POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 81 (06-03-2015)

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 81: 

Full coverage of the day’s events on 06-03

London urged to push Beijing on safeguarding HK’s fundamental rights



Hong Kong's high degree of autonomy from China is being “eroded,’’ an influential committee of British MPs warned today, voicing concern about the former colony's “direction of travel.’’

In a report on Britain's relations with Hong Kong, the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee warned the city could face a “crisis of governance'' unless tensions over how it is ruled are resolved.

Last year, there were weeks of protests after China announced that candidates in the selection of the next leader in a 2017 would be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee.

Members of parliament were barred from entering Hong Kong by China in December to research the report as the demonstrations continued. Chinese officials accused them of acting as a colonial power.

The committee's chairman Richard Ottaway said that, while it could not force China to change its behavior, it could offer guidance.

“It's almost advice to China from a country that's had a democracy for hundreds of years – that if you offer the people a bit of democracy, they're going to want the whole lot and that until they get a complete package of democracy, this is going to be a continuing problem for them,’’ he told AFP.

Under the Joint Declaration signed in 1984 which set out the terms of Britain's 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, the city is governed under the principle of “one country, two systems.’’

This means that Hong Kong, a major international financial center, has a string of political, social and economic freedoms not enjoyed on the Chinese mainland.
Ottaway said his committee's “real concern is that a high degree of autonomy is being eroded’’ – particularly over political reforms and press freedoms.

“This delicate balance has recently come under strain amidst debate over Hong Kong's political and constitutional future,'' the report said.

“This, in turn, fuels our concern about Hong Kong's overall direction of travel.’’
The committee's report also urged the British government to press China harder to ensure that “fundamental rights’’ are protected.

President Xi Jinping is visiting Britain later this year and whoever is prime minister after May's general election should use the occasion to push the issue, the report said.

The state visit would be a good opportunity “to convey to the Chinese government that really, it's not in their interests to go on the way they are,'' Ottaway said.