Hong Kong protests

[LazyLion]

HK DEMONSTRATORS VOW NO RETREAT AS PRESSURE MOUNTS ON CITY'S LEADER

Protesters calling for full democracy in Hong Kong vowed Thursday to ratchet up their occupation of key parts of the city if they fail to win concessions from the government ahead of crunch talks tomorrow.

The threat was issued as the city's embattled leader came under pressure to explain why he kept large payments from an Australian company secret with pro-democracy lawmakers saying they would try to impeach him.

Parts of the vital financial hub have been paralysed for more than a week by demonstrations calling for Beijing to grant the former British colony full democracy and for the city's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to resign.

Under plans unveiled by China in August, Hong Kongers will be able to vote for Leung's successor in 2017, but only two to three vetted candidates will be allowed to stand.

Although protester numbers have dwindled in recent days, small groups still control multiple barricades across the city in what has become the most concerted challenge to Beijing's rule since Hong Kong's handover in 1997.

In a show of unity Thursday evening, a coalition of pro-democracy leaders gathered at the main protest site and vowed to ratchet up their civil disobedience campaign unless the government agreed to their demands.

Students are due to meet Leung's deputy Carrie Lam on Friday afternoon in bid to break the deadlock.

But Alex Chow, president of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, said pro-democracy protesters would remain on their barricades -- and could expand their occupation -- if the talks broke down.

"Hong Kong people will not retreat. And there's no reason for anyone to ask us to retreat. Therefore the Occupy movement must be ongoing," he said.

"Also the students will go into different occupy areas," to discuss potential future plans for further civil disobedience, he added.

Pro-democracy lawmakers also threw their weight behind the protests Thursday saying they would use their powers to disrupt the workings of the Hong Kong government inside the city's parliament by gridlocking the committees they they currently control.

"Hong Kong has entered an era of disobedience and non-cooperation," pro-democracy leader Alan Leong told crowds.

His call came as lawmakers accused the city's leader of having a "huge integrity problem" for failing to declare a lucrative windfall of cash from business dealings in Australia.

Fairfax Media reported Wednesday that Leung received two payments totalling HK$50 million ($6.5 million) from Australian engineering firm UGL during a deal struck in December 2011 -- months before the chief executive took office, but a week after he announced his candidacy.

At the time UGL was purchasing the insolvent property services firm DTZ, where Leung was a director and chairman of its regional operations.

It agreed to pay Leung over the next two years not to compete with them, and the contract signed by him showed he agreed to act as an "adviser from time to time".

Opposition lawmakers Thursday expressed their dismay that Leung did not declare the payments to the Hong Kong public once he became leader in July 2012.

"It boils down to a huge integrity problem," pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told AFP. "Can you imagine Obama being a consultant of some company while being a political leader?"

Leung's office has said he was under no legal obligation to declare the earnings and that he had not worked for UGL since becoming chief executive.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Leong said his group of 23 lawmakers in the 70-seat body were planning to file an impeachment order against the chief executive following the emergence of the deal.

"We are gathering the evidence and working on the draft. We will move the motion in the Legco when the draft is ready," Leong said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 09 Oct 2014 14:21

 

[Shayd]

Of course they can, in the exact same way Putin has ignored the West's toothless gestures while he creates unrest in Ukraine. The red Chinese learned well from the red Russians.

Except that Russia's economy is now falling apart due to sanctions. Money hurts modern economies more than bullets.

 

[The_Assimilator]

Except that Russia's economy is now falling apart due to sanctions. Money hurts modern economies more than bullets.

The only effect these sanctions are going to have is make Russia more dependent on countries that don't care about human rights, i.e. China, India and African nations. Once that happens, the West's sanctions no longer have any power over Russia, and its economy will bounce back. In particular, given how China and India are up-arming themselves, and the conflict in the Middle East, Russia's weapons sales are going to be very healthy for a long time to come.

 

[Space_Chief]

Except that Russia's economy is now falling apart due to sanctions. Money hurts modern economies more than bullets.

I'd like to see an economy hurt more by sanctions then by a war. Iraq before 2nd Iraqi War and Iraq now.

Russia depends mostly on oil and gas prices. Making those cheap will hurt Russia.

 

[Space_Chief]

And why should the West step in to help HK when the same countries don't give a frack about Tibet?

Seriously.

 

[LazyLion]

TIMELINE OF HONG KONG DEMOCRACY PROTESTS

Here are key dates in the recent development of Hong Kong's pro-democracy movement, leading up to mass protests that brought tens of thousands onto the streets to demand fully free elections:

June 10: Beijing issues a "White Paper" on Hong Kong that -- according to democracy campaigners -- shows that the city's much-cherished freedoms could be revoked at any time.

June 30: 800,000 people vote in favour of greater democratic freedoms than Beijing has proposed in an unofficial referendum organised by the protest group Occupy Central.

August 31: China insists on its right to vet candidates for Hong Kong's next leadership elections in 2017 elections. In response, Occupy Central and other groups vow to embark on an "era of civil disobedience" including mass sit-ins.

September 22: University students begin a week-long boycott of classes.

September 26: Around 150 student protesters storm government headquarters and occupy a courtyard in the complex. Police use pepper spray to repel them. The protesters defend themselves with their now emblematic umbrellas.

September 28: With parts of the government complex besieged, Occupy Central joins the students announcing it has begun its civil disobedience campaign. A major street opposite government headquarters is taken over by protesters.

In response riot officers fire tear gas and crowd numbers swell with many apparently moved to join the protest in anger at the police action.

October 1: Celebrations of Communist China's National Day takes place against a backdrop of noisy pro-democracy protests throughout the city.

October 2: Hong Kong's leader CY Leung rejects protester demands that he resign but offers to send his deputy to talk to demonstrators.

October 3: Student leaders agree to Leung's offer of talks. But chaos later erupts in Mong Kok, a busy working-class shopping district taken over by protesters, when government loyalist thugs attack demonstrators.

October 4: Student leaders call off talks, accusing police of failing to act over violent attacks against them. Tens of thousands gather for a mass peace rally in central Hong Kong in response to the assaults.

October 6: Protest numbers dwindle but demonstrators remain in control of barricades across the city. Protest leaders agree to a resumption of talks.

October 8: Leung comes under pressure over his failure to declare two payments totalling HK$50 million ($6.5 million) from Australian engineering company UGL received while in office.

October 9: Democracy activists vow to ratchet up their campaign, joining with pan-democratic lawmakers who vow to gridlock government committees they control. Talks collapse as government pulls out.

October 10: Protesters announce their intention to remain on Hong Kong's streets for a long term fight as US lawmakers urge President Barack Obama to press their concerns over the lack of democratic development in Hong Kong to Beijing.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 10 Oct 2014 10:13

 

[LazyLion]

HONG KONG DEMOCRACY PROTESTERS DIGGING IN FOR LONG HAUL
by Jerome TAYLOR, Dennis CHONG

Hong Kong's democracy protest leaders implored supporters Friday to bring tents and dig in for the long haul, threatening to expand their occupation of key parts of the city after talks with the government collapsed.

Crunch negotiations between protesters and Beijing-backed city officials were slated for Friday, but fell apart Thursday after the government pulled out, blaming student leaders for attempting to escalate demonstrations.

The decision deepened the political crisis convulsing the Asian financial hub, with the failure of talks expected to reinvigorate mass rallies that have paralysed parts of the city for nearly two weeks.

Demonstrators are calling for Beijing to grant the former British colony full democracy and for the city's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to resign.

Under plans unveiled by China in August, Hong Kongers will be able to vote for Leung's successor in 2017, but only two to three vetted candidates will be allowed to stand -- something detractors have dismissed as a "fake democracy".

Student leaders Friday blamed the government for pulling out of talks, and insisted they were still open to finding a middle ground.

But they vowed no let up in their occupation of parts of Hong Kong despite growing public anger over the disruption they have caused.

"Come to occupy the road outside the public headquarters, come bring your tents to show our persistence on long term occupy action," student leader Joshua Wong told supporters at the main protest site outside the government headquarters ahead of a planned mass rally at 7:30 pm (1130 GMT).

Crowds have dwindled in recent days. At the main protest site Friday afternoon only a few hundred could be seen.

But the movement's leaders are banking on both mustering significant numbers over the weekend and potentially expanding their sit-ins to keep pressure on the government.

"We are now planning on further action for escalating (the campaign) if the government keeps denying the meeting," student leader Alex Chow said.

Analysts Friday warned that the collapse of the talks pushes the confrontation between democracy protesters and the government into a dangerous phase, with neither side willing to back down.

Sunny Lo, a political analyst at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said the government was spooked by a promise from pro-democracy lawmakers Thursday to disrupt the workings of the government in the city's parliament, known locally as LegCo, in a show of support for protesters.

"This is not a good sign now. The temperature is rising both inside and outside LegCo," he told AFP.

"If (the) Occupy Central movement drags on for a few more weeks I'm afraid police action would be inevitable. It would just be a matter of time," he added.

But Michael DeGolyer, a professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, said a violent police reaction was unlikely given it could reinvigorate the protest movement.

"They're not going to do the martyrdom thing. That would be a completely unnecessary act of dominance," he said.

With patience among many Hong Kongers running out following days of disruption, pressure is mounting on both Leung and the protest leaders to solve the stalemate.

Leung's opponents were given a major boost this week when details emerged that he had kept secret large payments from an Australian company while he was in office.

The Beijing-backed chief executive has denied any wrongdoing, saying he was under no obligation to declare the earnings and that he did not work for any company while in office.

But opposition lawmakers have smelled blood, threatening to bring impeachment proceedings against him while the city's top prosecutor will probe the allegations after a complaint was lodged with Hong Kong's anti-corruption watchdog.

Observers say Leung's bosses in China show no signs of dropping their support for the embattled leader.

"For the time being, Beijing will continue to let him deal with the crisis," Surya Deva, a law professor at City University of Hong Kong told AFP.

"But if he messes it up further, his head could come into the firing line."


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 10 Oct 2014 10:48

 

[LazyLion]

CLASHES AS MASKED MEN RUSH HONG KONG PROTEST BARRICADES

Dozens of masked men rushed barricades at Hong Kong's main pro-democracy site Monday, triggering clashes as demonstrators tried to push them back and police struggled to contain the chaos.

Groups of men, many wearing surgical masks, descended on the front lines of the rally at Admiralty near Hong Kong's central business district, hours after police had moved in to remove some barricades and shrink the site.

Two of the men were tackled to the ground by police, who also formed a cordon around the masked group.

Protesters, who have come under attack from organised crime gangs known as triads at another flashpoint rally site in Mongkok, shouted: "Weapons! Weapons!" and "Arrest the triads".

Television footage showed one masked man being forced to drop a small flick-knife.

Taxi drivers, many of whom have voiced frustration with more than two weeks of protests which have blocked roads and caused traffic gridlock, added to the fray by converging on the site in their cars, beeping horns and shouting at demonstrators.

Some had "We can't take it any more" printed on the fronts of their cabs.

Other groups opposed to the "Occupy" pro-democracy campaign also appeared at Admiralty, chanting "Occupy is illegal" and demanding that roads be reopened.

Police formed a line in front of the anti-Occupy protesters as trucks with cranes arrived on the scene and began removing barricades, an AFP photographer saw.


Source : Sapa-AFP /ar
Date : 13 Oct 2014 09:32

 

[LazyLion]

MAINLANDERS RISK BACKLASH TO SUPPORT HONG KONG PROTESTS
by Anuj CHOPRA

Hong Kong's democracy demonstrators are winning unexpected support from pockets of the city's much-vilified mainland Chinese community, who are defying Beijing's hard line on the protests and a social media backlash from their peers.

Hong Kongers have long had a testy relationship with mainlanders, who are often derided for swamping the already densely crowded financial hub and usurping resources, from hospital beds to baby formula.

The city's protests over Beijing's refusal to grant fully free elections have drawn insouciant shrugs and nationalistic rants across much of the mainland, with small knots of sympathisers swiftly detained by authorities.

But some mainlanders in Hong Kong are bravely showing up at the rallies that erupted two weeks ago, lending logistical and ideological support and revelling in what is strictly forbidden on the Communist mainland --rooting for democracy.

"On the mainland, you can be thrown in jail for your beliefs," said Li, a 21-year-old sociology student from southern Guangdong province.

"Coming out at protests in Hong Kong, shouting slogans for democracy, standing up for what you truly believe in is a liberating experience."

Li, who requested that her real name be withheld, never converses in Mandarin at protests -- only Cantonese with a "Taiwan accent" -- and sticks with Western peers from her university in Hong Kong, masking her face to "prevent any trouble" for her parents back in Guangdong.

The number of such supporters is hard to ascertain but the trend reinforces the nightmare scenario for Beijing of a possible domino effect that would see the mass revolt in Hong Kong spread to the mainland.

Beijing has said that candidates for Hong Kong's leadership election in 2017 will be vetted -- infuriating protesters who call it "fake democracy".

Tensions flared at the city's main rally site Monday as masked men descended on barricades, triggering clashes with protesters, hours after police had removed some barriers in a dawn operation.

But the odds of the protest movement extending to the mainland are slim, says Hong Kong University student Xin, judging by the reactions from her fellow mainlanders on Facebook -- some openly supported the use of tear gas on umbrella-wielding Hong Kong protesters on September 28 in a police move that grabbed the world's attention.

Facebook is officially banned in mainland China but it is possible to use virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass the country's vast censorship apparatus.

Xin, 24, says her Facebook timeline turned into a battlefield when she began posting pictures of the protests from the roof of her 22-storey building in Causeway Bay district, where she set up a free WiFi hotspot to enable demonstrators to post live updates on social media.

"Hong Kongers are spoilt and ungrateful."

"The city won't survive a day without China."

"What democracy? We've already given you too much freedom."

Infuriated by Xin's support for Hong Kong's Umbrella Revolution, some of her "nationalist minded" mainland friends abandoned her Facebook page.

The protests are reported to have triggered a "collective war of unfriending" on social media between mainlanders on the two ends of the political divide, the Hong Kong-based newspaper Ming Pao Daily said in a recent article.

Many of those trading barbs from the mainland have limited access to the realities in Hong Kong because of the "sanitised" coverage in the heavily censored national media, Xin said.

"I call up my mother and she curiously asks me, 'Oh but why are Hong Kong people behaving so badly?' She doesn't have the slightest clue."

One Chinese television report said that Hong Kongers were enjoying "fresh air" at the city's protest-hit Tamar Park, at the peak of the demonstrations, Xin added.

But despite their zealous support for democracy, it hasn't been easy for mainlanders to win over Hong Kong protesters.

In a video that went viral on YouTube, a mainland supporter is seen booed and heckled in the city's Mongkok district by an emotionally charged crowd of protesters who mistake her for a pro-government member. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RubSzEsyFi0

"I was there in 1989," the middle-aged woman says in Cantonese with a heavy mainland accent, apparently referring to 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown in Beijing.

"I support students, I support universal suffrage," she pleads with the protesters in a high-pitched voice.

But the crowd erupts into rhythmic clapping and a raucous chorus of "Happy Birthday", which has become a popular anthem among protesters to signal pro-Beijing rivals.

"I was in the front row when you were tear-gassed on September 28. I was telling the students to protect themselves from the fumes like this," the woman says, pulling out a transparent mask and wrapping it over her face, but only a few stop and pay attention.

The video broke Jie's heart.

The 25-year-old mainlander from southwestern Sichuan province said she stands for democracy but is put off by the "chauvinistic attitudes" in Hong Kong towards mainlanders.

A mainlander is typically stereotyped as a country bumpkin with a lot of money, she says.

In the year that she has been a student in Hong Kong, she has often heard the phrase "keung gwok yun" -- derogatory Cantonese slang meaning "strong country people", an apparent dig at China's regional hegemony.

A Hong Kong University poll in June showed a spike in the number of people identifying themselves exclusively as Hong Kongers, while those identifying themselves as Chinese fell to the lowest levels since 1997.

"Hong Kongers and mainlanders are growing further and further apart everyday," said Jie, who did not want to be identified by her real name.

"Why aren't we listening to each other any more?"


Source : Sapa-AFP /ar
Date : 13 Oct 2014 09:47

 

[LazyLion]

POLICE BRUTALITY VIDEO AT HONG KONG PROTEST SPARKS OUTRAGE

Hong Kong police came under fire Wednesday after plainclothes officers were filmed beating and kicking a handcuffed protester during some of the worst clashes since mass democracy rallies erupted two weeks ago.

The city's security chief said the accused officers had been "removed" from their posts after the assault that occurred amid violent confrontations when police swooped in to clear newly erected barricades near government headquarters.

Tensions have spiked in recent days as police began raiding protest sites and tearing down barricades, after more than a fortnight of disruptive mass rallies calling for free elections in the former British colony.

Demonstrators and police fought running battles overnight, with officers using their fists, batons and pepper spray to beat back crowds in an operation they defended as a necessary response to ensure public order.

But footage from television network TVB later emerged of a group of plainclothes officers assaulting a handcuffed and unarmed protester, sparking outrage and calls for prosecution from activists and lawmakers.

It shows six plainclothes officers hauling the man to a dark corner of a public park, and placing him on the ground.

One officer stands over the man and punches him, as three others are seen repeatedly kicking him in an assault TVB said lasted four minutes.

Prominent student leader Joshua Wong said trust between police and activists had hit an all-time low.

"The proper action police should take is to bring the protester to the police car, not to take him away and then punch and kick him for four minutes," he told reporters.

Amnesty International also condemned the "vicious" attack.

"It is stomach-churning to think there are Hong Kong police officers that feel they are above the law," Mabel Au, director of Amnesty Hong Kong said in a statement.

"Any investigation into this incident must be carried out promptly and all individuals involved in unlawful acts must be prosecuted."

Police have previously been criticised for firing tear gas on umbrella-wielding protesters on September 28 in a move that attracted worldwide attention.

Demonstrators have also accused them of failing to come to their aid during frequent attacks from violent pro-government thugs.

Hong Kong's security chief sought to douse tensions over the video, expressing "concern" and promising a "just and fair investigation".

"The policemen who are involved in the incident have been removed from their current working positions," Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok said without specifying how many officers were being probed.

Huge crowds have intermittently rallied against China's insistence that it will vet candidates standing for election as the semi-autonomous city's next leader in 2017 -- a move protesters have labelled as "fake democracy".

While the activists have been praised for their civility and organisational skills, they have also brought widespread disruption to an already densely populated city.

In intense scenes overnight, a wall of police armed with shields and batons marched before dawn on crowds who had erected new barricades in a road tunnel next to the headquarters of the city's embattled government.

Clutching the umbrellas that have become emblematic of their fight for full democracy, some protesters were pulled to the ground, handcuffed and hauled away by officers.

Police said that 45 people were arrested in the operation, including 37 men and eight women. Four officers were also injured.

Within an hour police had regained control of the road.

The violence was among the worst seen since the start of rallies that have drawn huge crowds calling for Beijing to grant the semi-autonomous city the right to choose who can run in 2017 elections.

A police statement said officers had warned that "advancing against police cordon line even with their arms raised is not a peaceful act", and had appealed to the demonstrators to "stay calm and restrained".

Ben Ng, an 18-year-old student, was with protesters near a newly built barricade when the baton-wielding contingent approached.

"Police used pepper spray without any threat or warning. Protesters were beaten by police," he said. "Both protesters and police, their emotions are very unstable."

The protests that have paralysed parts of the city over the last fortnight have largely been peaceful. But ugly scuffles have frequently broken out between demonstrators and government loyalists, sparking accusations the authorities are using hired gangsters.

Patience is running short in some quarters, with shop owners and taxi drivers losing business and commuters voicing irritation at extensive disruptions on the roads and on public transport.

Direct confrontation with police has been much less common.

But in the last two days, officers have begun moving in to remove barricades on the edges of protest sites, shrinking their footprint and opening some roads to traffic, while allowing the bulk of demonstrators to stay in place.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 15 Oct 2014 09:03

 

[DreamKing]

The Hong Kong police department is investigating reports that officers used excessive force against pro-democracy protesters.

Local TV showed images of officers apparently beating a handcuffed protester on Wednesday in some of the worst clashes since the protests began.

Hong Kong's security chief said the officers had been "temporarily removed from their current duties".

The incident occurred as police cleared an underpass near government buildings.

The police advance came when protesters blockaded the underpass after being cleared out of other areas of the city on Tuesday.

Overnight police used pepper spray and batons to remove protesters from Lung Wo Road which they said earlier had to be cleared as it was a major thoroughfare. They also arrested 45 people for "unlawful assembly".

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29625053

 

[LazyLion]

CHINA BLOCKS BBC WEBSITE AMID HONG KONG PROTESTS

The BBC's website was blocked in China Wednesday, one day after a video of Hong Kong police beating and kicking a pro-democracy protester began circulating online.

The move appears to be the first time the British broadcaster's website has been completely blocked in China since December 2010, when it was inaccessible for days ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony for Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.

The BBC's Chinese-language website has been blocked in China since it was launched in 1999, aside from a few months around the time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

"Extra censorship in mainland China today," the BBC's Asia bureau chief Jo Floto wrote in a Twitter posting Wednesday, noting authorities also have a "usual practice of blacking out BBC World during Hong Kong reports".

Charlie Smith, a co-founder of the anti-censorship group GreatFire.org, confirmed that the broadcaster's website was blocked in China on Wednesday.

China's Communist Party oversees a vast censorship system that aggressively blocks sites or snuffs out Internet and TV content and commentary on topics considered sensitive, such as Beijing's human rights record and criticisms of the government.

The New York Times and Bloomberg have had their websites blocked in China since they published investigations in 2012 into the family wealth of former premier Wen Jiabao and President Xi Jinping respectively.

As pro-democracy protests in the semi-autonomous region of Hong Kong escalated late last month, online censors moved to block the photo-sharing app Instagram, which joined Facebook, YouTube and Twitter as popular social media platforms inaccessible in mainland China.

The blocking of BBC's website comes as a video of Hong Kong police beating a pro-democracy protester went viral on the Internet.

In the video, released by Hong Kong television network TVB, a group of six plainclothes officers are shown assaulting a handcuffed and unarmed protester for several minutes.

The footage sparked outrage and calls for prosecution from activists and lawmakers. Hong Kong's security chief said Wednesday that the accused officers had been "removed" from their posts.

TVB's website remains accessible in mainland China, although Chinese-language links to reports on the video have been blocked.

CNN's website was also not blocked Wednesday, even though the Hong Kong police brutality video was the top item on the broadcaster's home page.


Source : Sapa-AFP /kd
Date : 15 Oct 2014 13:16

 

[LazyLion]

HONG KONG LEADER READY TO MEET WITH STUDENTS

Hong Kong's leader said Thursday he is ready to start talks as soon as next week with student leaders of the pro-democracy protests that have rocked the city for nearly three weeks.

The announcement suggests a breakthrough in a bitter standoff between the authorities and pro-democracy protesters, who have taken over major roads and streets in the city center since Sept. 28 to press for a greater say in choosing the city's leader.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said officials have been negotiating with the students through middlemen in the past few days, and announced that authorities are keen to discuss details of democratic reform with them.

"As long as students or other sectors in Hong Kong are prepared to focus on this issue, yes we are ready, we are prepared to start the dialogue," he told reporters. "This is why over the past few days ... we expressed the wish to students that we'd like to start the dialogue to discuss universal suffrage as soon as we can, and hopefully within the following week."

Authorities angered protesters when they called off a scheduled meeting with student leaders last week, saying talks were unlikely to produce constructive results.

It is unclear whether the proposed meeting can overcome the vast differences between the two sides.

Protesters oppose the Chinese central government's ruling that a committee stacked with pro-Beijing elites should screen candidates in the territory's first direct elections, promised in 2017. That effectively means that Beijing can vet the nominees before they go a public vote.

Leung reiterated Thursday that Beijing will not retract its decision. However, he said there is scope for negotiations in how the committee that nominates candidates is formed.

"In the second round of consultation, we can still listen to everyone's views. There is still room to discuss issues including the exact formation of the nomination committee," he said.

Tensions between the two sides have escalated in the past few days, as riot police armed with pepper spray and batons moved to clear activists from the occupied streets.

Public anger over the aggressive tactics used by police erupted Wednesday after local TV showed several officers taking a protester around a dark corner and kicking him repeatedly on the ground. Police said they will investigate, and seven officers allegedly involved in the incident have been reassigned.

China's central government is becoming increasingly impatient with the mostly peaceful demonstrations, the biggest challenge to its authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997. There were no signs, however, that Beijing was planning to become directly involved in suppressing them.


Source : Sapa-AP /kd
Date : 16 Oct 2014 09:50

 

[LazyLion]

HONG KONG POLICE MOVE IN AGAINST PROTEST ZONE
By SYLVIA HUI and KELVIN CHAN
Associated Press

Dozens of Hong Kong police have descended on a pro-democracy protest zone to remove barricades in a dawn raid.

Officers wearing riot helmets arrived at the site early Friday to take down some of the tents and canopies in Mong Kok. Police said they were not trying to clear the site, which is an offshoot protest zone across the Victoria Harbor from the main occupied area in the city's financial district.

Police surrounded about 30 protesters, who did not put up resistance.


Source : Sapa-AP /gf
Date : 17 Oct 2014 00:01

 

[LazyLion]

POLICE CLEAR HONG KONG PROTEST SITE

Hong Kong police cleared a main protest site early Friday after nearly three weeks of demonstrations for further electoral reforms.

Officers removed barricades erected in the Kowloon's Mong Kok business district, dispersing protesters within an hour and without clashes, local news reports said.

The site was occupied by around 30 protesters at the time, the South China Morning Post reported.

The road was partly reopened to traffic by 7:15 am (2315 Thursday GMT), the report said.

Police said they would leave another area available where the demonstration could continue, according to state-run radio RTHK.

Hundreds more demonstrators had camped out overnight at other sites in the city's Admiralty and Causeway Bay districts, the South China Morning Post said.

The protests are calling for open elections for the city's next chief executive in 2017, rejecting a ruling from Beijing that candidates must be approved by a government-backed election committee.

In recent days, the numbers of demonstrators on the streets have fallen further from their peak of tens of thousands at the end of last month.


Source : Sapa-dpa /gf
Date : 17 Oct 2014 02:55

 

[LazyLion]

ONCE RESPECTED, HONG KONG POLICE NOW REVILED BY PROTESTERS

Hong Kong's police force have long prided themselves as being "Asia's finest".

But their hard-won reputation for honest and impartial policing is at risk from accusations of double standards and brutality following violent clashes with pro-democracy protesters, lawmakers and analysts say.

Video footage showing plainclothes officers beating a handcuffed protester as he lay on the ground created shockwaves Wednesday, just over a fortnight after riot officers fired teargas for the first time in years at crowds of largely peaceful demonstrators.

Protesters have also accused police of standing by during repeated attacks by pro-government thugs while using what what they describe as disproportionate violence against their ranks in a series of confrontations in recent days.

"Trust between police and protesters, which was repaired after the use of teargas, is gone now," Surya Deva, a law professor at City University of Hong Kong told AFP.

"The root cause of the violence is the government's use of police force to deal with a political problem."

The city's police force was created in 1844 after the British took control of the territory from China three years earlier. By the 1960s it was notorious for accepting bribes and even colluding with the city's triad gangs.

Its image was gradually cleaned up following the creation of the the city's anti-corruption watchdog in 1974, which brought some of the most venal officers to book and pushed others into retirement.

Hong Kong's officers have since been lauded for their efficiency and honesty while many of their counterparts across Asia have earned reputations for brutality and graft.

The city remains a remarkably safe place to live with low levels of theft and violent crime, despite huge inequalities.

There were just 8.6 robberies per 100,000 citizens in 2012, compared to 243.7 for New York and 789.8 for Paris according to government statistics.

Locals, media and the government's own literature often refer to the force as "Asia's finest", a term that stems back to the title of a popular 1983 book on Hong Kong's police.

But critics say the force's recent handling of ongoing democracy protests risks fatally undermining the good work done over recent years.

"We have to acknowledge that Hong Kong has always been seen as one of the safest and most secure large cities in the world. But it boils down to trust. If you don't trust the police force, more disturbances will flourish," Claudia Mo, a lawmaker from the pro-democracy Civic Party, told AFP.

It was a Civic Party member, social worker Ken Tsang, who was beaten by police in the video.

Distrust in law enforcement and the political elite is part of a wider malaise among the city's youth who feel increasingly ignored and unrepresented.

Spiralling property prices, competition from wealthy mainlanders and the cosiness of the city's politicians with big business leave many fretting about their future.

But anger has boiled over against officers, particularly after protester crowds were regularly attacked by masked thugs thought to have links to the triads.

Angry chants of "hak ging" -- black cops -- have now become commonplace among protesters whenever they are confronted by officers, a pun on the phrase "black societies" which is used to describe triad gangs.

To add to the police's embarrassment, some of the officers identified by local media as being involved in the beating of Tsang come from the elite Organised Crime and Triad Bureau.

"The biggest thing police have lost is citizens' trust in them," 19-year-old college student Joseph Man told AFP.

"They say they are professional but we can see they are starting to lose control of their minds."

Police have defended their actions as restrained in the face of increasingly hardcore protesters determined to take over new areas of an already disrupted city.

They have strongly rejected any suggestion of collusion with triad gangs and say they have suspended seven officers involved in the beating video pending an investigation.

Sonny Lo, a political analyst at the Hong Kong Institute of Education, said the city's police force is trapped between protesters, the government and an increasingly impatient public.

"These protests have to be solved politically. The police can't deal with politics, they are just an arm of the government," he said.

But Lo warned continued confrontations could see China resort to sending in the People's Liberation Army.

"If police can't handle these protests more skillfully or more decisively I'm afraid that the worst case scenario -- namely the requirement of the PLA to intervene -- will not be impossible," he said.


Source : Sapa-AFP /mr
Date : 17 Oct 2014 08:08

 

[DreamKing]

Hong Kong’s Top Media Official Shared a Fake Photo of a Beaten Cop

Elizabeth Barber / Hong Kong

Oct. 16, 2014

The Hong Kong cop’s wounds looked grave — so grave, in fact, that he appeared to have just arisen from one.

The media-and-communications adviser to Hong Kong’s beleaguered leader, Leung Chun-ying, posted a photo to Facebook on Wednesday that showed a grimacing, blood-spattered “cop” said to have been wounded in a clash with pro-democracy protesters the previous night.

The photo was being circulated by supporters of the police, keen to show that the demonstrators weren’t as peaceful as they claimed to be.

“Everybody who uses violence is wrong,” wrote an impassioned Andrew Fung, under the photo of a man wearing police blue, his hands and face caked in bright blood. “If the police get hurt, you should have sympathy. The idea of democracy includes love.”

There is no suggestion that Fung knew the image to be a fake when he shared it. But, unfortunately for him, this was not a Hong Kong cop. It was an actor, made up to play an undead cop on a new local TV show called Night Shift.

The gaffe has left Fung, and many others who shared it, also red-faced — but with embarrassment, not cheap theatrical makeup.

HKTV, the network set to air Night Shift, confirmed on Facebook on Wednesday that the image was of one of its actors. It posted the zombie-cop photo next to a picture of the show’s actor without his living-dead makeup.

Twitter users also gleefully pointed out the error.

http://time.com/3512521/occupy-central-hong-kong-andrew-fung-wai-kwong-zombie-cop-hktv-night-shift/

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[DreamKing]

Chinese Politician Says Kung Fu Movies Show Why Umbrella Protesters Must Be Stopped

Hunter Walker

Oct. 16, 2014, 11:10 AM

A lawmaker in Hong Kong who supports the Chinese government reportedly cited Kung Fu movies as a justification for the violent crackdown on the protesters who have become known as the "Umbrella Revolution."

According to the South China Morning Post, the politician, Leung Che-cheung, told his colleagues on the Hong Kong Legislative Council the umbrellas protesters have been using to block tear gas could be used as an "aggressive weapon" and necessitated a violent response by police officers. To prove his point, Leung cited martial arts movies.

"It is basic common sense that an umbrella can be an aggressive weapon, but many lawmakers are just completely ignorant about history," Leung said.

Hong Kong police have been battling the anti-government protesters since last month with tear gas, pepper spray, and alleged beatings.

Local news site Passion Times said Leung was specifically referring to movies about Chinese folk hero and martial artist Wong Fei-hung where he was portrayed fighting enemies with an umbrella.

Wong has appeared in several Kung Fu movies including "Iron Monkey" and "Once Upon A Time" in China where he was played by Jet Li.

http://www.businessinsider.com/politician-kung-fu-movies-show-danger-of-umbrella-protests-2014-10

bwahahahhahahahha

 

[Space_Chief]

Hong Kong's police force have long prided themselves as being "Asia's finest".

If you exclude Japan, Taiwan and Korea from that list, maybe. HK police better than Japanese cops? Never.

 

[Space_Chief]

http://www.businessinsider.com/politician-kung-fu-movies-show-danger-of-umbrella-protests-2014-10

bwahahahhahahahha

Maybe funny to you, but if the cops think this, and the politicos think this, and the protesters think this, even if it's very unlikely, it can still cause the authorities to respond. Besides umbrellas with sharp metal points can be used a stabbing weapons.

Look at how the UK police s-at their pants and shot that poor Brazilian tourist who was not even armed. If professional armed UK police can wet their panties, then surely regular riot cops can also become nervous.