Thousands marched in Hong Kong yesterday to demand a greater say in how their leaders will be chosen, expressing fears that China will limit long-awaited political reforms.
“Democracy will prevail” read some banners as protesters sang and shouted slogans against the government of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, less than one month after the start of an official public consultation on a future electoral system.
“Because we are Hong Kong citizens, we must vote,” said Sharon Tang, a trading company employee, adding that residents of the former British colony have the intelligence to choose their leaders.
China, which took back Hong Kong in 1997, has promised that its people will be able to vote in 2017 for their next chief executive.
Currently the territory’s leader is elected by a 1,200-strong pro-Beijing committee.
However, many fear that China will control the choice of candidates to secure the election of a sympathetic official.
“Hong Kong people have been on the streets over the years to strive for what we deserve, and what the Chinese government has not given us,” Charles Tam, 25, said.
The marchers left Victoria Park — named after the 19th-century British monarch who oversaw Hong Kong’s seizure from China — in mid-afternoon and were to stage a rally in the Central financial district afterward.
A poster depicting Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英) with an egg plastered on his head was hung over the park lawn.
Organizers said more than 50,000 people were expected to take part in the annual protest, but turnout appeared lower than in some previous years.
Marchers aim to let the Hong Kong government and the Chinese Communist Party know “that Hong Kong people need and want real democracy,” said Johnson Yeung, convenor of rally organizers the Civil Human Rights Front.
Other issues, such as calls for more labor rights and better urban planning, were also raised.
Hong Kong has its own government and legal system, and its residents enjoy rights and freedoms unknown to Chinese.
However, there are frequent protests in the city of 7 million over slow progress toward full democracy, and discontent is also growing over sky-high housing prices and a growing wealth gap.
Mimicking the Occupy protests of 2011 in cities such as New York and London, some activists have threatened to take over the streets of Hong Kong’s business district later this year to try to force officials to guarantee a fair electoral system.
A “New Year Civil Referendum” was also conducted in Victoria Park and over the Internet yesterday, and drew about 55,000 voters by late afternoon.
The poll asked Hong Kong people their preference on how candidates for the leadership post should be chosen.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS