The events in Hong Kong in the last two weeks or so have been surprising in at least two respects.
The first is the sight of tens of thousands of people, mostly youths, blocking traffic in the central business district of a city of 7.2 million people with full employment, healthy economic growth and good public services. The second is the absence of shooting or vandalism, and the very small number of injuries and arrests, after more than two weeks of street protests — albeit with some pushing and scuffling, and even the use of pepper spray and tear gas at the worst point.… Seguir leyendo »
The world has been watching events unfold in Hong Kong in recent weeks, after tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets to occupy key locations in the heart of this financial hub.
Much of the international reaction has been supportive of the protesters' aims. Foreign governments, meanwhile, have been working out what to say publicly.
They should comment. Hong Kong is a global city, whose political development has wider implications, not least for international economic and commercial interests in Asia and beyond.
But comments by some politicians and media commentators in recent weeks demonstrated a worrying lack of understanding of the relevant historical agreements and Hong Kong's status as a Chinese territory -- albeit with significant autonomy.… Seguir leyendo »
Rares sont ceux qui ont cru que le mouvement « Occupy Central » allait prendre la forme qu’il a prise. Encore plus rares sont ceux qui auraient pu croire que le mouvement allait se transformer en « révolution des parapluies ».
En juin 2013, le professeur Tai Yiu-ting a conçu le projet d’« Occupy Central ». A partir du 27 mars 2014, il s’est transformé en une « déclaration d’intention ». Le plan correspondant au slogan « Que l’amour et la paix occupent le Centre » est resté en gestation pendant dix-huit mois. Il a donc été mûrement réfléchi ! La population a proposé des référendums populaires et a attendu une réaction de la part du gouvernement.… Seguir leyendo »
At 76 years old, I never expected to be tear-gassed in Hong Kong, my once peaceful home. Like many of the other tens of thousands of calm and nonviolent protesters in the Hong Kong streets last Sunday, I was shocked when the pro-democracy crowd was met by throngs of police officers in full riot gear, carrying weapons and wantonly firing canisters of tear gas. After urging the crowd to remain calm under provocation, I got hit by a cloud of the burning fumes.
The protesters persevered. They ran away when gassed, washed their faces and returned with raised hands. But the police continued to escalate the crisis.… Seguir leyendo »
Decenas de miles de personas han estado “ocupando” las calles, llenas de gases lacrimógenos, del distrito Central de Hong Kong para luchar por sus derechos democráticos. Muchas más pueden unírseles. Aunque algunos hombres de negocios y banqueros están molestos por esa perturbación, los manifestantes tienen razón en protestar.
El Gobierno de China ha prometido a los ciudadanos de Hong Kong que podrán elegir libremente a su Jefe Ejecutivo en 2017, pero, como los candidatos van a ser examinados cuidadosamente por un comité cuyos miembros no serán elegidos democráticamente, sino nombrados por ser prochinos, los ciudadanos no tendrían posibilidad alguna de elegir de verdad.… Seguir leyendo »
No es del todo cierto que los ojos del mundo entero están puestos en Hong Kong. Lo estarían, desde luego, si se permitiera a la población de la China continental conocer lo que está pasando en la ciudad de mayor éxito de su país, pero el Gobierno de China ha intentado impedir que todas las noticias sobre las manifestaciones pro democracia de Hong Kong lleguen al resto del país, lo que no constituye precisamente una señal de confianza por parte de los gobernantes de China en su sistema de gobierno autoritario.
Antes de proponer a las torpes autoridades de Hong Kong una vía por la que avanzar, tres cosas deben quedar claras.… Seguir leyendo »
For the past week, at home in London, I have been living in the Hong Kong time zone. At night I watch live feeds of pro-democracy protesters waking at dawn in an occupied street of Admiralty; the next morning, I turn my computer back on and see the same street filled with a swollen river of humanity chanting their political demands in unison and holding up luminous mobile phones to the night sky. These riveting scenes have filled me with profound admiration for the courage of the protesters, and renewed hope for democracy in both Hong Kong and mainland China. Whatever the eventual outcome of this movement, it marks a historic turning point.… Seguir leyendo »
Freedom leads to prosperity — unless tyranny intervenes
Back in 1997 when control of Hong Kong was ceded from the British to the Chinese, the question was whether the Chinese governing system would take over Hong Kong, or Hong Kong capitalism would take over China.
Well, now we know the answer — or at least the answer that the repressive leaders of China are seeking.
The tragedy of Beijing blocking Hong Kong’s right of self-determination isn’t just a setback for the island, but perhaps more so for mainland China itself. It is a declaration to the world that Beijing still doesn’t get the freedom thing.… Seguir leyendo »
It is not wholly accurate to say that the eyes of the entire world are on Hong Kong. They would be, of course, if people in mainland China were allowed to know what is happening in their country’s most successful city. But China’s government has tried to block news about the Hong Kong democracy demonstrations from reaching the rest of the country — not exactly a sign of confidence on the part of China’s rulers in their system of authoritarian government.
Before suggesting a way forward for Hong Kong’s ham-fisted authorities, I would like to clarify three points. First, it is a slur on the integrity and principles of Hong Kong’s citizens to assert, as the Chinese government’s propaganda machine does, that they are being manipulated by outside forces.… Seguir leyendo »
Was it a grim defining moment when Leung Chun-ying, variously known, among more flattering titles, as the Chief Executive of Hong Kong and the Chief Puppet of Beijing, ruled out any prospect of China changing its mind or allowing concessions to the limited version of “democracy” it has promised for Hong Kong in 2017, when voters are to choose his successor?
He sternly warned demonstrators to give up their “illegal” protests that have taken over large areas of Hong Kong for several days. Just before the midnight deadline that students had set him, Leung agreed to dialogue but the concession was late in coming.… Seguir leyendo »
China frequently accuses the West, and the United States in particular, of stirring up trouble and fanning fears of China. From foreign-funded NGOs that spread ideas about human rights and constitutional government to Western journalistic exposes of the wealth of Chinese officials, the West seems bent on humiliating China, as it has since the early 19th century. Last week, the pro-Chinese Hong Kong newspaper Wen Wei Po identified "a wide range of evidence" that purportedly shows that Joshua Wong, a 17-year-old organizer at the center of the current Hong Kong protests, is controlled by the "black hand of U.S. forces."
As Hong Kong's biggest protests in a generation raged around her, one 23-year-old Chinese student cut a calm but lonely figure.
Hong Kong students had poured out of her university to chant and sing for democracy on the streets but Ding Hui [not her real name], a graduate student from the Chinese mainland, decided to keep going to her classes.
"You cannot ignore the protests," she said. "There are always people at the subway station handing out fliers urging us to take part.
"But I personally do not think it is necessary to protest on the street. Mainlanders understand this better than Hong Kongers.… Seguir leyendo »
Overnight, my childhood home became a battleground. The Hong Kong streets where I grew up morphed into an alarming political flash point with riot police in gas masks firing tear-gas canisters at pro-democracy protesters, many of them defending themselves from the noxious white clouds with little more than umbrellas and plastic wrap.
Having lived for years in Beijing researching the legacy of China’s suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, I should not have been shocked. After unleashing the army on their own people a quarter-century ago, China’s leaders were left with a brooding sense of their own vulnerability and a determination to ensure demonstrations would never again spiral out of control.… Seguir leyendo »
In the eyes of many elite observers, the pro-democracy protesters occupying streets and plazas in Hong Kong’s business and political core are hopelessly naive. Though the city is mostly self-governing, Beijing has power over its political development, and the mainland’s ruling Communist Party is unlikely to accede to popular demands for unfettered democracy. Changing course amid the dramatic popular protests of recent days could encourage subversive ideas among Chinese citizens elsewhere. Rather than encouraging change, disorder in Hong Kong could confirm Beijing’s worst fears about loosening up.
But Hong Kong residents — a majority of whom want authentic democracy, polls show — need not lose hope and quietly acquiesce to Beijing.… Seguir leyendo »
On Sunday the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress issued restrictive guidelines for the election of Hong Kong’s next chief executive in 2017. Shorn of its technical details, the proposal in effect gives Beijing the means to control who could run for the top office in Hong Kong: Voters would get to cast a ballot, but only for one of just a handful of candidates pre-selected by the Chinese government.
“By endorsing this framework,” Cheung Man-kwong, a veteran politician of Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, told the media, “China has in truth and in substance reneged on her promise to give Hong Kong universal suffrage.”… Seguir leyendo »
Seventeen years after the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China, the political future of the territory hangs in the balance. The city can continue down a path that will lead to a fully democratic political system, or Beijing can thwart its democratic development and eventually run Hong Kong like just another Chinese city.
All signs indicate that Beijing plans to tighten its grip. As increasingly restive Hong Kongers protest this summer against Beijing’s interference, the international community, particularly Britain, the former colonial power, has a moral and legal obligation to support their will for democracy and autonomy. London should demand that Beijing live up to its agreements and back off.… Seguir leyendo »
Pieces of paper have a poor reputation among political realists, and history is littered with the torn-up fragments of solemn treaties. Seventeen years after a tearful Chris Patten, the last colonial governor of Hong Kong, sailed away on the royal yacht Britannia in July 1997, two pieces of paper are in contention, and they're sparking an increasingly bitter confrontation over the right of Hong Kong's people to choose their own government.
More than 700,000 people voted for that right last week in an unofficial referendum organised by Occupy Central, a pro-democracy movement founded in 2013. And on 1 July tens of thousands took to the streets in Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy rally in more than a decade.… Seguir leyendo »
Utilizamos cookies para el correcto funcionamiento de la página web y analíticas para estadísticas.ACEPTARPolítica de privacidad
