Beijing's Tsinghua University before joining the Tiananmen protests. He ended up getting a business degree in the United States and working in finance, before founding a group that works on behalf of Chinese political prisoners. Zhou clearly feels a deep bond with Hong Kong, a city where about 100,000 people turned out this year - as they do every year - to commemorate the Tiananmen Square massacre, even though many of those who attended the annual rally were not even born at the time. "I am hopeful that the ideal here, what is unfolding here, will some day happen in China," he said. I am not sure when, but I know that what is happening here will be an important moment. A future generation of Chinese people, he predicted, would one day look to Hong Kong "for ideas and inspiration." Zhou slipped into China this summer under a new scheme allowing for a 72-hour visa-free transit stay. It took more than a day for the authorities to realize he was there, even though he showed his passport at the detention center he visited. On Tuesday, he said he also drew inspiration from the courage of almost 100 people in mainland China who had been arrested after they publicly declared support for the Hong Kong protests, including about 20 Beijing artists - despite almost blanket censorship of the issue. "I want the protesters here to know that these people went to prison for them and that they represent the true voice of China," he said. While in Hong Kong, Zhou also visited a small museum devoted to the Tiananmen Square protests. He said he was optimistic that the demands of the students in Hong Kong would not be so easily crushed as his generation's protests were, despite the immense power and determination of the Chinese Communist Party. "We were under Chinese brainwashing all the time - it was only 50 days of freedom for us, and that was it," he said. But Hong Kong, there is freedom and a very mature civil society. "It's a David versus Goliath battle, but what has happened here is already a miracle," he added. The protesters, he said, "have already won, because they have shown their will and their determination. You can brainwash people, you can hijack the elites with economic interests, but you can't buy out a future generation. In 20 years, the protesters here will be ruling Hong Kong.