Demonstrators gather in Hong Kong
Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said there is “zero chance” China will change its decision to vet candidates in elections for the city’s top position, and that he won’t resign as chief executive amid calls from pro-democracy protesters for him to step down.
“I believe my stepping down will not solve the problem since they are demanding the National People’s Congress to withdraw its decision and for civil nomination, which is impossible,” Leung said in an interview broadcast by Hong Kong’s TVB News yesterday, before he left for the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou to attend a forum.
Protesters have occupied streets in key areas of Hong Kong for more than two weeks, demanding Leung resign and that China review its decision on vetting candidates for the 2017 chief executive election. Leung’s comments come as he faces questions about a deal with an Australian engineering company that paid him HK$50 million (USD6.4 million) after he became the city’s leader. He denied any wrongdoing in the interview.
Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam on Oct. 9 announced the government canceled talks scheduled for the next day with student leaders, saying they can’t meet unless students recognize the legal framework China laid down for the 2017 vote in the city. Pro-democracy protest leaders called on more supporters to flood the streets to pressure the government after the talks were suspended.
Lam, the No. 2 government official, and other senior officials left for Guangzhou yesterday to attend the 10th Pan-Pearl River Delta forum and trade fair, according to a statement on the government website. Leung was scheduled to arrive in Guangzhou yesterday evening.
The number of protesters on Hong Kong’s streets, which had dropped to hundreds from demonstrators’ estimates of as many as 200,000, picked up again Saturday as the government and students blamed each other for the collapse of talks.
Leung defended the decision to use tear gas on protesters on Sept. 28, which he said was made by the police on site. The chief executive said he had been involved in the call to end the use of the tear gas. “The police cordons were charged repeatedly” and there could have been serious casualties and a stampede had tear gas not been used to disperse the crowd, he said.
The protesters shouldn’t infringe on the rights of others when they block roads and occupy streets, as it affects the livelihoods of other Hong Kong people, Leung said.
He called the Occupy Central With Love And Peace movement “a mass movement that had spun out of control.”
The police won’t clear the protesters unless it is absolutely necessary, and will try to use minimum force, Leung said.
The Hong Kong government is out of control and must take responsibility for firing the tear gas and for unilaterally canceling talks, the three groups leading the protests said in a joint statement in response to Leung’s comments.
The groups, Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Occupy, say the row has its roots in the consultation report submitted by the Hong Kong government to China and it “misled the central leadership into making a decision that violates the spirit of the Basic Law,” and responsibility for the erroneous decision rests with Leung’s administration.
Protesters told Chinese President Xi Jinping they don’t want a revolution and their civil disobedience was triggered by the city’s government misrepresenting local views on electoral reform.
Hong Kong’s government “should be held responsible,” the student federation and Scholarism said late Saturday in an open letter on the federation’s Facebook page. The students said they don’t want a “color revolution,” a term Chinese state media use for uprisings such as the so-called Arab Spring.
“The occupy movement in Hong Kong is not a color revolution, it is Hong Kong people demanding democracy,” the student organizations said. “We sincerely respect ‘one country, two systems,’” they said, referring to Hong Kong being part of China while having different rules.
Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang urged the students to end the protests, warning on his blog that if the situation worsens, the impact on Hong Kong can be “very violent.”
Leung’s resignation would open the door for a solution to the protest, Benny Tai, founder of Occupy Central, said in an interview yesterday. While it wouldn’t solve all the issues, it is a necessary condition, he said.
Scuffles broke out in the early hours yesterday between protesters manning barricades and police in the Mong Kok district across the harbor after demonstrators began reinforcing the barriers. Police have arrested 47 people in Mong Kok since Oct. 3, Hong Kong Police Superintendent Hui Chun-tak said in a briefing.
Opposition lawmakers have said Leung should be impeached for a conflict of interest over the deal with engineering company UGL Ltd., and Hong Kong’s anti-corruption body is handling a complaint against him.
The payment was for bonus and wages owed to Leung for his work at DTZ Holdings Plc, which UGL acquired, Leung’s office said in a statement last week. Leung had resigned as the Asia Pacific director of DTZ, a property broker, in November 2011 before he became chief executive, and the payments weren’t for services provided after that time, the statement said.
Leung said yesterday that he didn’t do anything wrong morally or legally by accepting the money from UGL. Janet Ong, Bloomberg
Authorities detain scholar on charge of troublemaking
A Chinese scholar and rights advocate who founded an influential non-governmental think tank has been detained on the criminal charge of provoking troubles, his lawyer said yesterday.
Guo Yushan is the latest of dozens of people who have been detained at a time when Hong Kong protesters are demanding universal suffrage in elections for the top official of the semiautonomous territory.
Earlier this month, Beijing detained the dissident poet Wang Zang and seven others ahead of a poetry reading planned in Beijing to support the Hong Kong protesters.
At least 40 people in Beijing and another dozen elsewhere in mainland China have been held for supporting the protesters, including posting pictures and messages online showing solidarity and planning to travel to Hong Kong to join them, according to human rights group Amnesty International.
Many have been detained on the suspicion of provoking troubles — a vague charge that critics say has been increasingly used to suppress dissidents, activists and outspoken critics of the government as Beijing tries to avoid speech or state subversion charges that are more likely to draw international condemnation.
It is unclear if Guo’s detention is directly related to the Hong Kong protests, as Guo was not known to have made any public comments in support of the pro-democracy movement.
His lawyer Li Jin said she was yet to meet with Guo at a Beijing detention center and that it wasn’t immediately clear on what basis police charged Guo.
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