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Hong Kongers demand democracy

A pro-democracy worker, right, scuffles with a lone pro-Beijing campaigner as tens of thousands of people march on a downtown Hong Kong street yesterday. PHOTO: EPA

Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Hong Kong yesterday, demanding the full democracy that was promised when Britain handed its crown-jewel colony back to China eight years ago.

Frustrated with the limited reforms proposed by the city's Beijing-appointed leader, Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權), marchers thronged the streets in the biggest show of public anger since he took office in June.

Organizers said on about 250,000 people, with many clad in black, took part in the march -- much higher than analysts' estimate of between 50,000 to 100,000. But police said they counted only 40,000 people when the march began in Hong Kong's Victoria Park.

The protesters, urged to dress in black for the event, chanted slogans as they left the park, brandishing banners denouncing an unpopular government bill to change the city's electoral system.

At the head of the procession marchers carried a huge black banner emblazoned with the protest's birdcage emblem, a symbol of the political constraints activists feel the city endures.

Tsang's proposals would double the size of the 800-strong committee of Beijing-backed elites that chooses the city's chief executive, and would also enlarge the 60-seat legislature.

But democrats say the proposals do not go far enough, and would amount to a step backward for the full democracy spelled out under the Hong Kong constitution, known as the Basic Law.

The provision gives no timeline for when it might be achieved. Democrats in the parliament, known as the Legislative Council, say they will veto the legislation unless Tsang offers a timetable for democratic reform.

"This is make-or-break time," said the pro-democracy movement's veteran leader Martin Lee (李柱銘). "The more people that come on the march, the more the government will have to do something about this."

"The governments [of Hong Kong and China] in the past week have done everything they can to keep the numbers down," Lee said.

A massive turnout could weaken Tsang's political base and rattle Communist Party leaders in China, who fear reform here might weaken the city's economy and spark calls from change on the mainland.

More than half a million people flooded the streets of Hong Kong in July 2003, forcing the withdrawal of an unpopular anti-subversion law proposal and contributing to the resignation of former leader Tung Chee-hwa this past March.

Among the marchers yesterday was political heavyweight Anson Chan (陳方安生), the former deputy leader who even in retirement remains hugely popular.

"I feel there's a need to fight for democracy," Chan said, sharing her political thoughts with reporters for the first time.

"Everyone has a right to protest," she added, denying her decision to go public was a precursor to launching a new career in politics.

Before yesterday's march kicked off, local Catholic leader Bishop Joseph Zen (陳日君) led a prayer service during which he called on Hong Kong to heed the call for democracy.
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