POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 37 (21-01-2015)

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.

Occupy Central site in Causeway Bay was cleared as police moved in  ...

POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 37: 

Full coverage of the day’s events

Police refuse Jimmy Lai's request to 'charge me immediately', for organising Occupy protest

Next Media founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was arrested for his role in Occupy Central protests but allowed to go free after reporting to police for a pre-scheduled meeting.

Allow us to live in UK, BNO holders demand



Thousands of Hongkongers with British National Overseas passports are pushing for the right to live in Britain - but there are no signs they will get their way.
About 400,000 Hong Kong residents hold BNO passports, which means they can enter Britain without a visa and get consular help when abroad, but have no right to live there.

Hongkongers were offered a special British National Overseas status in 1997 to calm those who feared for their future under Beijing's rule.

BritishHongKong, a non-profit organization, is campaigning for holders to have the right to live in the country.

It has written to members of parliament and made a statement to a parliamentary inquiry into Hong Kong's post- handover relationship with Britain.

"It is an extra option for Hong Kong people. It's a right they deserve," says Sampson Noble, a 30-year-old who runs the BritishHongKong campaign group, which has 3,000 members in its online forum. "I was born British. It should not relate to my ethnicity."

Frustrated Hongkongers are joining the calls for Britain to offer them an escape route in the wake of increasing social and political tension following the Occupy Central movement last year.

Joe Li Kin-cho, an immigration consultant at the Global Path Overseas Studies Centre in Hong Kong, said inquiries from Hongkongers looking to immigrate have doubled in the past six months.

"It has been increasing since Occupy Central. Inquiries have increased by 100 percent, which was unexpected," he said.

"People are very worried."

Destinations such as the United States, Canada and Australia remain popular, but Taiwan and Singapore are also attractive as they are cheaper.

It costs only about HK$2.3 million to immigrate to Taiwan, while it costs HK$10 million to move to Singapore.

Li said citizens are concerned about political and social instability from the Occupy movement.

"Some will call us and say their democratic freedom has been reduced, while others say the protesters have ruined what they like about Hong Kong," he said.

Another BritishHongKong campaigner, Humphrey Lau, said the British still continue to discriminate against Hongkongers.

"We were ruled for 156 years and we are being discriminated against," he said. "There is a feeling of being betrayed."

Facebook page "BNO Concern," which also calls for the right of BNO passport holders to live in Britain, has more than 6,000 likes, with users dismissing their status as "rubbish" and pushing for change.

"How can we trust the UK any more? UK returned HK to China without any consent of the HK people," wrote Stanley Lam.

"Also the UK rejected the right of abode in the UK for all HK British people. Shame on UK!!!"

Despite the growing calls, there is no sign that Britain will change its immigration rules.

"There are currently no plans to amend British nationality legislation to give holders of BNO status the right of abode in the UK or to extend the right to apply for BNO status," a consulate spokeswoman said.



Arrest and then release for Jimmy Lai



Next Media founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying was arrested and released without charge yesterday after refusing bail.

Lai was among 32 people invited by the police earlier this month to assist a probe into the 79-day Occupy Central movement in Admiralty, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay that ended on December 14.

Lai arrived at Wan Chai police headquarters accompanied by two lawyers before 9am. He stayed at police headquarters for about 2 hours, during which he was shown video footage of the movement.


The atmosphere of the meeting was good, Lai told reporters after he refused bail and was released with no charges laid against him.

But the police retain the right to prosecute later, he said.

Next Media chief executive and publisher Ip Yut- kin, who waited for Lai outside, denied the arrest would affect the company and said measures were not taken to step up security.

"He has resigned from all his previous posts," Ip said.

Lai stepped down as company chairman last month, just before the Occupy movement ended with the clearance of the Causeway Bay protest site.

The paper's associate publisher, Cheung Kim- hung, also waited for Lai but there were no signs of pan-democratic lawmakers.

In contrast, Civil Human Rights Front convener Johnson Yeung Ching-yin was accompanied by a band of supporters waving banners and yellow umbrellas.

Like others, Yeung was shown video footage and released after he had refused bail. He was silent throughout the meeting.

Outside the police headquarters, Yeung expressed concern that the police may again adopt similar methods of "arrests by appointment" in the future.

Both Lai and Yeung were arrested on suspicion of organizing and taking part in an illegal assembly.

Meanwhile, the Occupy organizing trio Benny Tai Yiu-ting, Chan Kin-man and Chu Yiu-ming will report to the police on Saturday.


A second round of arrests by appointment is expected to include 50 others.



Mainland laws pointless for now 


Introducing the mainland's national security laws to Hong Kong is inappropriate at present as they may contradict the SAR's legal system, former secretary of justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie said.

Leung, who is vice chairwoman of the Basic Law Committee, said laws adopted in Hong Kong must be clear and spell out the penalties that come with violating them.

Leung said under Article 18 of the Basic Law, national laws can only be applied in the SAR in times of war, a state of emergency or turmoil that is beyond the Hong Kong government's control.


She said it is a waste of time to talk about something that does not exist, nor is it necessary at this stage to introduce laws connected with Article 18.

A local deputy to the National People's Congress, Ng Chau-pei, caused an outcry by earlier suggesting that national security laws be introduced to plug the "loophole" caused by a lack of legislation on the anti- subversion Article 23.
Basic Law Committee member Maria Tam Wai-chu said legislation of Article 23 will benefit Hong Kong.

"The public may think that Article 23 will be harmful to us, but actually it will benefit us. This is because the consultation, legislation, interpretation and introduction will all be handled inside Hong Kong."

As such, the public will understand more clearly the process of legislation, and it will be accepted by society if passed by the Legislative Council, Tam said.

Executive Council member Andrew Liao Cheung-sing said the loophole will be a problem if moves to enact Article 23 are not started, adding the government has no plans to introduce such legislation.

In a related development, People's Daily slammed the Undergrad magazine of the Hong Kong University Students' Union, for allegedly advocating independence for Hong Kong.





An editorial in the daily said while the magazine claimed it was raising academic ideas to improve political awareness, the article had shown its true colors.