Pro-democracy figures claimed fresh momentum yesterday after tens of thousands of people rallied on the 15th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, but Beijing's local allies denounced the protest as a ploy to seek independence.
"People are geared up to speak out," opposition lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said Saturday.
Hong Kong people hold a candlelight vigil every year to commemorate China's military crackdown on unarmed students rallying for democracy in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, and this year's event was highly charged after China recently ruled out full democracy in the near term for Hong Kong.
Organizers claimed they attracted a 82,000 people, up from around 50,000 last year. Police put the number at 48,000.
Hong Kongers still mourn the hundreds, if not thousands, of people killed when China used troops and tanks to crush the mainland's democracy movement. China's decision in April that Hong Kong citizens cannot directly elect their next leader in 2007 and all lawmakers in 2008 added to the high emotions this year.
"Their fight for democracy back then is the same fight as ours," Lee said.
Beijing claims it had to use troops to break up a counterrevolutionary riot, and its local allies voiced sharp criticism Saturday of the candlelight vigil.
The < "Hong Kong has returned to the motherland with significant autonomy, but democracy sympathizers are still shouting `return power to the people.' Who do they want to return power to?" < Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp has never advocated independence, though opposition lawmakers and activists say they would like to see China become democratic. In related news, Chinese history textbooks in Hong Kong are to cover the 1989 Tiananmen Square showdown for the first time but will not describe the killing of students, a news report said yesterday. The new textbooks for secondary school students carry descriptions about the incident for the first time, but one of them says simply that "on June 4, the government pacified the student movement." The books makes no mention of the use of force, including tanks and machine guns, to clear the square in the showdown that led to the death of hundreds of students. The textbooks will go on sale to Hong Kong students before the start of the next academic year.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in