Hong Kong
Mahaz News
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Wearing numbered lanyards, a small group of 80 demonstrators took half in Hong Kong’s first approved protest in three years on Sunday – a rigorously choreographed occasion that campaigners say provides a chilling perception into the way forward for protest within the metropolis.
Numbers had been capped at 100, and in the course of the hour-long occasion, organizers repeatedly informed journalists to avoid them following police warnings that the presence of the press may consequence within the march being canceled.
The protest was a far cry from mass democracy demonstrations of only a few years in the past when a whole bunch of 1000’s of Hong Kongers rallied in opposition to what they noticed as Beijing tightening its management over town, some clashing with police.
Sunday’s protesters weren’t calling for democracy however the scrapping of an area reclamation challenge in Tseung Kwan O they are saying will improve air pollution of their middle-class neighborhood – but strict circumstances had been utilized.
Cyrus Chan, one of many organizers from Concern Group For Tseung Kwan O People’s Livelihood, stated police had screened the protest’s publicity materials, and informed organizers to advise contributors in opposition to dressing in yellow and black – colours related to town’s pro-democracy motion and mass protests in 2019.
“There cannot be any messages deemed politically sensitive, seditious and sensitive colors,” Chan recalled being informed.
A Hong Kong Police spokesman stated the preparations had been made based mostly on their threat assessments of the organizers’ “aim, nature, number of participants, past experience and latest circumstances.”
Figo Chan, former convenor of the now-disbanded Civil Human Rights Front group, which as soon as introduced large crowds of democracy supporters onto Hong Kong’s streets, stated Sunday’s occasion reveals how tough it might be for activists to make their views recognized within the metropolis.
“This is the new era with Hong Kong characteristics,” Chan described, borrowing the usage of the time period by the Chinese Communist Party to first describe its socialist-capitalist philosophy that has since been expanded to its “democracy with Chinese characteristics.”
“I believe it’d be very hard to hold a protest in the future,” stated Chan.
“I want fresh air. No reclamation work,” the gang shouted as they marched a brief distance from a prepare station to Tseung Kwan O Waterfront Park, close to the positioning of the proposed challenge that features the development of a concrete plant and waste station.
Around 40 police – about half the variety of protesters – had been deployed to the occasion make certain the principles had been adopted.
Winnie Chiu, who held the quantity tag 10, steered clear from politics in the course of the protest. “This is not a political demand. This is about basic daily life and our health,” stated the instructor in her 50s.
It was a small occasion however extremely important for campaigners in a metropolis the place protests have largely fallen silent.
The final time Hong Kongers got here onto the streets in huge numbers was in 2019 and 2020, when protests in opposition to an extradition regulation spiraled into broader requires democracy.
For many, the extradition regulation represented a tightening of China’s management over the semi-autonomous metropolis, whose governance beneath a coverage of “one country, two systems” had been agreed for 50 years after the 1997 handover from British to Chinese rule.
As the variety of protests grew, the federal government’s place hardened and police responded with tear fuel and rubber bullets.
The protests stopped after limits had been imposed on gatherings attributable to Covid, and the introduction of the nationwide safety regulation by Beijing in June 2020, which threatened arrest for anybody suspected of “secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces.”
The Hong Kong police have additionally cited the pandemic as a motive over the previous three years to reject protest purposes.
Earlier this month, the Hong Kong Women Workers’ Association deliberate an indication in assist of International Women’s Day, however canceled it regardless of receiving police approval, giving no additional feedback.
After the nationwide safety regulation was imposed, many opposition figures accountable for organizing the protests had been arrested with out bail, and plenty of civil our bodies had been compelled to close down, together with Figo Chan’s Civil Human Rights Front.
The native activist stated he doesn’t regard Sunday’s Tseung Kwan O protest as a correct public meeting, assured beneath town’s mini-constitution known as the Basic Law.
“There is an imposed quota of 100, so it’s only a protest by a small group, not the public,” he stated.
Chan stated previously police would ask his group for estimated numbers, however by imposing a quota, it defeated the aim of a protest, which must be open to everybody.
Another activist Raphael Wong, from League of Social Democrats, stated he believed the tight controls replicate the nervousness of the authorities.
“There will not be any loosening up until the Hong Kong and Chinese officials are feeling less tense about the situation,” he stated.
Legal scholar Michael Davis, who used to show human rights legal guidelines on the University of Hong Kong, known as the association “an embarrassment,” stressing that the protesters on Sunday had been under no circumstances constituting a menace to the federal government.
The world fellow from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a suppose tank in Washington DC, likened the scenario to that of Singapore the place protesters can solely handle crowds with no allow at “Speaker’s Corner,” making demonstrations very uncommon.
“These restrictions leave little or no room for a civil rights movement,” he stated.
However, pro-Beijing lawmaker Regina Ip, who was the safety minister of town between between 1998 and 2003, defended the police, saying the rights to protest will not be absolute. She cited the clashes in 2019 as a justification for stricter measures.
Asked if there’s room for the police to reduce their measures sooner or later, Ip stated they need to “assess the situation depending on the circumstance at the time.”
Cyrus Chan, who organized Sunday’s march, stated he hoped the orderly show opened the door for different protests.
“I hope we have demonstrated to the Hong Kong and Chinese governments, as well as the local police force that the Hong Kong people can hold protests in a rational and peaceful manner without any restrictions,” he stated.
CORRECTION: A earlier model of this story misstated that the 2019 protests had been against Hong Kong’s safety regulation. The safety regulation was imposed a yr later.
Source web site: www.cnn.com
