Thousands of Hong Kong democracy campaigners took to the streets on the first day of the new year on Friday to call for universal suffrage and the release of jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (劉曉波).
Chanting slogans and holding placards, protesters marched through the city center to the Central Government Liaison Office — responsible for ties with Beijing — watched over by hundreds of police officers and attracting the attention of big crowds of bystanders.
Organizers said there were as many as 30,000 protesters, although the police gave an estimate of only 4,600 people. More than 100 activists scuffled with the officers outside the Liaison Office about four hours after the march started, as the rest of the procession dispersed peacefully.
PHOTO: AFP
“I don’t want fake democracy. I want genuine universal suffrage,” Lee Cheuk-yan (李卓人), lawmaker and general secretary of the Confederation of Trade Unions, chanted through a loudspeaker.
The Hong Kong government last month unveiled a proposal to increase the sizes of both the legislature and the committee responsible for electing the city’s chief executive. But the plan fell short of the expectations of pro-democracy politicians, who have urged the government to introduce universal suffrage in 2012.
Beijing has indicated that the vote “may be implemented for the Chief Executive in 2017 and the Legislative Council in 2020.”
“The large turnout today has sent the strongest signal to Beijing that we need a clear road map for universal suffrage,” said Wong Yuk-man (黃毓民), another lawmaker and a leader of the League of Social Democrats.
Protesters also urged Chinese authorities to release Liu, who was sentenced by a Beijing court a week ago to 11 years in prison for subversion, prompting strong condemnation from the international community, including the US, the EU and Canada.
The 54-year-old writer, previously jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen protests, was detained a year ago after co-authoring Charter 08, a bold manifesto calling for reform of China’s one-party communist system and protection of human rights.
Olivia Hu, a mainland student studying journalism in Hong Kong, said she felt it was her duty to join the march after learning about the ordeal of Liu from Hong Kong media.
“People on the mainland do not know what is happening. Had they gained access to the information we have in Hong Kong, I believe they would have felt the same as we do here,” she said.
Political commentator Ivan Choi noted that the finishing point of the march was different from previous major democracy protests, which usually ended at the Hong Kong government headquarters.
“The change indicates a shift of target from the local government to the Chinese government. This will heighten tension between the campaigners and Beijing,” Choi told broadcaster ATV.
Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule in 1997, and has a separate Basic Law guaranteeing freedoms not available in China proper, including the right to protest.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS