Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) yesterday arrived in Beijing for meetings with senior Chinese officials seeking to end pro-democracy protests in the territory.
Lam, whose administration has been criticized for its handling of the unrest, arrived at a hotel in Beijing at about midday for an annual visit, Radio Television Hong Kong reported.
Her trip comes shortly after an estimated 800,000 people took to the streets in a demonstration and follows wins by opposition pro-democracy parties over Lam and her allies in local elections.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The purpose of the duty visit is to give a full account of what has happened in Hong Kong over the past year,” Lam said in a press briefing on Tuesday. “Particularly what has happened in Hong Kong in the last six months.”
Lam’s conversations in Beijing are also to focus on how Hong Kong and the central government can cooperate on national-level plans, including China’s global Belt and Road Initiative and integrating the territory into a so-called Greater Bay Area with nearby mainland cities, she said.
Meanwhile, five Hong Kong teenagers have been arrested in connection with the death of a man hit on the head by a brick during clashes between pro and anti-government protesters last month, police said.
The three males and two females aged 15 to 18 were arrested on Friday on suspicion of murder, rioting and wounding, and had been detained pending further investigation, police said in a statement.
Footage of the event showed rival groups of protesters throwing bricks at each other, during which a man was hit by a brick.
The 70-year-old was rushed to hospital unconscious and certified dead the following day.
Additional reporting by AFP
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS