Thread: Hong Kong on High Alert as Showdown Looms

Air rifles seized along with explosives are displayed during a news conference at police
headquarters in Hong Kong on June 15, 2015. (Reuters photo)

Bangkok Post / Reuters
June 16, 2015

HONG KONG — Hong Kong's leader warned on Tuesday that violence will not be tolerated, a day after authorities arrested 10 people and seized suspected explosives ahead of a crucial vote on a China-backed electoral reform package this week.

Security has been stepped up across the Chinese-ruled city, including at government buildings and train stations, as it braces for a fresh showdown over plans for how its next leader is elected in 2017.

Authorities are taking no chances after mass pro-democracy protests crippled parts of the former British colony late last year and presented China's Communist Party leadership with one of its biggest political challenges in decades.

"Hong Kong society should not tolerate any illegal activities. Whether these are violent or non-violent, we should not allow any illegal activities to be justified," Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in a televised briefing ahead of the weekly Executive Council meeting.

Ten people were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to manufacture explosives, police said on Monday, adding that some belonged to a radical group. They did not elaborate and no charges have been laid.

Hong Kong's legislature is due to begin debate on the electoral reform package in the Legislative Council on Wednesday, with a vote due by the end of the week. Pro-democracy protesters are staging evening rallies throughout the week.

Beijing has proposed a direct vote for Hong Kong's next leader in 2017, but only from among pre-screened, pro-Beijing candidates. Democracy activists say they want a genuinely democratic vote.

"If the pan-democrats stubbornly insist on vetoing the proposal, democracy in Hong Kong will come to a standstill," said Song Ru'an, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official in Hong Kong.

full article: Hong Kong on high alert as showdown looms | Bangkok Post: news

Air rifles and firecrackers?

A banner depicting a picture of Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying with word "Reject"
is displayed outside the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, Thursday. (AP photo)

Bangkok Post
June 18, 2015

HONG KONG — Pro-democracy lawmakers Thursday rejected the China-backed election plan for the city that set off almost three-months of protests last year that captured the world’s attention.

Twenty-eight lawmakers, known as pan-democrats, voted against the proposal in the legislature, denying Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying the two- thirds majority needed for its passage.

If the limited reforms were passed, "there won't be incentive and pressure to amend the system" any further, legislator Alan Leong, member of the alliance of pro-democracy parties, warned on Wednesday when the motion was opened at the Legislative Council.

The reform would have allowed the direct election of the city's next chief executive, but from a list of candidates pre-approved by Beijing. The pan-democrats want publicly nominated candidates.

The rejection leaves in place the current system where the chief executive is chosen by a 1,200-strong committee of Hong Kong's mostly Beijing-friendly political and economic elites, rather than by the city's voters.

"It's the end of this chapter but the beginning of another struggle -- a struggle for democracy," Emily Lau, chairwoman of Hong Kong's Democratic Party, who voted against the plan, said before the vote. "We will continue our struggle in a dignified and peaceful way."

The result was a defeat for the Hong Kong government and China, which laid out the guidelines for the electoral reform last year. Those proposals brought thousands of demonstrators into the streets for a nearly three-month Occupy Central protest that ultimately failed to convince the Communist Party to allow fully free elections.

"We should put aside our differences and start afresh after today," Chief Secretary Carrie Lam said as lawmakers prepared to vote. "I feel sorrow that the electoral reform is going to be vetoed."

The government needed at least 47 of the 70 lawmakers to vote in favour of the proposals. At the last moment, most of lawmakers from parties that support Beijing walked out of the legislature chamber and did not cast any votes.

HK lawmakers reject Beijing-backed election plan | Bangkok Post: news