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Leading Hong Kong activists charged for Tiananmen vigil gathering
HONG KONG (AFP) - Thirteen prominent Hong Kong democracy activists appeared in court on Monday (July 13) charged with holding an unauthorised gathering to mark the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the latest in a string of prosecutions against protest leaders in the restless financial hub.
Protests and troops...in Hong Kong
For 30 years, citizens of Hong Kong have gathered in Victoria Park on the evening of June 4 to honor the peaceful protesters massacred in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on that date in 1989. It has been the only public Tiananmen commemoration permitted on Chinese soil.
This year, the park was surrounded by barricades to keep people out. The officially stated reason for the shut-down? Crowds spread coronavirus. (In this city of more than 7 million, COVID has so far killed four people.)
Many in Hong Kong doubt the official explanation, and thousands decided to ignore the ban on gatherings and hold their candlelight vigil anyway. Outside a few incidents involving pepper spray, police look to have kept their distance. Many of Thursdays protesters appeared to have observed rules on social distancing.
But on this June 4, Hong Kong's legislative council also voted to criminalize "insults" to China's national anthem. And late last month, China announced a new security law that would criminalize "sedition" and "subversion" — as defined by Beijing. Now, for the first time, Chinese security forces will be allowed to operate in Hong Kong and enforce those laws.
A group called the Hong Kong Alliance put it like this: "The National Security Law is like a knife to the neck of all Hong Kong people. Even if it only cuts a few, it threatens the freedom of all 7 million people. It is the implementing of rule by fear in Hong Kong."
Back in 1997, when Hong Kong formally passed from Britain to China, Beijing agreed in an international treaty to allow Hong Kongers to keep their rights to freedom of speech and assembly. The new security laws would allow Chinese soldiers to strip Hong Kong's people of those rights. This year the excuse to block peaceful protest is COVID-19. Next year, democracy activists warn, Beijing will come up with something else. And after months of demonstrations and crackdowns over the mainland's attempts to gain firmer control over Hong Kong, there is almost no trust now between pro-democracy activists, police, and Beijing.
This is a landmark moment in Hong Kong's history. The city's residents are left to wonder what's next for their streets and how the outside world will respond. Earlier this week, seven former UK foreign secretaries called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to form a global alliance in support of Hong Kong, and Johnson later announced plans to create a "route to citizenship" for millions of Hong Kongers who want to leave the territory. China's foreign minister responded: "We advise the UK to step back from the brink, abandon their Cold War mentality and colonial mindset, and recognize and respect to the fact that Hong Kong has returned" to China.
For Hong Kong, lines have been drawn and crossed—and the city will never be the same.
What's next for America; protests & pandemic; Hong Kong autonomy
On the latest edition of World In 60 Seconds, Ian Bremmer brings an extra-long analysis to pressing issues:
Pandemic, economic depression and now mass protests. What's next for America?
I'm not surprised by this level of dissent publicly, given how long social inequality has persisted and how much worse it's being made by coronavirus. You're going to see a lot of people on the streets because we've got 25% unemployment right now. A lot of people are going to go back to work, but a lot aren't. It's heading towards the summer, people are soon coming out of lockdown and may feel safer in terms of the pandemic, especially in NY and in LA where the caseload has gone down. We also have very deep divisions.
Trump was at 42% approval when we had lowest unemployment. He's at 42% approval now when we have global depression. This says a lot about how divided the country is. This has been on the back of the African-American community. Blacks have been hardest hit in the United States in terms of inequality and now in terms of coronavirus too. How many are dying, how many can't socially distance, how many have jobs that have gone away or require work in unhealthy situations? The Blue Lives Matter contingent, the working class white folk, also feel disenfranchised, their wages are flat and they don't feel secure. This is a massively polarized group and there is less space in their center than before.
With election coming right now in the US, you're probably going to see violent protests for longer. Keep in mind that the media focuses on the violence and riots. If you watched last night, the peaceful protests didn't make news. Instead, it's who broke windows, hit police, got arrested. It's the minority of people out there, but it's what the news and social media cover. With all of this and with a president who understands that the way he wins is not by reaching out to black Americans, but by ensuring that his base shows up in larger numbers, implies much greater division at a time of great economic disarray and dislocation. The next few months are going to be really ugly in the US.
With inequality protests going global, where does that leave coronavirus and social distancing?
I'd say be less oriented towards panic around this. The super spreader incidents we've seen in a nightclub in South Korea, a bunch of churches, and a chorus group in Seattle, all have a commonality: people are singing. In Wisconsin, they found one outdoor demonstration that led to fifteen people being found positive. That's a lot less than the 50% outside of Seattle, Washington, who were socially distanced, but inside a room singing for three hours. Here in NYC, I saw a large-scale demonstration, about 70% to 80% were wearing masks. There was a decent amount of social distancing, nothing like what we saw at the Ozarks. Most people that are demonstrating about Black Lives Matter and police brutality don't have a thing about wearing mask. Most people that were demonstrating the lockdowns, there is a political statement in not wearing a mask. My hope, based on some science, is that relatively short-term protests outdoors with many people wearing masks, probably won't get you the super spreader incidents that we have seen.
Having said that, the protests grow, and you get a lot of people protesting in close quarters and going up against the police. The police weren't any better at wearing masks last night than the protesters were in terms of numbers. You'd be more concerned about that.
Hong Kong banned the Tiananmen Square vigil for the first time, coming up on June 4th. What does that say for its autonomy?
They're saying they banned it because of concerns of coronavirus in Hong Kong, one of the most effective paces in the world at containing the virus. Doesn't seem to be the priority for the legislature. They've been trying to work on making it illegal for people to speak badly of the Chinese mainland. I think it's a bit of misdirection. It's about wanting to assert more authority over Hong Kong. It probably says that Macao and Hong Kong are not, not going to be allowed to protest Tiananmen Square going forward. Let's see what happens with Macao going forward. The United States has put the Chinese and Hong Kong on notice, but the level of sanction is less than it could be and not close to removing special trade status.
Chinese cartoonist Badiucao slams Twitter for refusing Tiananmen emoji
HONG KONG (AFP) - Chinese artist Badiucao, whose anonymous political satire infuriated Beijing and earned him comparisons to Banksy, on Thursday (June 6) announced a protest campaign against Twitter over what he says is its pandering to China.
China denounces US, EU criticism over Tiananmen
The rapidly deteriorating ties between the United States and China took another turn for the worse yesterday as the two locked horns over Beijing's human rights record on the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen crackdown.
Incident still taboo; young Chinese focus on path ahead
Tsinghua University student Megan Li (not her real name) was asked what her parents' political views were regarding the 1989 Tiananmen protests when she was applying to be a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) member about five years ago.
Despite harassment, victims' families fight to find the truth
Madam Zhang Xianling knows that every year, at this time, she will get a few "visitors" who will stand guard at her ninth-floor lift landing or at the stairway, or park themselves downstairs and insist on taking her wherever she wants to go.
30 years after Tiananmen, a Chinese military insider warns: Never forget
BEIJING (NYTIMES) - For three decades, Ms Jiang Lin kept quiet about the carnage she had seen on the night when the Chinese army rolled through Beijing to crush student protests in Tiananmen Square.