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.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS