POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 152 (17-05=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 152:

Full coverage of the day’s events on 17-05

Reform crew looking at one million backers



A pro-Beijing alliance claims it has around a million signatures backing the political reform package being pushed by the administration.

The Alliance for Peace and Democracy started collecting signatures on May 9 through 1,000 booths, ending the campaign at 7 pm yesterday.

Spokesman Robert Chow Yung said about 960,000 signatures were collected in the first eight days, and he believed the million mark was reached. That will be seen when results are revealed this afternoon, though Chow said he already felt encouraged by the count.

Asked about it being considerably less than the 1.83 million signatures in a similar campaign in November, he said this time only "qualified voters" signed.

Meanwhile, pro- and anti- reform activists were again at loggerheads, this time beneath the Canal Road flyover in Wan Chai.

As the Defend Hong Kong Campaign was collecting signatures, about 15 members of democracy group Civic Passion arrived with yellow umbrellas and sounded off about signatures for "fake universal suffrage."

Police set up metal barricades to separate the rivals, and after 30 minutes the Defend group packed up their gear saying they wanted to avoid a more serious conflict.

Also yesterday, controversial Executive Council member and lawmaker Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said Beijing representatives should meet democrats before the reform package goes to a vote next month in the legislature.

Ip said she will make that view known to the vice chairman of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, Zhang Rongshun, who is meeting Hong Kong politicians in Shenzhen tomorrow.

Ip said she also hopes the pan- democrats could meet officials without too many assumptions.

She was worried, Ip said, that if the package is passed with the backing of four or five pan- democrats there could be a confrontation outside the legislature.

Peking University law professor Rao Geping had said there was room for discussion for the nominating committee to change corporate votes to individual votes, and Ip said this might be through legislation. But it needed to be discussed after the vote.

But Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said such thoughts were trivial as he and 10 other democrats campaigned in Central against the "pass the reform now and changes can follow" idea. They also delivered their message in Spanish, French and Japanese.

Coconuts

HongKong