Reuters: Hong Kong's democracy 'referendum' likely to rile China's communists

[visionary]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-10-01/hong-kong-rallies-excite-annoy-mainlanders-on-shopping-holidays.html

Hong Kong Rallies Excite, Annoy Mainlanders on Shopping Holidays

 

Chinese tourists are descending on Hong Kong for annual holidays and finding an event not listed in their travel brochures -- huge pro-democracy demonstrations that are being met with a mix of astonishment, pride and annoyance.

 

China’s Golden Week, when an estimated 480 million mainland Chinese will travel, began yesterday. Hong Kong is a major destination, with mainlanders accounting for 75 percent of the city’s 54 million visitors last year.

 

“You only need to look at the youngsters of a country to see its future: Hong Kong should be proud,” Ding, a middle school teacher from Shenzhen who toured the main protest site in the Admiralty district, said yesterday. She would only give her last name for fear of reprisal.

 

“I teach kids of about the same age, but I doubt any of them could pull off something like this,” said Ding, who wore a yellow ribbon, the symbol for the student-led demonstrations. “The environment in which they grow up is completely different. For them, getting into a good university is top priority and everything else is not important. Politics is a big no no.”

 

While authorities in Beijing are eager to avoid dissent spreading from Hong Kong, with state-controlled media on the other side of a border just 20 miles (32 kilometers) away providing scant coverage of the protests, tourists are experiencing first hand the pro-democracy sentiment on display. Demonstrators are blocking key roads in shopping districts, providing backdrops for photos as mainland travelers visit the three main protest sites.

 

“The government doesn’t want people in China to know what’s going on,” said a woman from Guangzhou who would only give her last name of Sun for fear of reprisal, as she took photos yesterday of demonstrators in the Causeway Bay shopping area. “They block the media and people misunderstand the Hong Kong people. Some of my friends think that what the Hong Kong people are doing is because of economic reasons, because they can’t find a job. It’s not what they think. Hong Kong people just want to vote.”

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/protesters-press-hk-leader-quit-china-tells-us-024728695.html;_ylt=AwrTWVXmvixU1HwAzG_QtDMD

Protesters press HK leader to quit, China tells US to back off

 

Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters demanded that the city's embattled leader meet a deadline to resign on Thursday, as China warned the United States against meddling in its "internal affairs".

 

Demonstrators, who have shut down central areas of the southern Chinese city for four days, have given chief executive Leung Chun-ying until midnight to step down, or face escalated action.

 

In Washington, Beijing warned the United States to back off, in its strongest riposte yet to worldwide supporters of the suffrage movement sweeping the southern Chinese city.

 

"Hong Kong affairs are China's internal affairs," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State John Kerry at a press conference.

 

"All countries should respect China's sovereignty and this is a basic principle of governing international relations," Wang said sternly.

[Gizmo 3squire]

It was only a matter of time before this would happen

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29467239

Hong Kong protests: CY Leung refuses to quit as leader

 

Hong Kong's Chief Executive CY Leung says he will not resign, but has offered talks between his government and pro-democracy protesters.

 

The leaders of mass demonstrations have been calling for Mr Leung to step down.

 

The protesters are angry at China's plan to vet candidates for elections in 2017, and say they want full democracy.

 

They have surrounded two key Hong Kong government buildings, a move Mr Leung warned was a breach of the law that could lead to "serious consequences".

 

At a news conference shortly before the protesters' midnight deadline for his resignation, the chief executive told the protesters not to attempt to occupy the buildings.

 

He said the territory's top civil servant, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, would open a dialogue with student leaders as soon as possible.

 

"Tonight, the Hong Kong Federation of Students issued an open letter asking for a meeting with the chief secretary, representing the Hong Kong government, to discuss one item - and this is the constitutional development of Hong Kong," Mr Leung told reporters.

If they do give some concessions, I assume the government will want to frame it as an orderly agreement in line with what they had already planned to do.

[visionary]

http://news.yahoo.com/defiant-hk-protesters-clash-police-despite-talks-offer-031437248.html;_ylt=AwrTWfy5Hi5UBkcAe2PQtDMD

Defiant HK protesters clash with police despite talks offer

 

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong clashed with police outside government offices as tensions ran high Friday morning, despite an eleventh-hour agreement for talks, as China said the demonstrators were "doomed to fail".

 

Although most overnight demonstrators had gone home by the morning, more than 100 remained outside the government complex which is now the focal point of protests that have brought parts of the city to a standstill for five days.

 

Demonstrators are sceptical over what can be gained by the discussions with the government of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, which were agreed late Thursday to defuse escalating tensions as crowds demanded Leung's resignation.

 

And on Friday China reiterated its tough stance ahead of the first popular ballot in 2017 to choose the Hong Kong leader, saying there was "no room to make concessions on important principles".

 

 

 

[DCSaints_fan]

Without some dissent in the army, there's zero hope.    Besides which from what I undertstand most other mainland Chinese simply don't care and would probably support a military crackdown anyway (why should HKers get to elect their leaders, when they don't?)

[visionary]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/03/world/asia/china-hong-kong-protests/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Protest group ditches talks with Hong Kong government; calls for more protest

 

After jarring clashes between pro-democracy protesters and opponents in Hong Kong's densely populated Mong Kok district Friday, student leaders called off talks with the government -- accusing police of allowing the violence to unfold.

 

"The path of conversation should be put aside now. The government is not honoring its promise and it should be held accountable first," the Hong Kong Federation of Students said in a statement.

 

Students had hoped to meet with the No. 2 official in Hong Kong's government, Chief Secretary Carrie Lam, in an effort to resolve the political crisis that has gripped the semi-autonomous Chinese territory for a week.

 

Pro-democracy activists accuse Beijing of exerting too much influence on Hong Kong and are demanding the right to directly choose candidates for elected office and other reforms.

 

But protest leader Edward Tsoi said that after some student protesters had been beaten and others sexually molested as police stood by and watched, protesters had lost all faith in government officials.

 

"The government and the police have done nothing to stop them," he told CNN.

 

Alex Chow, the secretary general of the student federation, said Friday's unrest was organized "with the intention to cause chaos to allow police to clear activists there."

The clashes broke out Friday in Mong Kok, a tightly packed neighborhood of shops and residences where protesters have occupied one of the city's busiest intersections.

 

"The first man was a 30-something-year-old man," witness Jessica Cheung told CNN. "He came in around noon, started yelling and causing a scene. Then some middle-aged men started coming in one at a time, like bang, bang, bang, from every side, saying 'You're in my way, I have to go to work, I have to make a living.'"

 

The men, who did not appear to be from the area, tried to tear down protesters' tents and got into scuffles with protesters, Cheung and other protesters said.

"I am a little bit scared. I haven't seen anything like this before," one protester told CNN. "We'll do our best to stay calm here, do what we can."

Another protester, Wilson Wong, said the crowd encircling the protesters was intimidating.

 

"We just want a peaceful dialogue, but we're scared because they're using violence," he said. "We're very nervous and our hands are shaking, even as we hold on to each other."

 

The crowds opposing the protesters in Mong Kok expressed anger about the disruption posed by the demonstrations, which have choked one of the busiest intersections in Hong Kong.

"They've been here for nearly a week. They need to clear out. It's ruining our economy, they just need to leave," said Joe Lee, one of the men angry with protesters.

 

Hong Kong's police superintendent warned that demonstrators should clear the busy Mong Kok intersection they are occupying or face arrest.

 

Police will begin dismantling protest barriers, and anyone remaining at the site could be arrested, Superintendent Mok Hing-wing said at a news conference broadcast by Hong Kong media.

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-29488002

Hong Kong protests: Police arrest 'triad gang' members

 

Police in Hong Kong have arrested 19 people, including suspected members of triad gangs accused of attacking pro-democracy protesters.

 

The scuffles on Friday led to the postponement of talks between the demonstrators and the government.

 

Police officers deny claims that they have colluded with those who used violence against the demonstrators.

 

Activists are protesting against plans by China to vet election candidates and have been occupying parts of the city.

 

Hong Kong's leader earlier this week offered talks to defuse the situation in China's special administrative region.

 

But the clashes broke out as people apparently angry with the disruption caused by the protests tried to dismantle tents and barricades.

 

On Saturday morning the atmosphere on the streets was calm.

[visionary]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/04/world/asia/china-hong-kong-protests/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

Hong Kong protests persist after ultimatum, mob attacks

 

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters jammed the streets of Hong Kong's central business district Saturday night and early Sunday, clapping and cheering just hours after an ultimatum by government leaders: Let city workers back in their offices soon, or else.

 

Demonstrators swarmed the semi-autonomous Chinese territory's Admiralty district to hear nighttime speeches from protest leaders perched on a small spotlighted podium -- all defying city leaders' insistence that they disperse and let Hong Kong's life and commerce return to normal.

 

Even after the rally, many hundreds camped out or roamed the streets early Sunday, stretching the demonstrations into their eighth day and raising the prospect that protesters intend to test the government's latest ultimatum.

 

Chief Executive C.Y. Leung -- under pressure from protesters demanding his resignation -- took to television Saturday evening to once again demand that protesters disperse immediately.

 

But his demand now came with a deadline: The streets must be clear by Monday so that classes could resume at schools, he said.

 

And entrances to the government headquarters also must be clear Monday, he said. He said protesters blocked 3,000 government employees from going to work Friday, clogging all entrances to the city's chief executive office building -- something he said would not be repeated Monday.

 

"The government and the police have the responsibilities and determination to take all necessary actions to restore social order," Leung said in his televised address.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/world/asia/hong-kong-protests.html?smid=tw-share

Large Protest Follows Hong Kong Leader’s New Warning

 

Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong held one of the largest rallies of their campaign Saturday evening, a gesture of defiance following attacks on their encampments and a declaration by the territory’s leader that major roads they have occupied for the last week must be cleared by Monday morning.

 

Tens of thousands of protesters gathered at the main protest site at Admiralty, outside government headquarters, after the territory’s embattled leader, Leung Chun-ying, said that “all actions necessary” would be taken to ensure that government workers could go back to work next week. He did not specify what those actions would be, but police used tear gas in an attempt to break up a protest a week ago, leading to a wave of larger demonstrations.

 

Officers separated an injured man from the crowd Saturday after scuffles in the Mong Kok area.Scrutinized for Handling of Pro-Democracy Protests, Police Have

 

“We know that every time they assault us, we resist harder,” Alex Chow Yong Kang, the secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, told the crowd. “And we know we’re on the right path, otherwise the government wouldn’t have been so afraid of us.”

 

 

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/05/us-hongkong-china-idUSKCN0HN03Q20141005?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Protesters to lift Hong Kong government blockade, vow to stay in Central

 

Fearing a police crackdown, Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters bowed to government pressure and said they would lift a blockade of key government buildings, but student leaders braced for a showdown in the heart of the Asian financial center.

 

Tens of thousands of protesters have staged sit-ins across Hong Kong over the past week, demanding the city's pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying step down and for the right to vote for a leader of their choice in 2017.

 

Leung warned late on Saturday that the 'Occupy Central' movement could get "out of control, causing serious consequence to public safety and social order".

In a statement, Leung said "the most urgent thing" was to clear access to the government headquarters on Monday "so 3,000 government staff can go to work normally and serve citizens".

 

Leader of the "Occupy Central" movement Benny Tai told a mass rally late on Saturday that protesters should cede to the government's demand.

 

"We only target CY (Leung), not other government officials. By opening a route, CY will have no reason or excuse to clear our occupation and spread foul rumors," he told thousands of mainly young protesters holding smartphone torchlights aloft.

 

Student leaders signaled they were bracing for a showdown in the heart of the city, the epicenter of protests which have spread to three other areas of the former British colony which was returned to China in 1997.

 

"We must take care in the coming days. In the face of violence we must remain steadfast and brave. This is only the calm before the storm but the Hong Kong people here with us tonight proves our strength," Alex Chow, leader of Hong Kong Federation of Students, said late on Saturday.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/07/us-hongkong-china-idUSKCN0HW08N20141007?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter

Hong Kong protests at crossroads as traffic, frustration pile up

 

Hong Kong pro-democracy demonstrators risked a backlash from commuters and retailers on Tuesday as lingering protests caused traffic chaos and sales slump in the global financial hub, with preliminary talks with the government suggesting no quick solution.

 

Hundreds of protesters remained camped out on the main road leading into Hong Kong's main government and business districts, the last holdouts after more than a week of rallies that attracted tens of thousands on to the streets at their peak.

 

Student-led protesters began lifting the blockades of government offices and retail areas on Monday as preliminary, behind-the-scenes talks meant to lead ultimately to formal negotiations showed modest signs of progress.

 

Over the past week, the protesters have demanded that the city's Beijing-appointed leader, Leung Chun-ying, quit and that China allow Hong Kong people the right to vote for a leader of their choice in 2017 elections. China wants to screen the candidates first.

 

After preparatory discussions with student representatives on Monday night, Lau Kong-wah, the government's Undersecretary of Constitutional and Mainland Affairs, said both sides had agreed on general principles for the formal talks.

 

"I think today's meeting was successful and progress has been made," he told reporters.

 

Protest leaders have promised to carry on with the Occupy demonstrations until their demands are met.

 

 

 

 

Talks to be held Friday: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/07/us-hongkong-china-idUSKCN0HW08N20141007?utm_source=twitter

[visionary]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/09/world/asia/hong-kong-protest-leung-payment/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Hong Kong government calls off protest talks, defends leader's $6.4M payment

 

Hong Kong's government has called off talks with pro-democracy protesters, as political rivals repeated calls for leader C.Y. Leung to resign -- this time over claims that he accepted multi-million dollar private payments while in office.

 

The government negotiator, Hong Kong Chief Secretary Carrie Lam announced the cancellation of talks Thursday, hours after protest leader encouraged supporters to keep up their occupation of city streets.

 

"We cannot accept the linkage of dialog with occupying activities," Lam said, prompting allegations from the Hong Kong Federation of Students that the government had not been "sincere" in its offer of talks.

 

Earlier on Thursday, political rivals rounded on Leung after a report by Australia's Fairfax Media that he received $6.4 million ($HK50 million) in undisclosed payouts from Australian engineering group UGL while in office.

 

According to the report, Leung signed the contract in December 2011, entitling him to payouts from UGL, which had recently bought the assets of Leung's employer, troubled British property agent DTZ.

 

Months after the deal was signed, Hong Kong's 1,200-member Election Committee appointed Leung as chief executive of the Special Administrative Region of China. Two payments of $3 million (HK$25 million) were allegedly made in 2012 and 2013, during the time Leung was in office.

 

In a statement on Thursday, both UGL and Leung's office defended the contract, calling it a "standard non-poach, non-compete arrangement." Payments were staggered over a two-year period to ensure Leung complied with both obligations, UGL said.

[Larry]

How come Chinese politicians get cash payments of millions of dollars, while US politicians will sell themselves for a barbecue grill and a deck?

[visionary]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hong-kong-police-remove-some-barricades-but-leave-main-protest-zone-untouched/2014/10/13/eb8c984c-5292-11e4-ba4b-f6333e2c0453_story.html

Hong Kong police remove some barricades but leave main protest zone untouched

 

Police removed barricades at the periphery of some of the pro-democracy protest sites in Hong Kong on Monday morning, in what they said was a bid to ease traffic congestion but not an attempt to end the pro-democracy sit-in.

 

The heart of the main protest zone remained untouched, but at one end the barricades had retreated around 100 yards, and protesters had moved tents back inside the main cordon.

 

Scores of police moved in at 5:30 a.m. on Monday, and by late morning dozens still stood guard around the edges of the main protest site. “Protesters are urged to remove the road barriers as soon as possible, and leave the scenes peacefully and orderly,” police said in a statement.

 

Outnumbered so early in the morning, protesters put up no resistance to the police action, witnesses said. But they soon regrouped, using bamboo poles to rebuild the barricades on one side road, after police argued the traffic barriers being used previously were government property, witnesses said.

 

The police action seemed more symbolic than a concerted attempt to clear the roads: Queensway, a major road adjacent to the main protest site, remains blocked even though there were only half a dozen protesters manning one section of barricades on Monday morning, with some of the barriers completely unmanned. Protesters said the police had not shown up there.

 

Meanwhile, the heart of the main protest site has a more permanent feel to it with every passing day, with tents, awnings, desks and mats stretching down the normally busy Harcourt Road, as students prepare to carry through on their threat for a “long-term occupation” if the government refuses to come to the negotiating table to discuss their demands for democracy.

 

https://twitter.com/AFP

BREAKING: Hong Kong demonstrators clash with dozens of masked men at main protest site

1:54 AM

 

https://twitter.com/SkyNewsBreak

AP: several hundred people have charged pro-democracy protesters' barricades in downtown Hong Kong

2:07 AM

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-29592881?OCID=twitterasia

Watching Hong Kong: Taiwan on guard against China

 

Hong Kong's Occupy Central demonstrations may be losing steam, but Taiwan's movement to resist China is only intensifying.

 

While improved ties with China in recent years have been welcomed by many here, others worry about Beijing's growing influence.

 

Its recent refusal to let Hong Kong decide who can run for chief executive confirms Taiwanese suspicions that China would never allow Taiwan to govern itself if the two sides reunified.

 

"Relations are now at a low point. It's not just because of Occupy Central. After [Taiwan's] own 18 March movement, people who are suspicious of Beijing have become more of the mainstream," said Kou Chien-wen, a political science professor at National Chengchi University.

 

"It's an accumulation of the past few years. So many agreements have been signed with China, but the ordinary person's income hasn't increased - of course that has to do with the poor distribution of wealth."

 

Fears that Taiwan could become another Hong Kong are growing also because China's President Xi Jinping seems more intent on reunifying with the island than his predecessor.

Mr Xi, the son of a communist revolutionary who helped found the People's Republic of China, believes China must reclaim territories such as Hong Kong and Taiwan, which were taken by foreign powers when it was weak.

 

Taiwan is next on the list. Mr Xi has said a final resolution must be reached and the issue cannot be passed down from one generation to another.

 

"Xi Jinping has indicated his sense of urgency," said Lai Chung-chiang, a lawyer and founder of Taiwan's Occupy Legislative Yuan, which in the spring stopped the legislature from approving a controversial trade deal with China.

 

"He has hinted that by the two 100th anniversaries - that of the founding of the People's Republic of China in 2049 and of the formation of the Communist Party of China in 2021 - there should be a certain level of resolution on the Taiwan issue."

[visionary]

http://newsok.com/hong-kong-police-clear-protesters-out-of-tunnel/article/feed/746801

Hong Kong police clear protesters out of tunnel

 

Hundreds of Hong Kong police officers have moved in to clear pro-democracy protesters out of a tunnel outside the city's government headquarters.

 

Officers, many of them in riot gear and wielding pepper spray, tore down barricades in and around the underpass early Monday.

 

The operation came hours after a large group of protesters blockaded the tunnel.

 

They outnumbered the police officers, who later returned with reinforcements to clear the area.

 

Local television broadcast live footage of the operation and its aftermath, with officers taking away dozens of protesters.

 

Democracy protesters have occupied key parts of the city for more than two weeks to pressure the government over curbs recommended by Beijing on democratic reforms.

[visionary]

https://en-maktoob.news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-leader-reopens-offer-talks-students-074840825.html

Hong Kong leader reopens offer of talks with students

 

Hong Kong's embattled leader reopened his offer of talks with student leaders Thursday a week after the government abruptly pulled out of discussions aimed at ending weeks of mass democracy rallies.

 

"Over the last few days, including this morning through third parties, we expressed a wish to the students that we would like to start a dialogue to discuss universal suffrage as soon as we can and hopefully within the following week," Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying told reporters.

 

The offer comes after a two day spike in violence between police and protesters in which video footage emerged of plainclothes officers beating a handcuffed demonstrator as he lay on the ground in a public park in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

 

The video caused widespread outrage among demonstrators who have previously accused police of using excessive violence and failing to protect their ranks from repeated assaults by government loyalists.

 

Leung refused to be drawn on the video saying: "We should not politicise this incident."

 

Protesters are calling for Leung to step down and for Beijing to rescind a decision made in August that his successor in 2017 must be vetted by a loyalist committee before standing for election -- something demonstrators have called "fake democracy".

 

But it remains to be seen what headway could be made in talks between the government and protesters as Leung reiterated that Beijing will not row back on its August decision.

"Politics is the art of the possible and we have to draw a line between possibilities and impossibilities," he said.

[visionary]

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/16/world/asia/hong-kong-protests/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Police launch dawn raid to clear Hong Kong protest zone

 

Hong Kong police moved at dawn on Friday to clear a major intersection occupied by pro-democracy protesters for almost three weeks, tearing down tents and dismantling barricades.

 

Around 500 to 600 police carrying wire cutters and riot shields stormed the site in the city's busy Mong Kok district, an offshoot of the main downtown protest area, catching the 200 protesters at the site off guard.

 

A CNN team at the scene said most protesters did not put up any resistance although one man appeared to be detained by police.

Police also used a crane to tear down makeshift structures erected by the protesters.

 

On Thursday, Hong Kong's leader C.Y. Leung said that the government was eager to resume talks with the main student group as early as next week.

However, he said the city's tolerance of mass sit-ins was limited and the standoff could not carry on.

 

Protesters continue to occupy a major thoroughfare in Admiralty, close to the city's financial district, but police have tried this week to retake the street by removing barricades.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/24/us-hongkong-china-idUSKCN0ID0AY20141024?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Protesters in Hong Kong to vote on government proposals

 

 Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong say they will hold a straw poll on government proposals they had rejected earlier in the week as the campaign in the Chinese-controlled city entered the fifth week on Friday.

 

With crowds likely to swell at the weekend, student leaders late on Thursday announced a plan for an electronic poll of protesters on reform proposals tabled by senior city government officials in talks on Tuesday that failed to break the deadlock.

 

"The government always says that the students don't represent the people in the plaza and Hong Kong citizens, so we are here to make all our voices heard and we will tell the government clearly what we think," Alex Chow, one of the students guiding the movement, told protesters late on Thursday.

 

Demonstrators would be asked whether the government's offer to submit a report to China's State Council, or cabinet, on the Occupy protests that have roiled Hong Kong, would have any practical purpose, with a bid to collating these responses to strengthen their bargaining position.

 

Friday marks the start of the fifth week since tens of thousands began blocking major roads to oppose to a plan by the Chinese central government to let Hong Kong people vote for their leader in 2017 for the first time but limit candidates to those vetted by a panel stacked with Beijing loyalists.

 

The United Nations Human Rights Committee on Thursday gave a boost to the protest movement by calling on China to ensure universal suffrage in Hong Kong, including the right to stand for election as well as the right to vote. Committee members voiced concerns about the right to stand without unreasonable restrictions, chiming with protester demands for civil nominations for the 2017 poll.

[visionary]

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/hong-kong-youngsters-protests-bring-taste-freedom-015651237.html

For Hong Kong youngsters, protests bring taste of freedom

 

A month on the streets has given young Hong Kong democracy protesters a taste of life outside the city's cramped shoebox apartments -- and away from the prying eyes of overprotective parents.

 

In this city of high tower blocks and even higher property prices, many Hong Kongers reach their 30s before they get married and move out of crowded family homes. Space, tranquillity and privacy are all in short supply in one of the most densely populated spots on earth.

 

But at the main protest camp outside government headquarters, where thousands of youngsters have been gathering since September 28 demanding free leadership elections, there's a little more room to breathe.

 

They may be camped on a concrete highway, but their sprawling tent city offers free snacks, a study area, and a place for young lovers to enjoy a late-night stroll.

 

There are suspicions that more goes on in some of these tents than earnest political debate, but bashful protesters insist it's simply a chance to make new friends with the same lust for democracy.

 

"It's just easier to break the ice and start a conversation here. It's very open," said Serene, who works as an office manager by day and comes to help run a supplies tent by night.

 

"And it helps having somewhere to hang out that's a bit different."

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/05/us-hongkong-china-idUSKBN0IP0I920141105?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

Hong Kong students fine-tune plan to take democracy call direct to Beijing

 

Students calling for full democracy for Chinese-ruled Hong Kong are hoping to take their protest to Communist Party rulers in Beijing and are expected to announce details of their new battle plan on Thursday.

 

The move signals a shift in the focus of the protests in the former British colony away from the Hong Kong government which has said it has limited room for maneuver.

 

But China is highly unlikely to allow any known pro-democracy activists into Beijing, especially if the trip coincides with this weekend's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Beijing.

 

"I think one of the ways we can solve this problem is to go to Beijing personally and have a direct dialogue with Beijing officials on this matter since the (Hong Kong) government claims that all decisions have to be passed up to the NPC," Alex Chow, leader of the Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS), said last week, referring to China's parliament, the National People's Congress.

 

The protesters blocked key roads leading into three of Hong Kong's most economically and politically important districts for weeks. The campaign drew well over 100,000 at its peak and hundreds remain camped out at the main protest site in Admiralty, home to government offices and next to the main financial district.

 

The HKFS has not yet said whether its planned trip was to coincide with APEC, which would mean, if allowed, it would take place in front of an audience of world leaders.

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/world/asia/labor-program-in-china-moves-to-scatter-uighurs-across-han-territory.html?smid=tw-nytimesworld&_r=0

Labor Program in China Moves to Scatter Uighurs Across Han Territory

 

As a winter chill settled across China’s far northwest, 489 people boarded a chartered train in the city of Urumqi for the 50-hour ride to the country’s opposite corner, in semitropical Guangdong Province, to take up new factory jobs.

 

“If I can adapt to life in Guangdong, I would consider opening a restaurant and settling down there,” said one passenger, Tahir Turghun, a farmer in his 30s, according to an article in the state-run newspaper Southern Daily. He said he had never traveled outside the western region of Xinjiang, and when the opportunity to work in Guangdong arose, he immediately registered himself and his wife.

 

As violence upends the social order in swaths of Xinjiang, where resistance to Beijing’s rule has been growing among ethnic Uighurs, officials there and elsewhere in China are pushing new measures — like chartering entire trains — to bring Uighurs and members of other ethnic minorities to parts of the country where the Han, the nation’s ruling ethnicity, are the majority.

 

Strengthening the labor export program is a major component of a push by the central government to try to assimilate Uighurs, a mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking people, into mainstream Han culture. But such programs have themselves contributed to past ethnic hostilities, including an explosive episode in 2009.

 

The policy comes from the top. At a two-day work forum on Xinjiang in May, President Xi Jinping expressed support for sending more Uighurs to work and be educated in Han areas “to enhance mutual understanding among different ethnic groups and boost ties between them,” according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency.

 

That was preceded by a conference in September 2013 in which other top party leaders called for local governments across China to help find work for members of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. (Uighurs in Xinjiang complain about losing jobs to Han migrants, whose relocations to the region are supported by the state.)

 

Assimilation is only one element of the party’s strategy to quell ethnic unrest in Xinjiang. Security forces there have arrested large numbers of Uighurs, saying some are terrorists, and courts have issued death sentences. In September, judges in Urumqi sentenced Ilham Tohti, a moderate Uighur professor of economics who lived in Beijing, to life imprisonment for what officials called separatist activities.

 

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/18/us-hongkong-china-idUSKCN0J225X20141118?utm_source=twitter

Hong Kong protesters break into government building as tensions flare again

 

A small group of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters broke into the city's legislature via a side door early on Wednesday, and police stopped others forcing their way in as tensions in the Chinese-controlled city escalated following a period of calm.

 

The flare-up came just hours after court bailiffs managed to clear part of a protest camp in the heart of the city that has been occupied by pro-democracy demonstrators for nearly two months, while leaving most of the main protest site intact.

 

About 100 riot police with helmets, batons and shields stood guard outside the government building in the early hours of Wednesday, facing off with protesters who are demanding free elections for the city's next leader in 2017.

 

It was the first time protesters had broken into a key public building, defying the expectations of many political analysts who had predicted that Hong Kong's most tenacious and protracted protest movement would slowly wind down. The escalation came in the early hours of Wednesday when a small group of protesters charged toward the legislature and used metal barricades and concrete tiles to ram a glass side door. They eventually smashed through, with several managing to get inside, according to witnesses.

Scores of riot police, some with shields and helmets, rushed over, using pepper spray and batons to keep other demonstrators from also smashing their way in.  A democratic lawmaker at the scene, Fernando Cheung, said he and other protesters had tried to stop the small group of radical activists from breaking through

[visionary]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/26/world/asia/hong-kong-police-protest-camp.html?smid=tw-share

Hong Kong Protesters Resist Attempt to Clear Mong Kok Site

 

Thousands of demonstrators surged into a Hong Kong neighborhood on Tuesday, defying a police attempt to shrink one of the protest camps that have filled some streets in the city for nearly two months. A display of official force early in the day gave way to a night of angry crowds facing off against police officers, some of them wielding batons and pepper spray.

 

Police officers had initially assembled on Tuesday to enforce a court injunction demanding that protesters stop blocking Argyle Street in Mong Kok, a crowded commercial neighborhood where demonstrators have camped since late September. Two sites in other areas of Hong Kong are also occupied by protesters, who are demanding fully democratic elections for the city’s leader.

 

The police did not try to clear Nathan Road, where most of the protesters in Mong Kok have been camping. Still, even with hundreds of officers mobilized, clearing the 50-yard stretch of Argyle Street took much of the day. Hundreds of demonstrators and supporters had crowded into the area, many of them walking the brief distance from Nathan Road.

 

In the middle of the afternoon, the police ordered protesters, onlookers and reporters to move aside and allow court bailiffs to clear the street. After issuing warnings over megaphones, the police advanced and dragged off some of the people who had not left.

 

“They did not want our reinforcements to come in the evening, after working hours, so they rushed to clear us off the street,” said Matthew Wong, a 24-year-old information technology worker who was among the protesters.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/06/us-china-corruption-idUSKCN0JJ1RV20141206?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews

China arrests ex-security chief for corruption, leaking secrets

 

Chinese authorities have arrested former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang and expelled him from the ruling Communist Party, accusing him of crimes ranging from accepting bribes to leaking state secrets and setting the stage for his trial.

 

Zhou, 71, is by far the highest-profile figure caught up in President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption.

 

He is also the most senior Chinese official to be ensnared in a graft scandal since the Communists swept to power in 1949 and the highest-ranking to be prosecuted since the fall of the Gang of Four in 1976 following the Cultural Revolution.

 

In a terse statement released by the official Xinhua news agency at midnight into Saturday, the party's elite, decision-making Politburo said Zhou's case had been handed over to judicial authorities.

 

The party began its probe into Zhou, one of China's most powerful politicians of the last decade, in July, following months of rumors and speculation that he was in trouble.

 

"The investigation found that Zhou seriously violated the party's political, organizational and confidentiality discipline," Xinhua said.

 

"He took advantage of his posts to seek profits for others and accepted huge bribes personally and through his family.