Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing chief executive Carrie Lam spun this weekend’s titanic peaceful protest as a victory for her administration on Monday, claiming the lack of violence was a sign the city is “returning to peace” and vaguely offering a “platform for dialogue with people from all walks of life” to find “a way out” of the crisis.
A popular student leader said Catholics and other Christians should take a more visible role in protests against the government’s plans to allow extradition to mainland China.
Chinese media is working overtime to paint the Hong Kong protest movement as a gang of violent radicals driven mad by Western propaganda. The latest round of editorial broadsides was fired over charges brought against four protesters for carrying “offensive weapons” to Saturday’s protest at the Yuen Long train station.
Taiwan has been strongly supportive of the Hong Kong protest movement, and Hong Kongers appear to be returning the favor with surging support for Taiwanese independence.
Demonstrations continued in Hong Kong with at least three events planned for this week, including a march by elderly people determined to show that not just hotheaded young students are opposed to the controversial extradition law.
China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday dumped a deeply patronizing editorial upon the student protesters of Hong Kong, describing them as lazy and reckless youth who desperately need the discipline and perspective of a solid education in mainland Communist schools.
Maj. Gen. Chen Daoxiang, commander of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) forces in Hong Kong, reportedly promised a Pentagon official last month that Chinese troops will not be deployed against protesters, attempting to allay fears of a deadly Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on the huge and thus far successful movement.
Hong Kong pop singer, actress, and political activist Denise Ho Wan-see gave a speech to the United Nations on Monday in which she accused China of violating its commitments to Hong Kong’s autonomy and asked the U.N. to remove China from its Human Rights Council. Chinese diplomats interrupted her two-minute speech twice.
Thousands marched in the streets of Hong Kong once again on Thursday in a more confrontational demonstration than some organizers planned, blocking roads and surrounding police headquarters to demand the release of previously arrested protesters.
Lawyers for Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou on Monday asked Canada’s Justice Minister David Lametti to halt the process of extraditing her to the United States to face charges of bank fraud and sanctions evasion.
Hong Kong activists are determined to get their message out during the G20 summit, where mainland China has decreed no discussion of Hong Kong will be permitted. A new demonstration against the extradition bill favored by Beijing has been scheduled for Wednesday and a crowdfunding campaign is underway to finance front-page newspaper ads urging G20 nations to get involved despite China’s tirades against foreign interference.
Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Zhang Jun said on Monday that China will not allow the massive protests in Hong Kong to be discussed at the upcoming G20 summit in Osaka, Japan.
Huge demonstrations continued in Hong Kong on Friday, with the focus of activity shifting from LegCo, the city’s legislative chambers, to police headquarters. The protesters are demanding a permanent and decisive end to the controversial extradition bill that was indefinitely suspended by chief executive Carrie Lam last weekend.
The success of the current protest movement inspired by Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill may offer a glimmer of hope for democracy activists, but many residents have already chosen to escape mainland China’s iron grip by emigrating to other countries, with Taiwan an especially popular destination.
Hong Kong demonstrators have adopted “Sing Hallelujah to the Lord” as their unofficial anthem, singing it constantly as they march before the legislative headquarters and demand a permanent end to the recently suspended extradition bill.
A senior city official in Hong Kong told Reuters on Tuesday that China will not allow chief executive Carrie Lam to resign as protesters demanded, even if she wants to. Lam offered more unqualified contrition in her latest public statement but said she intends to remain in office.
Twenty-two-year-old Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong was released from prison on Monday after serving one month of a two-month sentence for his role in the Umbrella Movement demonstrations of 2014.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said on Saturday that a proposed extradition bill will be suspended, handing a stunning victory to thousands of protesters who packed the streets for a week to oppose legislation strongly desired by the mainland Chinese government.
China’s Global Times newspaper defended the pro-Communist leadership of Hong Kong, and their decision to use tear gas and rubber bullets on pro-democracy protesters Wednesday, insisting that the thousands of mostly young students opposing a law that would allow their extradition into the mainland were “violent” extremists radicalized by the United States.
Another massive demonstration against Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill was held as planned on Wednesday, with tens of thousands of demonstrators filling the streets.
A protest march on Sunday against Hong Kong’s controversial extradition bill drew hundreds of thousands of participants according to police, and over a million according to organizers, making it one of the largest public demonstrations since Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control in 1997.
The battle in Hong Kong over a bill that would make it easier to extradite people to other countries, notably including China, became quite literal over the weekend as representatives pummeled each other in the legislature, sending one lawmaker to the hospital.
Huge demonstrations filled the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday as people enraged by the jail sentences recently handed down to democracy movement leaders turned out to protest an extradition agreement with China.
The mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange took to social media following his arrest on Thursday to beg authorities to be kind to him.
“I know nothing really about it – it’s not my deal in life,” Trump said.
China formally accused – but did not yet formally charge – Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig of espionage on Monday. The two were arrested soon after Canada detained Huawei executive and Communist royalty Meng Wanzhou for possible extradition to the United States. The accusation of espionage was made three days after Canada announced Meng’s extradition hearing would proceed.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau fired his ambassador to China, John McCallum, on Saturday over remarks McCallum made about the arrest and possible extradition of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
Canada’s ambassador to the United States, David McNaughton, said in an interview on Monday that the United States will proceed with its extradition request for Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
The Canadian government said on Wednesday that police have detained a third Canadian citizen in China. While Ottawa provided no details of the arrest, an official said there is “no reason to believe that this case is linked” to the detentions of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor – whose arrests last week were in turn clearly linked to Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
The Chinese government has said little about its reasons for arresting Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor this week, but on Thursday, the state-run Global Times published an editorial explicitly framing the arrests as revenge for Canada’s arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
