MCLC: HK rally in support of China

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: HK rally in support of China
***********************************************************

Source: NYT (8/17/14):
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/18/world/asia/thousands-protest-an-occupy-mo
vement-in-hong-kong.html

Thousands in Hong Kong Rally in Support of China
By MICHAEL FORSYTHE and ALAN WONG

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.

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.”