HONG KONG, July 7, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Anti-government protesters in Hong Kong
plan to rally later Sunday outside a controversial station where high-speed
trains depart for the Chinese mainland as they try to keep up pressure on the
city’s pro-Beijing leaders.
The rally is the first major protest planned since last Monday’s
unprecedented storming of parliament by largely young, masked protesters — a
move which plunged the international financial hub further into crisis.
Hong Kong has been rocked by a month of huge peaceful protests as well as a
series of separate violent confrontations with police, sparked by a law that
would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.
The bill has since been postponed in response to the intense backlash but
that has done little to quell public anger, which has evolved into a wider
movement calling for democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms in the
semi-autonomous city.
Protesters are demanding the bill be scrapped entirely, an independent
inquiry into police use of tear gas and rubber bullets, amnesty for those
arrested, and for the city’s unelected leader Carrie Lam to step down.
Beijing has thrown its full support behind Lam, calling on Hong Kong police
to pursue anyone involved in the parliament storming and other clashes.
– Aimed at mainlanders –
Sunday’s rally — first mooted on encrypted messaging apps and online
forums — is being billed as an opportunity to explain to Chinese mainlanders
in the city what the protest movement is about.
It is the first to take place in Kowloon, across the harbour from the main
island, and will begin at 3:00 pm (0700 GMT) in the Tsim Sha Tsui district,
which is popular with mainland Chinese tourists.
Inside the Chinese mainland, where news and information is heavily
censored, the Hong Kong protests have been portrayed as a primarily violent,
foreign-funded plot to destabilise the motherland.
“I hope this march can tell mainland people what we are fighting for and
plant a seed that opposes the tyranny,” one user wrote on the Reddit-like
LIHKG forum, which has been a key online gathering place for demonstrators.
Sunday’s rally is not being organised by the same protest group behind
three massive peaceful marches, making it difficult to predict the expected
crowd size.
The protest will later march to West Kowloon, a recently opened multi-
billion-dollar station that links to China’s high-speed rail network.
The terminus is controversial because Chinese law operates in the parts of
the station dealing with immigration and customs as well as the platforms,
even though West Kowloon is miles from the border further north.
Critics say that move gave away part of the city’s territory to an
increasingly assertive Beijing.
Local politician Ventus Lau Wing-hong, one of those organising the rally,
said they would “protest in a peaceful, rational and elegant way” adding
there was no desire to occupy the station given the catalyst for their
movement was opposing people being sent to the mainland.
But local authorities appeared to be taking no chances.
The station’s operator announced only passengers with existing tickets
would be allowed inside the building while all but two entrances would be
shuttered alongside restaurants and parking bays. New ticket sales were also
halted for Sunday.
Under Hong Kong’s mini-constitution — the Basic Law — China’s national
laws do not apply to the city apart from in limited areas, including defence.
Hong Kong also enjoys rights unseen on the mainland, including freedom of
speech, protected by a deal made before the city was handed back to China by
Britain in 1997.
But there are growing fears those liberties are being eroded.
Among recent watershed moments critics point to are the disappearance into
mainland custody of dissident booksellers, the disqualification of prominent
politicians, the de facto expulsion of a foreign journalist and the jailing
of democracy protest leaders.
Authorities have also resisted calls for the city’s leader to be directly
elected by the people.
A 79-day occupation of key intersections in 2014 calling for universal
suffrage failed to win any concessions from Beijing.