| Thousands gather in fresh Hong Kong protest | ||
Protesters pour into major thoroughfare a day after government called off talks with student leaders
Thousands of protesters have poured into a main road in Hong Kong, reviving a civil disobedience movement a day after the government called off talks with student leaders.
Crowds filling up the Admiralty area late on Friday near the government headquarters chanted "Our Hong Kong, Ours to Save".
Many of those gathered near a stage in the main protest zone were young people, including high school students in uniforms, but there were also office workers who came straight from work.
"We don't want to see a government that treats people this way, where thousands can protest for weeks on the street and not get any response at all," said Natalie Or, 16.
"Maybe they think if they keep delaying people will disperse on their own, but my friends and I aren't going anywhere. I'll come for months, I'll stay for a year, I'll stay for as long as it takes," she added.
The resurgence came after a week that saw flagging support for the protests, which had blocked off main roads and streets in three of Hong Kong's busiest areas for two weeks. Some of the roads have reopened to traffic, but a main thoroughfare through the heart of the business district remains occupied.
Students and activists demanding a greater say in choosing the city's leader have vowed to stay until the government responds, while the government has repeatedly urged protesters to withdraw from the streets and allow the city to return to normal.
No policy change
When the government cancelled the talks, it said grounds for dialogue had been "severely undermined" by the students' call for more people to occupy streets.
Meanwhile, Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang said in Berlin on Friday there would be no change in the central
government's policy of maintaining a high degree of autonomy in Hong Kong, adding he was sure the Hong Kong government would ensure prosperity and stability.
"The central government of China has always had the guiding principle - one country, two systems. The people of Hong Kong manage Hong Kong with a high degree of autonomy and we have seen in practice that there has been no change to this policy, and there will be no change," he said.
"Maintaining the long-term prosperity and stability of Hong Kong is not only in China's interests but is mostly in the interests of the people of Hong Kong," he said, adding that China would protect the legitimate interests of all foreign investors in Hong Kong.
Student leaders say it was up to the government to resolve the crisis.
"If they do not give a just, reasonable answer to all the occupiers, there is no reason to persuade people to retreat," said Alex Chow, of the Federation of Students.
Tens of thousands of people have occupied the semiautonomous Chinese city's streets in the past two weeks to protest Beijing's restrictions on the city's first-ever direct elections for its leader, promised for 2017.
Beijing said a 1,200-member committee stacked with pro-government elites should nominate two or three leadership candidates before the public votes. Protesters say this gives them no real choice and do not amount to genuine democracy.
Thousands in Hong Kong Rally in Support of ChinaBy MICHAEL FORSYTHE and ALAN WONGAUG. 17, 2014
HONG KONG — Tens of thousands of people marched under a blistering sun in Hong Kong on Sunday to express their opposition to a pro-democracy movement that has threatened to bring Asia’s biggest financial center to a standstill if the government does not open up the nomination process for electing the city’s top leader.
Chinese flags were flying Sunday in a protest against Occupy Central With Love and Peace, a coalition that objects to the process for picking Hong Kong’s next leader.CreditAlex Hofford/European Pressphoto Agency
Protesters, many waving Chinese flags, streamed into Victoria Park in the midafternoon before the march, and the contrast with a rally held July 1 by pro-democracy organizers was stark. Most of the participants in Sunday’s rally were organized into groups corresponding to Chinese hometowns, schools or, in some cases, employers, easily identifiable with their matching T-shirts and hats. Middle-aged and elderly people dominated Sunday’s march, while young people dominated last month’s march.
In speech, they often employed the political lexicon of China’s ruling Communist Party. Typical was Kitty Lai, an investment adviser wearing an orange T-shirt and a baseball cap emblazoned with the logo of the Hong Kong Federation of Fujian Associations, a group that represents people from the coastal province across from Taiwan. She said shutting down the Central business district would cause chaos.
“We want everything to be stable,” Ms. Lai, 50, said in Mandarin Chinese. “We want everybody to live harmoniously.”
Organizers of the July 1 rally estimated that more than 500,000 had taken part in that demonstration, which ended with the arrests of hundreds of participants, including some lawmakers, after they staged an overnight sit-in in the Central district.
Hong Kong’s police said 111,800 people left Victoria Park on Sunday for the march, more than the 98,600 they recorded for the July 1 march. Yet photographs taken at the peak points of both marches, at the same location, show many more people on the street on July 1. An independent count by Hong Kong University put the maximum number of participants on Sunday at 88,000, compared with a maximum of 172,000 on July 1.
The protesters on Sunday wanted to show their opposition to Occupy Central With Love and Peace, an umbrella organization encompassing a wide section of Hong Kong society, including students, Christian religious leaders and some bankers. Occupy Central leaders have vowed to bring Central to a standstill with a sit-in should the national legislature and the city government insist on a plan for nominating the chief executive that bars candidates unacceptable to Beijing. That plan could be set in motion at the end of this month, when the National People’s Congress in Beijing is to issue guidelines to the Hong Kong government on how it can write new election rules.
The Alliance for Peace and Democracy, which organized Sunday’s event, said it had gathered 1.4 million signatures in its petition drive against Occupy Central. Leung Chun-ying, Hong Kong’s chief executive, signed it, as did a former chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa. In June, about 800,000 people participated in an Occupy Central referendum that was overseen by a university polling group.
“Hong Kong people desire peace. They’re not afraid of speaking out, and the silent majority has spoken,” Robert Chow, a spokesman for the alliance, said in an interview. “Why should they follow Occupy Central and try to hold Hong Kong hostage? If they really want universal suffrage, negotiate with Beijing. Negotiate with the government.”
Under the laws that have governed Hong Kong since its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 from British control, the territory is to move to a system of universal suffrage for picking the chief executive in the 2017 election. But any plan must pass the city’s legislature with a supermajority. Pro-democracy leaders have enough seats in the 70-member Legislative Council to scuttle any proposal should it fail to meet their demands, assuming they stay united.
Some business associations, including leading United States accounting firms, have warned that a protest movement that shut or slowed down Hong Kong’s Central district would harm the city’s image and its economy. China’s vice president, Li Yuanchao, has called the Occupy movement “unlawful.”
“We’re fine the way we are,” said Anita Kwan, a resident in her 40s, speaking in Cantonese, the native language in Hong Kong and much of neighboring Guangdong Province. “Occupy Central damages Hong Kong’s stability and reputation.”
Top Chinese officials overseeing Hong Kong are set to meet with the territory’s legislators in the mainland city of Shenzhen, which abuts Hong Kong, on Thursday in the prelude to the vote by the National People’s Congress.
On Sunday in Victoria Park, the police presence was light, and mostly there to help guide the peaceful demonstrators across intersections. Many participants brought along their Indonesian and Filipino domestic helpers, who also donned the T-shirts and hats, with some given Chinese flags to wave.
After the demonstrators had left, the detritus of protests, including posters, water bottles and flags, was strewed across the park, in contrast to the aftermath of pro-democracy rallies, when volunteers patrolled the ground, cleaning up everything, including wax from candle drippings.
The organizers of Occupy Central said on their Twitter account that the anti-Occupy rally on Sunday should help motivate their own movement. “If the horrifying vision of HK manifested by anti-Occupy doesn’t make us fight harder for real democracy,” the group said, “something’s wrong with our side.”
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"We are not Han China Communists"
Saturday, October 11, 2014
• Thousands gather in fresh Hong Kong protest
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