Official celebrations to mark China's National Day got off to an uneasy start in Hong Kong yesterday as democracy activists staged noisy demonstrations at a ceremony led by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa (陳建平).
Slogan-shouting protesters from the pro-democracy April Fifth action group called for an end to communist party rule of China as Tung and 700 officials and guests marked the 54th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The demonstration, repeatedly halted by police, was the latest in a series of unprecedented protests which saw 500,000 people take to the streets in July to voice opposition to proposed security laws.
Crowds of spectators, including Chinese tourists, had turned out to witness the morning ceremony on Hong Kong's Wan Chai waterfront in which Tung raised the territory's Bauhinia flower standard alongside the Chinese flag.
During the event, some 15 protesters marched at a snail's pace along steel barriers set up by police to prevent them from invading the venue.
"What about our right to demonstrate according to the UN human rights convention," shouted protest leader Leung Kwok-hung as police tried to stop demonstrators from scaling the barrier.
Leung later read a petition to Beijing, calling for an end to one-party rule and the return of power to the people.
The document was then burned to show indignation over the protesters' barring from the ceremonial venue.
Hong Kong was to later mark the day with a traditional fireworks display in a celebration that will also express renewed confidence in the wake of the SARS epidemic that ravaged the former British colony.
Dissatisfaction with government handling of the SARS outbreak helped fuel the summer protests which marked Hong Kong's deepest political crisis since the former British colony reverted to Chinese rule in 1997.
Yesterday's demonstrators were joined by members of the Tiananmen Mothers Campaign who called on China to probe the 1989 military crackdown of pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
The group in its petition also called for "thorough reform" of the communist system in order to prevent human-rights abuses.
Carrying symbolic black and white streamers, the protesters also called on Beijing to release all political prisoners and explain the 1989 crackdown.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
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
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