Occupy Central
Occupy Central is a civil disobedience movement which began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It calls on thousands of protesters to block roads and paralyse Hong Kong's financial district if the Beijing and Hong Kong governments do not agree to implement universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020 according to "international standards." The movement was initiated by Benny Tai Yiu-ting (戴耀廷), an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, in January 2013.
Umbrella Movement
The Umbrella Movement (Chinese: 雨傘運動; pinyin: yǔsǎn yùndòng) is a loose political movement that was created spontaneously during the Hong Kong protests of 2014. Its name derives from the recognition of the umbrella as a symbol of defiance and resistance against the Hong Kong government, and the united grass-roots objection to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) of 31 August.
The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.
The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.
Occupy Central site in an area surrounding the Legislative Council and Central Government Offices at Tamar were cleared 22-06-2015.
Hong Kong reform vote
The Hong Kong government’s political reform proposal for how the city elects its leader by universal suffrage for the first time in 2017 is based on a strict framework set by Beijing. The plan limits the number of candidates to two or three and requires them to win majority support from a 1,200 strong nominating committee. Arguing that this does not constitute genuine universal suffrage, pan-democratic lawmakers have vowed to reject the package, while pro-democracy groups have protested. The government’s resolution was to be put to a vote by the 70-member Legislative Council in June 2015, requiring a two-thirds majority to be passed.
POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 205
POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 20
POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 20
Full coverage of the day’s events on 08-07
Fury as CY pushes for funding
Pan-democratic legislators have accused Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying of trying to turn the Finance Committee into an instrument for his private use.
The accusation came after he asked committee chairman Tommy Cheung Yu-yan to hold five extra meetings next week to approve funding for the Innovation and Technology Bureau.
To back his request, Leung said the committee has held two meetings in the past two weeks that saw only six of 11 applications for funding on livelihood- related issues approved.
He accused some lawmakers of continuing with their filibustering tactic in asking for the extra meetings from July 14 to 18 to scrutinize remaining projects.
Leung had earlier reshuffled the agenda to put 11 funding requests for livelihood issues ahead of the bureau after the Legislative Council voted down the political reform proposal.
Cheung said he will consult his colleagues first on the request.
But the Labour Party's Lee Cheuk- yan described Leung's move as "violently" trying to force the lawmakers into passing the funding proposal for the IT bureau.
People Power's Albert Chan Wai-yip declared an "all-out war" and vowed to launch another filibuster. "We are confident that the bureau will not be set up before July 18," Chan said.
The Civic Party's Alan Leong Kah- kit accused Leung of treating the committee as a machine to serve himself.
But Federation of Trade Unions' Wong Kwok-hing said he supports the extra meetings.
On the issue of the recently passed national security law, Leung said there is a consensus in the legal sector that the law will not be applied in Hong Kong.
He said the People's Liberation Army's Hong Kong garrison had the responsibility to defend the SAR and that people should not overinterpret its live- fire military drills on Saturday.
He also played down speculation that President Xi Jinping has endorsed Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun- wah to run in the 2017 chief executive election by shaking hands with him during the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank meeting in Beijing.
Coconuts
People Power legislator Albert Chan charged with obstructing police
People Power legislator Albert Chan Wai-yip was on Wednesday charged with obstructing police officers during a small protest outside the China Liaison Office last June.
He is due to appear in Eastern Court next Friday.
His political party this morning demonstrated outside Western District Police Station in support of Chan, displaying a banner that said: “Civil disobedience is not a crime; shame on political prosecution”.
Chan was one of four activists notified on Monday that they would be arrested in relation to last year’s demonstration outside Hong Kong’s China Liaison Office, when protesters were seen burning replicas of the Chinese State Council white paper on “One Country, Two Systems”.
Vice-chairman of the League of Social Democrats Raphael Wong was charged on Tuesday with obstructing police, under the “Offence Against the Person Ordinance” and faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison.
Student activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung and leader of Hong Kong Federation of Students Nathan Law Kwun-chung have yet to report to police.
The white paper on One Country, Two Systems emphasised China’s “overall jurisdiction” over Hong Kong, and stated that the city would only enjoy autonomy in areas decided upon by the Chinese government.
Critics argued that the paper undermined the One Country, Two Systems agreement, and said China was eroding freedoms guaranteed to Hong Kong until 2047.
HKFrontline
China stock market freezing up as sell-off gathers pace
SHANGHAI |
China's tumbling stock market showed signs of seizing up on Wednesday, as companies scrambled to escape the rout by having their shares suspended and indexes plunged after the securities regulator warned of "panic sentiment" gripping investors.
Beijing, which has struggled for more than a week to bend the market to its will, unveiled yet another battery of measures to arrest the sell-off, and the People's Bank of China said it would step up support to brokerages enlisted to prop up shares.
The CSI300 index .CSI300 of the largest listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen closed down 6.8 percent, while the Shanghai Composite Index .SSEC dropped 5.9 percent.
With nearly half the market on a trading halt and another round of margin calls forcing leveraged investors to dump whatever shares could find a buyer, blue chips that had been supported by stabilization funds earlier in the week bore the brunt.
"I've never seen this kind of slump before. I don't think anyone has. Liquidity is totally depleted," said Du Changchun, an analyst at Northeast Securities.
"Originally, many wanted to hold blue chips. But since so many small caps are suspended from trading, the only way to reduce risk exposure is to sell blue chips."
More than 30 percent has been knocked off the value of Chinese shares since mid-June, and for some global investors the fear that China's market turmoil will destabilize the real economy is now a bigger risk than the crisis in Greece.
"Also, the ripple effect from the market correction has yet to show up," wrote Bank of America Merrill Lynch analysts in a note. "We expect slower growth, poorer corporate earnings, and a higher risk of a financial crisis."
Commodities markets reflected growing concerns about the broader health of the world's second largest economy, with copper prices falling to a six-year low, Shanghai nickel futures sliding by their 5 percent daily limit, and oil falling toward $56 a barrel, near a three month-low.
TRADING HALTS
More than 500 China-listed firms announced trading halts on the Shanghai and Shenzhen exchanges on Wednesday, taking total suspensions to about 1,300 - 45 percent of the market or roughly $2.4 trillion worth of stock - as companies scuttled to sit out the carnage.
With so many small-cap companies sheltering on the sidelines, the ChiNext growth board .CHINEXTC, which has seen some of the biggest swings in valuations, fell a modest 0.8 percent.
The plunge in China's previously booming stock markets, which had more than doubled in the year to mid-June, is a major headache for President Xi Jinping and China's top leaders, who are already grappling with slowing growth.
Beijing's interventionist response has also raised questions about its ability to enact the market liberalization steps that are a centerpiece of its economic reform agenda.
China has orchestrated brokerages and fund managers to promise to buy billions of dollars' worth of stocks, helped by a state-backed margin finance company which the central bank pledged on Wednesday to provide sufficient liquidity.
The securities regulator said the Securities Finance Corp had provided 260 billion yuan ($41.8 billion) to 21 brokerages, though that sum is only 40 percent of the amount of leveraged positions that investors have cut since June 18.
RETAIL INVESTORS
Unlike other major stock markets, which are dominated by professional money managers, retail investors account for around 85 percent of China trade, which exacerbates volatility.
"It's uncommon to see so many shares posting consecutive daily limit falls, and the index futures swinging so wildly," said Wang Feng, CEO and founder of hedge fund firm Alpha Squared Capital Co and a former Wall Street trader.
"It's a stampede. And the problem of the market is that all the players move in the same direction, and are too emotional."
A surprise interest-rate cut by the central bank at the end of June, relaxations in margin trading and other "stability measures" have done little to calm investors.
The barrage of official commentary and new support measures continued throughout Wednesday's trading session, without visible effect.
Deng Ge, a spokesman for the China Securities Regulatory Commission, said in remarks posted on its official channel on Weibo, China's version of Twitter, that there had been a big increase in "irrational selling" of stocks.
Government agencies also announced that insurers would be allowed to by more blue chips and urged major shareholders and top executives to buy their own shares.
But the market sell-off has extended beyond the mainland, with Chinese stocks on U.S. exchanges falling as much as 6.1 percent on Tuesday, according to the Bank of New York Mellon index of such securities .BKCN.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index .HSI fell 5.8 percent, with shares of Chinese brokerages taking a heavy beating.
"Investors are extremely unimpressed with their sudden conscription into national service, and you can see that in their share prices," said Matthew Smith, a strategist who covers the China financials sector for Macquarie.
(Additional reporting by Pete Sweeney, Kazunori Takada and Adam Jourdan in Shanghai, Shu Zhang and Nicholas Heath in Beijing and Umesh Desai, Saikat Chatterjee and Michelle Chen in Hong Kong; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Will Waterman)
沒有留言:
張貼留言