Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition won a stunning landslide victory in weekend local elections in a clear rebuke to Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) over her handling of violent protests that have divided the territory.
Democratic Party Chairman Wu Chi-wai (胡志偉) said that the pro-democracy bloc swept nearly 90 percent of 452 district council seats, which would help it take unprecedented control of 17 out of 18 district councils.
The results were based on official tallies announced by election officials.
Photo: AFP
The result of Sunday’s elections could force Beijing to rethink how to handle the unrest, which is now in its sixth month. The district councils have little power, but the vote became a referendum on public support for the protests.
“It’s nothing short of a revolution,” said Willy Lam (林和立), a political expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “It’s a sound repudiation of the Carrie Lam administration and shows the silent majority are behind the demands of the protesters.”
The pro-democracy camp hailed its astounding gains as a victory for the people and said that Carrie Lam and Beijing must now seriously heed protesters’ demands, which include free elections for the territory’s leader and legislature as well as an investigation into alleged police brutality.
“We are only vehicles used to reflect the people’s concerns,” Wu said.
Beijing, which blames foreign powers for fomenting the unrest in Hong Kong, has shown no signs of softening its stance on the former British colony, which was returned to China in 1997.
Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) told reporters during a visit to Tokyo yesterday that Hong Kong will always be part of China, no matter the poll outcome.
“Any attempts to destroy Hong Kong or harm Hong Kong’s stability and development cannot possibly succeed,” he said.
The election outcome is certain add new pressure on Carrie Lam.
Some pro-establishment candidates have already pointed fingers at her for their losses, while the pro-democracy camp said that she should quit.
Carrie Lam pledged in a statement to reflect on the outcome, which indicated “people’s dissatisfaction with the current situation and the deep-seated problems in society.”
“I would say directly to Carrie Lam, do not squander this opportunity. Don’t waste this chance ... the window has been opened for you,” said British politician David Alton, who is among the independent election monitors.
A record 71.2 percent of Hong Kong’s 4.1 million registered voters cast ballots in the territory’s only fully democratic elections, well exceeding the 47 percent turnout in the same poll four years ago.
The largest pro-establishment political party suffered the biggest setback, with only 21 of its 182 candidates winning.
Many pro-Beijing political heavyweights were trounced, including controversial lawmaker Junius Ho (何君堯), who is reviled by protesters for supporting a bloody mob attack on demonstrators in July.
Ho was stabbed during campaigning this month.
The winners included many youth activists and a candidate who replaced activist Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), the only person barred from running in the election.
Protest rally organizer Jimmy Sham (岑子傑), who was beaten by hammer-wielding assailants last month, also triumphed, as did a pro-democracy lawmaker who had part of his ear bitten off by an assailant.
Celebrations broke out outside polling stations overnight when results were announced. At lunchtime yesterday, dozens of supporters held a victory rally in a business district.
“This is historic. As our city plummets from being semi-autonomous to semi-authoritarian, we react by showing what’s democracy in action,” Wong tweeted.
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,
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
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS