China has wiped the smile off pro-democracy activists’ faces by seizing 7,600 rolls of toilet paper featuring Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英) pulling a series of ridiculous expressions.
Hong Kong’s Democratic Party said the politically charged toilet paper, along with 20,000 packets of tissues, were to be sold at a popular Lunar New Year fair opening next week.
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy activists frequently ridicule Leung, portraying him as Dracula and a wolf, and repeatedly called for him to step down during more than two months of demonstrations last year. The Democratic Party — the largest pro-democracy group in the territory — hoped to sell the tissues to raise funds for their activities ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
“I think the Chinese government just wants to suppress all different opinions,” Democratic Party chief executive Lam Cheuk-ting (林卓廷) told reporters, adding that Chinese authorities seized the products at a factory at an undisclosed location on the mainland on Friday morning.
“Our products are just some kind of joke, which presents no harm to so-called national security... It is a violation of freedom of expression,” Lam said, adding that activists were working on a backup plan to ensure the product range would still be available, but refused to give further details.
Lam said the party was expecting to incur HK$100,000 (US$12,900) in lost sales on top of a US$20,000 non-refundable deposit already paid to the manufacturer.
China has promised Hong Kongers the right to vote for the next Hong Kong chief executive for the first time in 2017. However, it ruled that nominees must be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee, a proposal which has been heavily criticized by activists.
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