SURELY THE CHINESE HAVE A WORD FOR GLEICHSCHALTUNG: In Hong Kong, Employees Hide Their Political Leanings as Beijing Forces Companies to Take Sides.

“Any company that gets most of its revenue from the mainland is in a pickle,” Alexander Zwagerman, Senior Lecturer at Arnhem Business School, tells TIME. “Beijing clearly demands that [companies] disavow any semblance of an allegiance to the Hong Kong people and even punishes workers with links to the protesters.”

In the wake of what Zwagerman calls “Beijing’s most heavy-handed use of its economic clout to date,” Cathay Pacific quickly capitulated. Several employees were fired for protest-related reasons, and a few senior staff members, including the CEO and the chairman, have since stepped down.

Cathay has now warned employees that it will take a zero-tolerance approach to “any support for or participation in illegal protests, violent activities or overly radical behavior.” But employees like Lucy say they have no plans to stop. “The company has no right to control our minds or our speech when we’re not working,” she tells TIME.

Lucy has nevertheless taken steps to make sure she’s not found out, like setting her Instagram profile to private. When she worked a flight to Beijing last month, she left her phone at home for fear of having it searched by mainland officials.

It’s important to note that while she’s doing what she can to protect herself, she hasn’t given up on protesting.