On Saturday, October 15th 2011, hundreds of protesters occupied Exchange Square in Central. Since then, dozens of activists have been occupying the space beneath Central’s HSBC building. Here are a few links to local/international coverage:
Tom on Reuters (video), on TVB (video) Sina (press), CRI English (radio) and a longer quote on RTHK 3 (radio) after the Exchange Square protest on 15.10.11.
An unpublished piece I wrote about the relevance of #OWS in Hong Kong…
At a time of deep cuts and austerity measures in Europe and the US, booming Hong Kong is enjoying such a surplus that the government is offering personal US$700 bail-outs to all residents, subsidising electricity bills and allowing families in public housing free rent for 2 months. However, not all is as it seems beneath the Tiger Economy’s glittering skyline.
Last Saturday, over 300 ‘Occupy Hong Kong’ activists gathered at the city’s Stock Exchange. As the freest economy in the world and the third most favoured tax haven, one would doubt that the thriving ‘Capital of Capitalism’ would have seen anything of the Occupy Wall St movement. However, the turnout exceeded all expectations as demonstrators were keen to raise awareness of the territory’s shameful growing income disparity.
Last week, China Gold International (2099/ TSX: CGG) floated on the Hang Seng. Protests accompanied the Canada-based/China-owned company’s simultaneous HK$2.4 billion ($309 million) IPO on the Toronto exchange too. Since 2009, Tibetans near the GGI Gyama copper mine have protested water contamination, pollution and forced settlement of nomads. Two farmers, Sonam Rinchen and Thupten Yeshi were tortured and sentenced for up to 15 years in prison for demonstrating. Richen died as a result of repeated torture. More info here / our press release.
Our peaceful Friday mini-demo attracted clothed and undercover officers, a paddywagon and a police cameraman – the police-to-protester ratio was about 10:1 (at excessive cost to the taxpayer, no doubt). We draped a banner across a busy road bridge and attempted to enter the Stock Exchange, but it wasn’t until we retrieved Tracey the mannequin (my most loyal housemate) and installed it as ‘artwork’ did it have a big impact. Appropriately, the exhibition venue was an old prison which closed in 2005…
On June 7th, 2010, hundreds of activists – mostly from Hong Kong’s Muslim community – descended upon Victoria Park and marched to the Admiralty Police Station, near the de-facto Israeli consulate. This was in response to Israel’s killing of activists in international waters, who were attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.
On March 13th, 2010, I joined Christina Chan at the China Liaison Office in Hong Kong to protest the continued occupation of Tibet. The police presence was around 4:1 for each protester, around double last year‘s ratio. The following photos are from the local press, scroll down for video.
Activists hold vigil to mark Tibet riots South China Morning Post, Mar 14, 2010
About 20 people held a candle-light vigil last night outside the central government’s liaison office to mark the riots in Tibet two years ago.
A scuffle broke out when several activists tried to hang a banner and a snow lion flag – a symbol of the Tibetan independence movement – on the office’s front gate. Police officers guarding the gate threatened to use pepper spray as the activists – including Christina Chan Hau-man, one of the organisers of the vigil – tried to push their way forward.
“It was most exasperating to be amongst the vast majority of peaceful protesters, who sat for hours and days outside LEGCO earlier this month, only to see the scene depicted as a war-zone by the local media. At no point were there more than a dozen demonstrators resisting and pushing police lines. As usual, they were surrounded and outnumbered by photographers, with sharpened elbows, eager to capture the most sensational angle. Most concerned citizens who turned up had been busy chanting, watching live LEGCO footage and sharing ideas and food, yet the focus is permanently on a few anomalous seconds of supposed ‘violence’.
Almost as frustrating was Tsang’s clueless response to the Rail Link dissenters. Somehow he believes that the real issue was the government’s failure to engage us young people though Facebook and Twitter. Our so-called representatives are dreaming if they think that the same old message published through new technology will have any more impact. Perhaps until we are finally deemed mature enough for full democracy; the government would be wise to do less talking and more listening.”
Thousands of protesters gathered for several days and weeks outside of HK’s LEGCO building in largely peaceful demonstrations against the construction of a high-speed rail link to Guangzhou.
The project is the most expensive rail project in the world (HK$66.9 billion) and would involve the needless destruction of countryside and villages in the New Territories, despite there already being rail and road links to the mainland city. Further, a new link would only cut the current two-hour journey time by around 20-30 minutes, as it would terminate 15 metro stations away from the city centre. In a prime example of unlected officials putting profit before people, the legistlation passed on 16.1.10 amdist heavy protest in the surrounding Statue Square in Central.
See the Wikipedia for more on the rail link and the impact of the ‘Post-80s‘ generation and their
Hong Kong’s Sing Tao newsgroup owns the territory’s second largest Chinese language newspaper and its only free English daily. Their pro-government stance has stood both before and after the 1997 handover to China, switching its support to Beijing after Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control as a Special Administrative Region. Sing Tao’s global circulation is second only to the International Herald Tribune and it has aligned itself with several mainland news outfits.
In 1996 several staff members were arrested by HK’s anti-corruption unit after manipulating circulation figures. In 2001, Sing Tao’s Canadian arm was issued an injunction by Quebec Supreme Court for describing the Falun Gong as an ‘evil cult’.
Recently, a spate of poorly-written editorials by Mary Ma have caused upset amongst their English newspaper’s readership, who – being generally immigrants and ex-pats – do not share her conservative, anti-democratic, pro-CCP politics.
I attended the 2009 annual democracy rally in Hong Kong in the wake of Donald Tsang suggesting that he “represents” Hong Kong people in suggesting the events of June 4th, 1989 should be considered in light of the subsequent ‘economic progress’ China has made…
– Apple Daily – click to view
Contrary to what the newspaper says in Cantonese, I did not swear or try to speak Chinese during the protest.
In June 2009, I attended a kite rally, protest and candlelit vigil to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. It was the biggest attendance of the annual vigil since it began, with over 150,000 Hong Kongers turning out to remember the innocent protesters killed by their own government.
The media’s choice of words and how they present facts can affect a whole story. One man’s freedom fighter in indeed another man’s terrorist, and it’s important TV news and press get it right. It seems that, in a fit of over-cautiousness, ATV got it wrong this week when they used ‘allegedly’ in describing the deaths of Tiananmen Square activists.
This is a term usually thrown in to protect news teams from prosecution, usually during ongoing cases, but the Beijing crackdown occurred in 1989 and many of the facts are quite clear.
Here are the BBC’s ethical guidelines: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/edguide/
I wasn’t expecting a reply from ATV, so just emailed off a short rant. I received a surprising response a few days later…
I noticed some of the language used in your report on legislators visiting Guangdong (17/5/09). I was confused by your use of the word ‘allegedly’ when describing the deaths of students at the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.
Is this a suggestion that there is somehow ambiguity surrounding the fact that protesters were killed. I understood that outside of the mainland, this is a simply a given fact?
On Saturday, October 15th 2011, hundreds of protesters occupied Exchange Square in Central. Since then, dozens of activists have been occupying the space beneath Central’s HSBC building. Here are a few links to local/international coverage:
