Hong Kong, decked out in colorful posters and flags, yesterday voted in district-level elections that are to mark the first real test of public sentiment since pro-democracy protests crippled parts of the Chinese territory last year.
About 900 candidates are competing for 431 seats in 18 district councils, at a time when people are divided over the pace of political reform.
The results, due late yesterday, are to provide insight into how a Legislative Council election due next year and a controversial leadership poll in 2017 could pan out.
The 79-day demonstrations last year, when activists streamed onto highways to demand full democracy for the former British colony, became the biggest political challenge to the Chinese Communist Party’s leaders in years.
The protests failed to persuade China to allow a fully democratic vote in 2017. Beijing says city voters have to choose from a list of candidates it has approved.
However, they triggered what many in the financial center see as a political awakening, which has included a lively debate over how much control China’s central government should have.
Scores of new candidates have come forward since the protests, including Steve Ng Wing-tak (伍永德), 30, a former chef.
“Without the Umbrella movement, I would definitely not have run for the district council,” Ng said, referring to the democracy demonstrations. “I would’ve been more politically apathetic than most.”
The city’s streets were festooned with banners and flags, while candidates and volunteers in sashes and colorful windbreakers handed out flyers to passersby.
“If you are fighting for democracy, but not actually participating in a democratic election, you are a bit of a hypocrite,” said 29-year-old candidate Edward Lau, who took part in the democracy protests.
Others said they would not vote for a candidate who took part in “troublemaking.”
“People should not stir up trouble,” a 79-year-old retiree surnamed Yung (翁) said. “I have voted for a candidate who thinks this way.”
One of the most keenly watched seats will be that of Albert Ho (何俊仁), a Democratic Party lawmaker who faces stiff competition in the gritty new town of Tuen Mun in the western New Territories.
District councilors wield little power, acting more in an advisory role, in which they can push forward policies for the government to consider.
LONG FLIGHT: The jets would be flown by US pilots, with Taiwanese copilots in the two-seat F-16D variant to help familiarize them with the aircraft, the source said The US is expected to fly 10 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D Block 70/72 jets to Taiwan over the coming months to fulfill a long-awaited order of 66 aircraft, a defense official said yesterday. Word that the first batch of the jets would be delivered soon was welcome news to Taiwan, which has become concerned about delays in the delivery of US arms amid rising military tensions with China. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official said the initial tranche of the nation’s F-16s are rolling off assembly lines in the US and would be flown under their own power to Taiwan by way
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
OBJECTS AT SEA: Satellites with synthetic-aperture radar could aid in the detection of small Chinese boats attempting to illegally enter Taiwan, the space agency head said Taiwan aims to send the nation’s first low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite into space in 2027, while the first Formosat-8 and Formosat-9 spacecraft are to be launched in October and 2028 respectively, the National Science and Technology Council said yesterday. The council laid out its space development plan in a report reviewed by members of the legislature’s Education and Culture Committee. Six LEO satellites would be produced in the initial phase, with the first one, the B5G-1A, scheduled to be launched in 2027, the council said in the report. Regarding the second satellite, the B5G-1B, the government plans to work with private contractors