Tens of thousands gathered yesterday in sweltering heat in Hong Kong to protest against a pro-democracy campaign that has threatened to shut down the territory’s financial district, exposing a deepening rift over political reforms in the former British colony.
The rise in tit-for-tat street protests between pro-Beijing and pro-democracy groups accents the challenges China faces in shaping Hong Kong’s political future.
Backed largely by Beijing-friendly groups, Hong Kong’s Alliance for Peace and Democracy says it “desires peace and no violence” and has denounced the pro-democracy Occupy Central movement that has said it would lock down the city center if Beijing does not allow truly democratic elections for a chief executive in 2017.
Photo: Reuters
“We want to show that the march does not have to be violent and angry. It can be happy,” former Hong Kong radio host and spokesman for the alliance Robert Chow said.
The group says it has so far collected close to 1.5 million signatures, including that of Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), saying the “illegal” Occupy campaign would tarnish Hong Kong’s reputation and hurt business.
It was not possible to independently verify the claim, which exceeded the almost 800,000 votes in Occupy Central’s unofficial poll on democracy in June.
Photo: AFP
The campaign kicked off early yesterday with a run through the center of Hong Kong that drew about 1,500 people in temperatures as high as 30°C, organizers said.
The rally was overshadowed by speculation that some business groups had pressured people to take part.
One Chinese participant surnamed Chen, who is in her 60s, said some people attended simply because they like running.
Photo: AFP
“I bumped into a friend. She is running with colleagues from a property-management firm. She said her firm encouraged her to run and she took part because she likes running,” she said.
More people, mostly groups of elderly people, showed up later in the morning to offer a flower “for peace,” with different groups wearing the same colored T-shirts and hats.
Occupy Central has said its movement is peaceful, demanding a “genuine choice” for Hong Kong’s 5 million eligible voters.
“We do not support Occupy Central because it will bring trouble and instability to the city,” retiree Law Kwai-wing, 77, said, adding that he had traveled across the border from China’s Guangdong Province as part of a bus tour organized by the pro-Beijing Federation of Trade Unions (FTU).
The group planned to stay for less than an hour before returning across the border for lunch, which tour members would buy for themselves, he added.
Many participants said that they had been provided with free transportation by political and business groups. In one district, about 150 people boarded buses organized by the Hong Kong Livestock Industry Association.
In a WhatsApp message seen by reporters, people were offered HK$350 (US$45) to attend the rally “for five hours.” However, the message sender declined to provide their name or background.
Alliance spokesman Chow dismissed such messages as fake and attempts to discredit the campaign.
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
INFORMATION LEAKED: Documents from Xinjiang purportedly showed top leaders in Beijing calling for a forceful crackdown and even orders to shoot to kill Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday held a videoconference with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet as she visited Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uighur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been accused of detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the region as part of a years-long crackdown the US and lawmakers in other Western nations have labeled a “genocide.” China denies the allegations. Bachelet was expected to visit the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on a six-day tour. The US
SUBTLE? While Biden said the US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on Taiwan had not changed, the group targeted China and Russia without naming them Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday warned against attempts to “change the status quo by force,” as concerns grow about whether China could invade Taiwan. The issue of Taiwan loomed over a leadership meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) nations — the US, Japan, Australia and India — who stressed their determination to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China, although Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the group was not targeting any one country. The four leaders said in a joint statement issued after their talks
RSS