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.
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 188
POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 4
POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 4
Full coverage of the day’s events on 22-06
Time up for Tamar tent villagers
Protesters occupying an area surrounding the Legislative Council and Central Government Offices at Tamar were issued notices to leave the area.
Officers of the Lands Department, accompanied by police officers on standby, posted notices on Tim Mei Avenue and the section of Harcourt Road under the footbridge of Admiralty Centre yesterday morning, requesting protesters to vacate the "Tent Village" by tomorrow. Notices were also slipped into tents.
Around 50 tents still remained when the notices were distributed and some protesters were seen packing and preparing to leave the area.
An elderly man, surnamed Wong, 71, who has camped in the area since last September, said he planned to leave after the universal suffrage proposal was rejected. "Everything has its beginning and ending, we see this as an initial success," he said.
After tomorrow, officials will clear the area and all property, including the tents, will not be retrievable and will become government property.
Meanwhile, between 1,000 and 2,000 police officers will be deployed to handle any possible disturbances for the annual July 1 march organized by the Civil Human Rights Front.
Sources said the police team for march will mostly be officers from the Hong Kong Island emergency squad. All instructions will be made by Hong Kong Island police chiefs and contingency arrangements will be in effect on July 1, but may be extended if there is trouble
Being the top leader and supervisor of the three lawmakers and members of his cabinet who joined the walkout, Leung Chun-ying (inset) should be blamed for the veto of the election bill. Photos: HKEJ
CY Leung must bear all the blame for the political reform fiasco
The resounding veto of the government’s election bill last Thursday has unquestionably incurred Beijing’s wrath, while sparking widespread astonishment in the international community.
Despite their superficial unison in denouncing pan-democrats, those who boycotted the voting are now engaged in a furious blame game, slamming their own teammates while declining responsibility for the outcome.
They’re now in the doghouse. They had agreed to submit themselves to Beijing to hoodwink Hongkongers into accepting a sham universal suffrage package in exchange for power and benefits, but it would be naïve to expect them to switch sides after what happened.
They have been really busy since then. Some rushed to China’s Liaison Office in Sai Wan to express their apologies and pledge their continued allegiance. (After all, without their mainland masters, they couldn’t have secured their Legco seats.)
Others opened fire at the eight members (mainly from the Liberal Party headed by James Tien Pei-chun) who ignored the walkout call and voted. Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee and Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung even shed tears in public and voiced their profound remorse.
One can only marvel at their performance.
As for the question of who should be made accountable for the fiasco, the traditional Chinese philosophy in politics and governance suggests that when there is a blunder of this magnitude, ultimately it is always the top official who must bear all the blame.
So in the case of the landslide veto, all the scorn should be poured on Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.
The reason is that three of the 33 pro-establishment lawmakers who failed to vote “yes” for the bill — Jeffrey Lam, Regina Ip and Starry Lee Wai-king — are members of the Executive Council, Leung’s cabinet.
In other words, they are all Leung’s direct subordinates. Through them, Leung can lead the legislature’s pro-government bloc, which is a vital vehicle to ensure an executive-led governance mechanism under the Basic Law.
The irony is that while the blame game among these lawmakers continues with no one prepared to accept responsibility and resign, Leung has called on everyone to focus on the economy and people’s livelihood issues, as if he had nothing to do with the bill’s overwhelming defeat.
As for the broader picture, Hong Kong has been in a steady decline since the handover but the pace has become precipitous — either in public sentiment, the economy or the political atmosphere — since Leung took over the helm.
The Pearl of the Orient is losing its glow. To sort out what exactly is causing all our woes may be unrealistic but we won’t be very much off the mark if we attribute the three years of troubles to Leung.
Some people believe the fiasco won’t be resolved unless some key figure is ousted from the political sphere. Also, there are conflicting views as to whether Leung should be given a second term.
Many are keen on his immediate expulsion but some fear that given Beijing’s stubbornness — it won’t yield to pressure even if it has done something woefully wrong — the current crisis can only deteriorate further before Beijing sees the need to alter its policy towards the territory.
Leung has only two more years to go and it’s about time Beijing considered the question: Should Leung be reappointed in 2017 or not?
Leung’s loyalty would be the biggest reason for Beijing to grant him a second term. But considering the damage he had done in the past few years, how much more suffering would he put Hong Kong through if he got another five years.
Hongkongers, if they became so desperate, might even rise in rebellion and push for independence.
The pan-democrats need to cement their support for a single candidate so as to retain Ronny Tong's New Territories East seat in Legco. Photo: HKEJ
Legco by-election could test solidarity of democrats
Now that Ronny Tong Ka-wah has announced his resignation from the Legislative Council with effect from Oct. 1, the government is expected to announce soon a by-election to fill the vacancy.
The by-election will become the first barometer of public opinion after Legco voted down the Beijing-designed electoral reform package last week.
Pan-democrats have been discussing for a long time a possible by-election in an attempt to allow the people of Hong Kong to express their views on electoral reform through their votes.
Now, they have got a chance to achieve that goal, even though voting will be limited to the residents of the New Territories East geographical constituency.
The results should offer a picture of the latest public opinion on the issue.
In fact, the by-election can test public opinion in many dimensions; for example, the rise of localist groups and the fast penetration of the Hong Kong independence mindset among young people.
But now the government’s electoral reform has been killed, it may be difficult for pan-democrats or the pro-establishment camps to compete for the seat relying solely on a political agenda.
The democrats can no longer shout the slogan “fight for universal suffrage” in the coming election, as they voted down the reform package last week and they have no power to urge Beijing to reinitiate the reform process.
What the democrats can focus on in the election could be the upholding of the core values of Hong Kong, their discontent with Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, as well as the escalating intervention of Beijing into Hong Kong’s affairs.
That could turn the by-election into a referendum on the Leung administration in the past three years.
The pan-democrats, who won the New Territories East constituency in the 2012 Legco election, need to cement their support for a single candidate so as to retain the seat.
The pro-establishment camp could also face a tough battle in the by-election, as the walkout last week raised the awareness of some of their supporters in the “silent majority” that the pro-Beijing politicians have failed to perform in their supporters’ interest but have instead chosen to follow “big brother” blindly.
That could lead politically neutral voters to abandon their support for the pro-establishment camp and shift it back to the democrats.
New Territories East covers many new private housing estates built for the middle class, which could be a swing factor in favor of the pro-establishment camp in the by-election.
But it is likely that Beijing will play a dirty game in the election campaign by attacking pan-democratic candidates for their participation in the “illegal” Occupy campaign, their close ties with Next Media founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying — who has made large donations to their cause — and for their lack of loyalty to the motherland, which the Communist Party sees as amounting to a mindset favoring independence for Hong Kong.
However, these tactics may not work well after the defeat of the electoral reform plan, as people have seen the drawbacks of blind loyalty to the Communist Party.
Localist groups like Civic Passion and others who took an aggressive front-line role in the 79-day Occupy campaign could seize the opportunity to introduce their political vision during the by-election in an attempt to win greater trust among the public and differentiate themselves from the political veterans.
Some political observers say the by-election could embroil Hong Kong in another round of political argument, contrary to the government’s declared desire to refocus on livelihood issues and avoid the further fragmentation of society by political debate.
People Power lawmaker Albert Chan Wai-yip said Tong’s resignation will create “another crisis” for the pan-democrats, who will have to act to safeguard their influence in Legco through the majority that they hold of the geographical constituency seats.
The pan-democrats hold 18 out of 35 geographical seats, versus 17 held by pro-establishment lawmakers, so it might be crucial for the pan-democrats to retain Tong’s seat.
If the by-election turned out to be a showdown between one pan-democrat and one Beijing loyalist, it could reveal clearly the degree to which Hongkongers support each of the two camps.
The pan-democrats should show their solidarity and commitment to their supporters by sparing no effort to keep the seat and maintain a strong opposition.
Li Ka-shing has declined to comment in detail on political issues, but said he is disappointed over the veto of the government's electoral reform bill. Photo: RTHK
Li Ka-shing ‘very disappointed’ with electoral reform bill veto
Tycoon Li Ka-shing said on Tuesday that he is “very disappointed” with the failure of the Hong Kong government’s electoral reform bill in the legislature last week.
Talking to reporters following a shareholders’ meeting of his group flagship CK Hutchison Holdings, Li made it clear that he is not happy that the political reform plan was voted down by lawmakers.
When asked who he thinks should shoulder the biggest responsibility for the failure of the plan related to the chief executive election, Li declined to identify anyone, RTHK reported.
However, he pointed out that “everyone in Hong Kong is discussing” the issue.
Li refused to go into detail on political issues, but made some comments on the business environment.
Hong Kong still offers opportunities to do business, he said, adding that he has no plans to pull money out of the city.
Although his group has sold some assets recently, it doesn’t signal any aim to reduce the exposure in Hong Kong, the billionaire said.
It is very common for a group that makes regular acquisitions to sell some assets from time to time, Li said, adding that providing value to shareholders is his top priority.
LegCo veteran Ronny Tong quits Civic Party over ideological rift
Legislator Ronny Tong announced this afternoon that he is resigning from LegCo and the Civic Party (the pan-democratic party that he co-founded in 2006) over growing differences in values.
The decision was first announced to party members earlier today in an internal message in which Tong said that his goal to achieve a middle ground between pro-democracy Hongkongers and Beijing is no longer shared by the Civic Party.
“At the end of 2009, I had started to notice [that] the line the Civic Party [was] taking [was] deviating from its founding value. I had hoped, through my effort, to inspire the party [to look beyond] the sternest pro-democracy supporters and try to win over moderate Hongkongers too in order to strengthen the democratic movement,” he penned.
Tong also said that the decision to leave his party, the third largest in LegCo, was a “painful” one in a tear-choked press conference this afternoon.
In recent years, Tong’s moderate viewpoint on achieving universal suffrage in Hong Kong by forging a strong relationship with Beijing has caused tension between him and other party members.
Tong said in his letter that he has no hope that Hongkongers would accept democratic reforms presented by Beijing anytime in the future.
“Unfortunately after continuous efforts throughout these five years, it has [been] proven that it is only my personal political idea that is too far away and realistic,” the letter said.
Tong came to prominence in 2002 with his opposition to Article 23, a law that would have allowed the government to prohibit subversion against Beijing.
He created the Civic Party alongside five other members of LegCo in March 2006 in an effort to realise universal suffrage in the territory. Since then, he has represented the New Territories East constituency.
Earlier this month, Tong established a think-tank on political development called “Path to Democracy.”
He will continue to work with other pan-democrats and academics in discussing alternative ways to achieve democracy in Hong Kong.
The decision was first announced to party members earlier today in an internal message in which Tong said that his goal to achieve a middle ground between pro-democracy Hongkongers and Beijing is no longer shared by the Civic Party.
“At the end of 2009, I had started to notice [that] the line the Civic Party [was] taking [was] deviating from its founding value. I had hoped, through my effort, to inspire the party [to look beyond] the sternest pro-democracy supporters and try to win over moderate Hongkongers too in order to strengthen the democratic movement,” he penned.
Tong also said that the decision to leave his party, the third largest in LegCo, was a “painful” one in a tear-choked press conference this afternoon.
In recent years, Tong’s moderate viewpoint on achieving universal suffrage in Hong Kong by forging a strong relationship with Beijing has caused tension between him and other party members.
Tong said in his letter that he has no hope that Hongkongers would accept democratic reforms presented by Beijing anytime in the future.
“Unfortunately after continuous efforts throughout these five years, it has [been] proven that it is only my personal political idea that is too far away and realistic,” the letter said.
Tong came to prominence in 2002 with his opposition to Article 23, a law that would have allowed the government to prohibit subversion against Beijing.
He created the Civic Party alongside five other members of LegCo in March 2006 in an effort to realise universal suffrage in the territory. Since then, he has represented the New Territories East constituency.
Earlier this month, Tong established a think-tank on political development called “Path to Democracy.”
He will continue to work with other pan-democrats and academics in discussing alternative ways to achieve democracy in Hong Kong.
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