Official celebrations to mark China's National Day got off to an uneasy start in Hong Kong yesterday as democracy activists staged noisy demonstrations at a ceremony led by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (陳建平).
Slogan-shouting protesters from the pro-democracy April Fifth action group called for an end to communist party rule of China as Tung and 700 officials and guests marked the 54th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The demonstration, repeatedly halted by police, was the latest in a series of unprecedented protests which saw 500,000 people take to the streets in July to voice opposition to proposed security laws.
Crowds of spectators, including Chinese tourists, had turned out to witness the morning ceremony on Hong Kong's Wan Chai waterfront in which Tung raised the territory's Bauhinia flower standard alongside the Chinese flag.
During the event, some 15 protesters marched at a snail's pace along steel barriers set up by police to prevent them from invading the venue.
"What about our right to demonstrate according to the UN human rights convention," shouted protest leader Leung Kwok-hung as police tried to stop demonstrators from scaling the barrier.
Leung later read a petition to Beijing, calling for an end to one-party rule and the return of power to the people.
The document was then burned to show indignation over the protesters' barring from the ceremonial venue.
Hong Kong was to later mark the day with a traditional fireworks display in a celebration that will also express renewed confidence in the wake of the SARS epidemic that ravaged the former British colony.
Dissatisfaction with government handling of the SARS outbreak helped fuel the summer protests which marked Hong Kong's deepest political crisis since the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.
Yesterday's demonstrators were joined by members of the Tiananmen Mothers Campaign who called on China to probe the 1989 military crackdown of pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
The group in its petition also called for "thorough reform" of the communist system in order to prevent human-rights abuses.
Carrying symbolic black and white streamers, the protesters also called on Beijing to release all political prisoners and explain the 1989 crackdown.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of