MCLC: few HK'ers support protests

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: few HK'ers support protests
***********************************************************

Source: Sinosphere blog, NYT (6/3/14):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/03/more-hong-kongers-support-89
-crackdown-survey-finds/

Fewer Hong Kongers Support 1989 Tiananmen Protests, Survey Finds
By KEITH BRADSHER

Sympathy and support for the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square a
quarter-century ago have ebbed somewhat in Hong Kong this year, although a
clear majority still believes that the Chinese government was wrong in
suppressing the protests, according to an annual survey
<http://hkupop.hku.hk/english/release/release1143.html> released on
Tuesday.

The proportion of respondents who agreed with the statement “The Beijing
students did the right thing” fell to 48 percent this year from 54 percent
a year ago, according to the survey by the Public Opinion Program at Hong
Kong University. The program has a reputation for academic impartiality
and has conducted an annual survey on attitudes on the 1989 Tiananmen
Square protests and crackdown since 1993, four years before the British
colony of Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty while retaining
considerable local autonomy.

Somewhat fewer people also said that the Chinese government’s official
stand on the issue — that a counterrevolutionary rebellion threatened the
nation — should be overturned. That proportion fell to 56 percent, from 63
percent a year ago.

For both questions, the share of respondents holding positions critical of
the Chinese government receded to levels previously seen in 2011. That was
a time of considerable disenchantment in Hong Kong with the West’s poor
economic performance during the global financial crisis, as well as
admiration for China’s ability to avoid the crisis — although the Chinese
government avoided it through a massive buildup in debt at state-owned
enterprises and local governments that could yet prove to be a problem.

Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, the director of the polling program, refrained from
speculating on the reasons for this year’s decline. He noted in a
statement that support for the Beijing students was strongest among Hong
Kong residents under the age of 30, who are not old enough to remember the
crackdown but tend to be the most supportive of greater democracy in Hong
Kong itself.

Michael DeGolyer, a professor of government at Hong Kong Baptist
University who runs a separate series of polls on democracy, said that
corruption and pollution in mainland China had been big issues in recent
years, and that recent efforts by President Xi Jinping to address these
issues might have impressed some Hong Kong residents and made them less
critical of the Beijing authorities regarding Tiananmen Square.

Critics of Mr. Xi have suggested that many corruption investigations may
have been aimed at removing his political rivals and opponents, and have
questioned whether antipollution measures have been ambitious enough to
make a difference.

The Chinese government has relentlessly tried to block and censor
discussion of the crackdown on the mainland, and there are signs that a
few Beijing loyalists in Hong Kong are starting to echo publicly its
position. A group that closely adheres to the positions of the Hong Kong
and Beijing governments but insists that it is independent, Voice of
Loving Hong Kong, plans to set up a booth on Wednesday evening for the
first time next to an annual candlelight vigil to mourn those who died in
the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The booth, at a subway station exit used by many to arrive at the vigil,
will show a video questioning whether the crackdown was the violent event
that democracy advocates and Western media have portrayed, said Patrick
Ko, the group’s convener. “The attitude in Hong Kong toward Tiananmen is
changing, or else you wouldn’t have people like me coming out,” he said in
a telephone interview.

Democracy advocates have long pointed to extensive libraries of still
photos and television footage of the crackdown at the time as evidence
that it occurred.

Emily Lau, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party, questioned the accuracy
of the Hong Kong University poll in reflecting the sentiments of residents.

“That’s not in line with the views of Hong Kong people I spoke to,” she
said, adding, “I still think many Hong Kong people will not forget and
will not forgive.”

The declines in sympathy for the students and in support for an
overturning of the official position were statistically significant,
according to the university. The margin of error for this year’s figures
was plus or minus 3 percentage points. Surveyors conducted telephone
interviews with 1,005 people in Hong Kong from May 17 to 22.