Thousands of angry citizens marched yesterday to Beijing's representative office in Hong Kong, demanding full democracy and calling on the territory's unpopular leader to quit.
Hong Kongers are clamoring for the right to elect their chief executive and all lawmakers, and a crowd estimated at 15,000 people protested against a ruling by China's most powerful legislative committee that political reforms here must be approved in advance by Beijing.
After a brief standoff with police, the demonstrators were allowed to file past the rear entrance of the Chinese government's liaison office, dropping off boxes of letters that urged Beijing to reverse its ruling and allow universal suffrage.
The silhouettes of more than a dozen people inside the Chinese office could be seen looking out through shaded windows, but a receptionist told reporters no one was available for comment.
"We don't want to overthrow the central government," said Rockly Lam, a 48-year-old warehouse manager who joined the march. "We're just asking for rights we deserve."
Rally organizer Jackie Hung said 15,000 people had turned out to voice opposition to the ruling issued last Tuesday by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Police declined to provide a crowd estimate.
Waving inflatable dolls of Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (
The Standing Committee issued a binding interpretation of Hong Kong constitutional law that said Beijing must give advance approval for any changes in the way the territory's leader and lawmakers are selected. The demonstrators contend that instead of interpreting the law, Beijing had muscled in and amended it without consulting Hong Kong.
Full democracy is set out as a goal in Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, but there is no timetable and critics charge that officials are stalling to hold back pro-democracy forces viewed as troublemakers by Beijing.
Tung was selected by an 800-member committee loyal to Beijing and is viewed by many here as a puppet to the central government who favors the territory's tycoons over its middle class.
Ordinary voters choose some lawmakers and will directly elect 30 of the 60 seats in the Legislative Council in September, up from 24 last time. The rest are picked by special interest groups that tend to side with Beijing and big business.
Emboldened by a march last July 1 by 500,000 people that forced Tung to withdraw an anti-subversion bill viewed as a threat to freedom, many people are now demanding full democracy.
"China should go along with the historical trend and give us more democracy," said Gary Fan, an office worker.
When Hong Kong was returned from British to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, it was guaranteed a great deal of autonomy for at least 50 years, but critics say Beijing's ruling overstepped the bounds of the Basic Law and reneged on that promise.
"China fixed the law to its liking. How can they do that?" said another demonstrator, Kong Leung, who is 56 and unemployed.
Beijing says its ruling was legal and necessary to set the proper guidelines for the territory's political evolution.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
Conflict with Taiwan could leave China with “massive economic disruption, catastrophic military losses, significant social unrest, and devastating sanctions,” a US think tank said in a report released on Monday. The German Marshall Fund released a report titled If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of “Minor Conflict” and “Major War” Scenarios. The report details the “massive” economic, military, social and international costs to China in the event of a minor conflict or major war with Taiwan, estimating that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could sustain losses of more than half of its active-duty ground forces, including 100,000 troops. Understanding Chinese
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
RSS