Tens of thousands gathered yesterday in sweltering heat in Hong Kong to protest against a pro-democracy campaign that has threatened to shut down the territory’s financial district, exposing a deepening rift over political reforms in the former British colony.
The rise in tit-for-tat street protests between pro-Beijing and pro-democracy groups accents the challenges China faces in shaping Hong Kong’s political future.
Backed largely by Beijing-friendly groups, Hong Kong’s Alliance for Peace and Democracy says it “desires peace and no violence” and has denounced the pro-democracy Occupy Central movement that has said it would lock down the city center if Beijing does not allow truly democratic elections for a chief executive in 2017.
Photo: Reuters
“We want to show that the march does not have to be violent and angry. It can be happy,” former Hong Kong radio host and spokesman for the alliance Robert Chow said.
The group says it has so far collected close to 1.5 million signatures, including that of Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), saying the “illegal” Occupy campaign would tarnish Hong Kong’s reputation and hurt business.
It was not possible to independently verify the claim, which exceeded the almost 800,000 votes in Occupy Central’s unofficial poll on democracy in June.
Photo: AFP
The campaign kicked off early yesterday with a run through the center of Hong Kong that drew about 1,500 people in temperatures as high as 30°C, organizers said.
The rally was overshadowed by speculation that some business groups had pressured people to take part.
One Chinese participant surnamed Chen, who is in her 60s, said some people attended simply because they like running.
Photo: AFP
“I bumped into a friend. She is running with colleagues from a property-management firm. She said her firm encouraged her to run and she took part because she likes running,” she said.
More people, mostly groups of elderly people, showed up later in the morning to offer a flower “for peace,” with different groups wearing the same colored T-shirts and hats.
Occupy Central has said its movement is peaceful, demanding a “genuine choice” for Hong Kong’s 5 million eligible voters.
“We do not support Occupy Central because it will bring trouble and instability to the city,” retiree Law Kwai-wing, 77, said, adding that he had traveled across the border from China’s Guangdong Province as part of a bus tour organized by the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions (FTU).
The group planned to stay for less than an hour before returning across the border for lunch, which tour members would buy for themselves, he added.
Many participants said that they had been provided with free transportation by political and business groups. In one district, about 150 people boarded buses organized by the Hong Kong Livestock Industry Association.
In a WhatsApp message seen by reporters, people were offered HK$350 (US$45) to attend the rally “for five hours.” However, the message sender declined to provide their name or background.
Alliance spokesman Chow dismissed such messages as fake and attempts to discredit the campaign.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS