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High Court judge’s refusal to stall injunction gives green light for Admiralty clearance
Police poised to move in as early as Wednesday as Leung Chun-ying hints at an all-out clearance
All China Express claimed their business was affected because of the protests in Admiralty. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
The way has been cleared for the Occupy Central movement's biggest sit-in, in Admiralty, to return to normality after a High Court judge turned down a protester's request to appeal against an injunction order mandating a site clearance.
No timetable has been set yet on the removal action, pending legal requirements that the injunction applicant, bus operator All China Express, must fulfil.
"I hope to see the injunction executed in an orderly manner with as little chaos as possible," Mr Justice Thomas Au Hing-cheung said at an earlier hearing.
A police source said the force would help bailiffs enforce the court order in Admiralty on Wednesday at the earliest.
"Police will clear barricades and arrest and remove those who refuse to leave. We then clear the Causeway Bay occupation," for which an injunction was not needed, he said.
After that, he said, officers would be stationed at both places to prevent reoccupation bids.
A lawyer for All China Express yesterday said it had filed to the court a draft that marked out the roads it was seeking to be cleared of protesters, tents and barriers.
According to the plan, the areas are Connaught Road Central from Edinburgh Place to Harcourt Road; Harcourt Road from Edinburgh Place to Cotton Tree Drive; and Cotton Tree Drive from Harcourt Road to Queensway.
The company expected the court to issue the official clearance order by Monday.
Before it takes action, the company is obliged to publish the court order in an English newspaper and a Chinese one.
The company must also put up the order at the occupied zone to announce what the court allowed it to do.
Company representatives are slated to meet the bailiffs and police on Tuesday to discuss how to execute the order.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying hinted at an all-out clearance of the occupied zone, although the injunction limited the action to only a few roads in the area.
He stressed that a court injunction was not needed for clearance action.
"[This] can't go on forever," Leung told a Chinese-language newspaper, the Hong Kong Economic Times. "As the number of occupiers at this place dwindles, we would have to take action sooner or later."
But he gave an assurance only minimum force would be used.
Earlier, protester Wong Ho-ming had raised concerns in court that Occupy opponents might pose as "authorised agents" of the bus operator and take part in removing the barricades.
A lawyer for All China Express promised to send Wong a full list of the "authorised agents".
Au explained why he did not allow another protester, Kwok Cheuk-kin, to challenge the injunction.
The judge said Kwok had argued the case involved public interest and the justice secretary had not intervened. But the judge found that the appeal court had dealt with this matter and saw no need to hear it again.
All China Express says its bus route between Wan Chai and the mainland had been affected. Ticket sales had dropped 17 per cent since the protest started on September 28, it claimed.
Joshua Wong has called for pro-establishment lawmakers to facilitate talks with Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. Photo: Nora Tam
Three pro-Beijing lawmakers have vowed they will try to arrange a meeting between protesters and Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying after paying a surprise visit to students on hunger strike in a bid to end the political deadlock.
In a brief conversation in Admiralty on Friday morning, the Liberal Party’s James Tien Pei-chun, together with Paul Tse Wai-chun and the Liberal Party’s new chief Chung Kwok-pan, asked the students about “people they would like to meet, the format of the dialogue and how the meeting should be dealt with”.
“But we don’t want to get too involved in the content [of the dialogue],” Tien said.
Tien said the students told him they would like to meet Leung to have “an open discussion” about rebooting political reform for the city.
Outspoken lawmaker Tien, whose Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference membership was revoked after he suggested that Leung should consider resigning in the wake of the Occupy protests, said he planned to pass on students’ requests to chief secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
He would then bring up the matter when the Liberal Party meets Leung next week, he pledged.
Pro-Beijing lawmakers speak to students on hunger strike in Admiralty on Friday. Photo: Nora Tam
“In my opinion, [Leung] as the chief executive should pay heed to anyone or any group asking for a dialogue,” he said.
The point was for Leung to listen to students’ views, not to agree entirely to what they say, he added.
Tien pointed out to the students that the five-step political reform had begun, and hence there was no need to go back to square one. He also told students that they should meet Lam, instead, who is part of the reform trio assigned by Leung.
“But [meeting Leung] is the students’ requests. I’ll help them fight for what they want,” he said.
Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung said the lawmakers told him the foundation on which the talk would be based – on political reform rather than asking Beijing to withdraw its August 31 decision to screen candidates in city elections – was more “practical”.
He said he told the three lawmakers that a dialogue would be better than nothing. “They agreed,” he said.
Three Scholarism students, including Wong, started a hunger strike on Monday at 10pm, in a bid to press the government to reopen a dialogue. Two more members joined on Wednesday night.
Wong said the talk was to explore the possibility of rebooting political reform, rather than stressing the withdrawal of Beijing’s tough chief executive election framework.
This way, he said, Leung would have the authority to take action, though he insisted on not caving in to Beijing’s decision.
Wong, heading into the fifth day of his fasting, called for pro-establishment lawmakers to step in and facilitate the talks last night.
Isabella Lo Yin-wai, one of the five students on hunger strike, stopped the fast on Friday night after warnings from physicians.
Dr Wong Yam-hong, a spokesperson for the Occupy movement's medical team, said although Joshua Wong had the lowest blood sugar level of all the hunger strikers, they were most worried about Lo’s condition.
"If she goes on with her hunger strike, it is possible that her body would experience permanent damage. We strongly urged her to resume eating gradually later tonight. "
Meanwhile, in an interview with Economic Times, C. Y. Leung hinted at an imminent clearance.
Leung Chun-ying hinted at an imminent clearance of protest sites. Photo: Dickson Lee
“[This] can’t go on forever. As the number of occupying people at these places dwindles, we would have to take action sooner or later,” he told the Chinese-language newspaper.
He said one of the reasons for the clearance was to avoid sudden clashes that affect occupiers and students, adding that when it took place, only minimum force would be used.
But he stressed that an injunction order from courts was not needed for clearance action.
Wong agreed, but reminded Leung not to resort to “disproportionate force”.
“If [police] keep using batons to beat up protesters; smashing their heads; making them bleed; causing them to be admitted to hospital with injured eyes, suffering from broken bones and short-term memory loss, the government will have to shoulder the political responsibility,” he warned.
If the umbrella movement has achieved nothing else, it has fundamentally changed the way Hong Kong society sees itself. Photo: Bloomberg
Things are now looking distinctly messy for the umbrella movement. The wider democracy movement is divided on where to go next, the government armed with batons and various crowd-control sprays has forced retreats, and even deeply unpopular Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has managed to secure a slight upward blip in his admittedly dismal popularity ratings.
The mood of excitement and thirst for revenge coming from the anti-democratic camp is palpable. Members of this camp are now shedding their hesitancy in calling for heads to be cracked in order to "restore order".
The usual rabble of anti-democrat commentators are busy regaling us about their extraordinary capacity to predict all of the above. Meanwhile, there is a kind of triumphant outpouring from those who have kept their heads down in the past two months but now want their moment in the sun.
This depiction of "victory" for the anti-democrats obscures the bigger picture showing the successful mobilisation of a new generation fighting for the Hong Kong they love and their singular achievement of ensuring that there will be no easy way to impose a system of phony democracy here.
Far more worrying for the leaders in Beijing is that events in Hong Kong have put another, possibly final, nail in the coffin of the "one country, two systems" project originally devised for Taiwan. Last week, admiration for what is happening in Hong Kong helped produce a massive defeat for the mainland-friendly Kuomintang in local elections across Taiwan.
As if this were not enough, the events in Hong Kong have stirred the first-ever major shake-up of the government in Macau, where the leadership lives in fear of something similar occurring on its doorstep.
While Hong Kong's leaders incessantly talk about how the protests have damaged the city's international reputation, the overwhelming evidence from overseas reveals a surge of admiration for the protests and a positive reassessment of the dismal view that this place is little more than some kind of haven for bankers.
In Hong Kong itself, some democrats have lapsed into a mood of despondency but others stress that the outpouring of protest, creativity and commitment bodes well for the future of a place that only recently was overwhelmingly populated by immigrants fleeing from life under a dictatorship. Day-to-day survival was their order of the day and there was little time, or inclination, to be concerned with wider issues of society.
If the umbrella movement has achieved nothing else, it has fundamentally changed the way Hong Kong society sees itself.
Even the anti-democrats, who spare no opportunity to speak disparagingly of the people, have been forced to frame their concerns in a wider social manner.
It is entirely possible that the movement will suffer a brutal defeat in the coming days and that there will be widespread disillusionment among the many people who had their spirits lifted by these protests. But disillusionment and defeatism are an entirely wrong response to what is happening, as something has been set in motion that will not go away.
Even the government must now see how difficult it will be to impose its current plan for fake democracy. Meanwhile, democrats appreciate the difficulty of achieving goals that stretch far beyond the right to elect a genuinely representative chief executive and preserving the freedoms and rights that Hong Kong has enjoyed.
These cornerstones of Hong Kong life are very much under threat but this threat can be countered.
Defeatism is a curse but its cure will be found among those who are looking to the future and refuse to fritter away time worrying about previous setbacks.
Stephen Vines is a Hong Kong-based journalist and entrepreneur
Paula Bronstein stands on the car in Mong Kok. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
A war of words continued yesterday between a US photographer and a car owner who accused her of criminal damage, after a court allowed the photographer to be bound over to keep the peace.
Award-winning photojournalist Paula Bronstein said she never saw the 15cm scratch the car allegedly sustained in October at the Occupy Central site in Mong Kok. Bronstein told the Post the driver, financial analyst Tammie Tam, had asked her lawyer if he could spend the compensation on areas other than repairing his car.
But Tam said he had asked if he could hold the money for later use as he had lent his car to a friend.
It was Bronstein, 60, who approached him about settling the matter outside court, he said. Bronstein, a Pulitzer Prize winner who freelances for Getty Images, said: "It wasn't true."
Earlier yesterday, prosecutors in Kwun Tong Court decided not to press charges against Bronstein for allegedly damaging the bonnet of Tam's car. Principal Magistrate Ernest Lin Kam-hung allowed her to be bound over with HK$2,000 for two years, meaning if she did not commit any crime in Hong Kong, she would not have to pay. The ruling came after the parties agreed undisclosed compensation and an apology.
Bronstein said her lawyer had told her Tam asked if he could spend the money on areas other than car repairs. "It was really telling," she said.
Tam said he was "disconcerted" by her comment, adding that he agreed to the bound-over order because she was willing to offer an apology letter.
Bronstein has been in Myanmar and Afghanistan since covering Occupy. She flew to Bangkok last night, but will return if the protests take a dramatic turn.
Pro-democracy student leader Joshua Wong is pushed in a wheelchair into a makeshift shelter in Admiralty; while Leung Chun-ying said the five fasting teenagers should accept the authority of a nominating committee. Photos: EPA, Nora Tam
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying gave a lukewarm response to calls from pro-establishment lawmakers to speak to five teenage Scholarism members who began a hunger strike this week to press for real universal suffrage.
Leung spoke as signs of health deterioration set in among the first three students to start the hunger strike on Monday night - yesterday the trio were being pushed around in wheelchairs.
Twice in his response to the government allies' calls, Leung said he was "very willing" to have such negotiations - only to qualify those words with a caveat that the striking students needed to play by Beijing's rules.
"Public nomination - which I understand is Scholarism's proposal - does not present a prerequisite for dialogue," he said during a visit to Huizhou , Guangdong.
He said the five fasting teenagers should accept the authority of a nominating committee that the government said had exclusive power to vet candidates for the 2017 chief executive election under the Basic Law.
All but four of the city's 27 pan-democratic lawmakers also wrote to Leung urging him to meet the hunger strikers, on top of similar calls from their pro-establishment counterparts.
In the morning, Liberal Party legislators James Tien Pei-chun and Felix Chung Kwok-pan visited the hunger strikers at their tents in Admiralty and offered to set up a meeting with Leung.
Tien, whose Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference membership was revoked after he suggested Leung consider resigning in the wake of the Occupy Central protests, said he would raise the matter when the chief executive met his party next week. Tien and Chung visited the students with independent lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun, the solicitor representing a bus company that secured a court injunction to clear the Admiralty site.
Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung, one of the three who had gone without food since 10pm on Monday, spoke noticeably less yesterday, and with a soft voice.
"A dialogue does not violate the Basic Law … I don't understand why Leung Chun-ying wants to shun us," he said.
Another hunger striker, Eddie Ng Man-hin, thanked the efforts of pro-establishment lawmaker Dr Priscilla Leung Mei-fun, who texted Leung, but they would not accept the chief executive's idea of a closed-door meeting.
Meanwhile, Wong's mother defended her son in an open letter. "You can disagree with them, but you should educate and communicate with them instead of ignoring them. Otherwise, this generation will become ... more alienated from the government."
Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong stopped his hunger strike at noon today over health concerns, but may return and consider resuming the fast to press for universal suffrage.
Wong had not eaten food, subsisting on water and energy drinks, for 110 hours. He had joined several other student leaders on hunger strike on December 2.
"After more urging from medical staff and seeing [Wong] being extremely weak to the point of breaking, he has ceased his fast," said Derek Lam Shun-hin at a Scholarism press conference held at 3.30pm.
The other remaining three strikers are continuing the action but are physically weak, Lam said.
The news comes just after Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying rejected calls to hold a dialogue with the students, qualifying that though he was open to talks, the pro-democracy leaders should play by Beijing's rules.
Wong has been one of the main faces of the Occupy civil disobedience movement which began in September and drew thousands to the streets in the first few days, igniting clashes with police.
The movement, which has been "leaderless", built up encampments in Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok for several weeks, withstanding mob attacks and police pressure for more than two months.
Days into the strike, Wong's sugar levels had dropped to 2.7, requiring him to be given a spoonful of glucose. His last sugar level record was 4.1 taken this morning, according to doctor Chan Shuk-ying, who is part of the team monitoring the hunger strikers' health.
His heartbeat had also been dangerously fast, with the highest recorded at 108 - the normal level being not more than 100, said Chan.
Lam, of Scholarism, said Joshua Wong had returned home to rest and clean up and may take some liquid sustenance, but will return to the Occupy site for the 8pm rally. Whether more members will join the strike, or whether Wong will rejoin, will be announced during the evening rally.
Meanwhile, a fourth, Isabella Lo Yin-wai, among the first group who started the hunger strike on Monday night, quit on Friday on doctor’s orders.
Isabella Lo (right) quit the hunger strike on Friday also over health concerns. Photo: AP
Dr Wong Yam-hong, spokesperson of the medical team for Occupy, said he had been most worried by Lo's condition.
He said Lo’s heartbeat had been quite fast and she had low fever on Thursday night. “If she goes on, it is possible that her body would experience permanent damage. We strongly ordered her to resume eating gradually later tonight.”
Lo said she felt ashamed for the decision to cease fasting. She said she was born with a condition that caused irregular heartbeats. “But I will not give up striking for democracy. I will still come back to fight with everyone," she said.
"This is not about whether we have faith that the government would [hold a] dialogue with us, but about hope. CY [Leung] always said that the doors of dialogue are wide open, yet we've tried so many different ways to reach out only to be denied dialogue. So this is another attempt to open communication with the government," Scholarism's Lam said.
Of the remaining three hunger strikers, Prince Wong has been fasting for over 113 hours, while Gloria Cheng Yik-lam and Eddie Ng Man-hin have been fasting for over 75 hours. All of them have only been drinking water.
Cash pours in as 'millions' donated to police over Occupy
Internal as well as public support for officers dealing with Occupy protests expressed in cash, with panel to decide how to spend it
Police stand guard as they face a crowd of pro-democracy protesters in Tamar. Photo: May Tse
An outpouring of support for the police - driven by their front-line and often controversial role in the Occupy Central protests - has seen close to HK$10 million donated to support officers in the past month.
Officially, the force remains tight-lipped about the amount raised both internally and externally. But according to informed sources, cash donated by serving officers since a special fund was set up in October, added to the amount raised through a public fundraising drive that ends today, brings the total amount donated close to eight figures.
The fund was set up by two unions to support officers whose livelihoods were affected by the Occupy Central protests.
However, it is unclear how the cash will be spent, as relatively few officers have suffered directly as a result of the protests.
There have been suggestions the funds could be used to help the seven officers who have been arrested for allegedly beating Civic Party activist Ken Tsang Kin-chiu in October.
According to one police source, "several million" was donated by serving officers in a special internal fundraising effort that ended on November 20. A total of HK$1 million alone was donated by officers from the criminal investigation department, the source said.
A further HK$4 million to HK$5 million was raised from the public through a separate fundraiser that ends today, said another source from the Junior Police Officers Association.
"So far, we have received no inquiries or requests for help from anyone," said the source, adding that officers of all ranks were eligible to make donations or request aid. A six-member committee - half from the Junior Police Officers Association and the rest from the Police Inspectors' Association - would assess the needs of those who applied before allocating funds, the source said. "The fund will be used mainly for providing financial assistance to the injured or suspended officers and their families," the source said.
But another source said the fund might be extended to other purposes.
Officers may receive as little as half of their salaries when suspended.
"We've made it clear from the outset that the fund will not be used to subsidise the legal fees of any officer involved in court cases," the second source said.
Seven police officers, including two inspectors, were caught on video allegedly beating Civic Party member Tsang in a back alley during an Occupy protest.
The seven, dubbed "devil cops" by protesters, were suspended and arrested late last month.
A designated bank account had been set up for the internal fundraising, the sources said, while donations from the public would be transferred to the force's Police Welfare Fund.
Re: China blocks bbc website after video shows hong kong police beating protester
Protesters must abandon fantasy of a 'Hong Kong race' free from the mainland
Regina Ip says the Occupy protesters who are in effect demanding self-rule - rather than democracy - have been misled by the years of colonial rule into rejecting their Chinese family
Occupy is an attempt to redefine "one country, two systems" and, by implication, Hong Kong's relationship with the mainland. Photo: AFP
For months, warnings against Occupy Central sounded by Beijing officials were dismissed as "crying wolf" in some quarters. Protesters had likewise sent many warnings of a "final showdown", but few were able to predict the precise shape that the face-off would eventually take.
The violent clashes between demonstrators and the police last Monday, more than two months after Occupy began, finally put paid to any semblance of "love and peace" and prompted the three chief instigators of Occupy to turn themselves in to the authorities. As students vow to fight on, it will be a while before Occupy can be brought to a close.
As the endgame draws near, debates are under way on what caused Occupy to erupt in such a ferocious manner, causing damage to the economy, cleavages in family and society and a body blow to Hong Kong's reputation as a safe and law-abiding city.
A multitude of factors have been put forward as underlying causes. Among former senior officials, a view has emerged that Occupy was inevitable.
It was inevitable because the protest was not really about democracy. Large numbers were attracted, especially at the start of the protest, by the democracy mantra. But right from the start, the quest for self-rule was evident from slogans - such as "self-determination" - writ large on the backdrop of the stage when students kicked off their sit-in.
In the past year, in several issues of Undergrad, the official publication of the University of Hong Kong students' union, contributors have advocated "self-determination" by "the Hong Kong race".
Occupy is an attempt to redefine "one country, two systems" and, by implication, Hong Kong's relationship with China. By rejecting the decision of the National People's Congress Standing Committee of August 31, which ensures Beijing's say on the outcome of the chief executive election in 2017 via the nominating committee, the Occupy demonstrators are effectively saying no to China's sovereignty over Hong Kong.
Since 1997, Beijing has been nothing but extraordinarily helpful to Hong Kong whenever the latter's economy is in trouble, and extraordinarily tolerant in allowing protests unimaginable on the mainland to thrive in Hong Kong. For a country of 1.3 billion people, which has never known universal suffrage in its 5,000 years of history, it is taking huge risks and a plunge into the unknown by promising Hong Kong ultimate election of the chief executive by universal suffrage. In 2007, it even went further in spelling out a timetable for universal suffrage to happen.
Under the "one country, two systems" arrangement, Hong Kong is also extraordinarily privileged in not having to pay tax to the central authorities or the costs of defence of the territory. (In the colonial era, Hong Kong paid as much as 70 per cent).
Why this rage against the motherland which has done nothing but tried its best to welcome back an "abducted" child with open arms?
Occupy was inevitable because Hong Kong had been a British colony for more than 150 years. Its population includes many who fled to this southern outpost to escape the turmoil that ravaged China during the death throes of the Qing empire and the chaos of the Republican era. It also includes many who fled here for fear of communism. Under British rule, Hong Kong people enjoyed unprecedented rights and freedom, the rule of law and a much higher standard of living. It was ruled as though it was part of the West. While many Chinese families remained steeped in traditional values, Western ideas and institutions exerted indelible influence.
In the last two decades of British rule, the sharp contrast with the much more conservative and regimented Chinese culture and systems was accentuated by the mad dash to usher in democracy and new legislation to strengthen the protection of rights and freedoms. The local officials set to lead the new administration were hardwired to "benchmark" the performance of Hong Kong under China against Western standards, and to defend its system against erosion by authoritarian China. The stage was set for "one country" to be viewed as a threat to "two systems".
The paranoia was aggravated by the tragedy of June 4, 1989, images of which were seared into the memory of Hong Kong people. Since then, annual rituals in remembrance of the lost souls have not helped engender forgiveness or a broader understanding of the context in which the tragic events occurred.
Perhaps the greatest blow to some Hong Kong people's perception of the motherland is the reversal of economic fortune and roles which have followed the economic ascendency of China. Now heavily dependent economically on mainland China, the sense of injured pride has led many to view China as a threat, and fantasise that Hong Kong would be better off as a free-standing "Hong Kong race".
Yet the reality is "Hong Kong race" has no place in the world and Hong Kong's destiny is intertwined with that of China. The sooner our leaders can help the young and the restless come to terms with that, the better. Hong Kong people must muster enough courage and wisdom to find a new place of pride in the family of 1.3 billion.
Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee is a legislator and chair of the New People's Party
Re: China blocks bbc website after video shows hong kong police beating protester
Second round of election consultation 'soon after Occupy ends'
After student leader gives up his hunger strike, democracy debate poised to move from streets with second round of 2017 election discussion
Carrie Lam at a concert at the Hong Kong Coliseum yesterday. Photo: SCMP
The debate over the 2017 chief executive election looked to be moving from the streets to the political arena yesterday, as government officials pledged to start a second round of consultation "soon after Occupy ends".
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said that when the consultation began "I'll be very willing to meet student representatives and listen to them".
The comments came as student leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung ended a 108-hour hunger strike. The officials ruled out dialogue with Wong, saying talks were possible only within the framework of the Basic Law and Beijing's guidance on 2017.
The new consultation is the final stage before the government puts a reform plan to the Legislative Council, probably in the summer, moving a showdown with pan-democrat lawmakers closer.
Wong and two fellow members of Scholarism gave up their hunger strikes, which started on Monday, yesterday. Another quit on Friday. Lam called on two others who had not eaten since Wednesday to give up.
Joshua Wong ends his hunger strike. Photo: Sam Tsang
Constitutional affairs minister Raymond Tam Chi-yuen said the government "would not entertain" requests for talks made through coercive means such as hunger strikes.
The new consultation will cover the details of the 2017 poll after the National People's Congress Standing Committee laid down a framework in August for how "two or three" candidates will be chosen for a public vote.
Tam said the consultation, to start "soon after" Occupy ended, would focus on topics including how hopefuls could enter the "primary election" in which a 1,200-strong committee will choose candidates. It will also look at how public opinion can be "formally channelled" and how to make the committee transparent and accountable.
Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit and Democrat Albert Ho Chun-yan said pan-democrats would stand by their vow to veto any reform based on Beijing's framework. Pan-democrats say the committee will "screen out" critics of Beijing. The reform needs a two-thirds majority in Legco, meaning pan-democrats have the votes to block it.
WATCH: When Hong Kong student leader Joshua Wong began his hunger strike
Returning to Admiralty last night, Wong criticised officials for ignoring the hunger strike, noting that fellow striker Prince Wong Ji-yuet was taken to hospital yesterday. He said that two years ago when members of his group went on hunger strike against national education, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Lam visited on the second day.
"Now we have someone being admitted to the hospital, will the officials put aside their conscience? I am really looking forward to it," he told a rally.
Speculation continued last night on how long the Admiralty camp would remain. A clearance is thought to be unlikely until after President Xi Jinping visits Macau on December 19.
Lester Shum, of the Federation of Students, told the rally the group's actions "would not cease with the occupation".
Protesters at police headquarters yesterday. Photo: Sam Tsang
A group of 30 protesters arrested over the Occupy movement said yesterday they were seeking legal advice over what they allege were improper detention procedures and inhuman treatment at the hands of police.
It comes as the leaders of Hong Kong Shield, a group of more than 50 local cultural figures including Canto-pop singer Denise Ho Wan-see, are set to meet with the police watchdog to express their concerns over allegations of excessive force in handling the protests.
Some protesters, many of them students, sustained wounds after police used batons against their attempt to storm government headquarters last week, said a spokesman for the group, Timothy Lee Ho-yin.
The clashes took place on November 30 and early on December 1 on Lung Wo Road, where officers used batons, pepper spray and a powerful water jet to disperse protesters.
"Many of the protesters were covered in blood after they were arrested," Lee said. "But the police refused to send some of them to hospital for treatment until three hours later."
Some were made to wait hours before gaining permission to go to the washroom, and were given rubbish bags to keep themselves warm at North Point police station, Lee said yesterday.
Repeated requests from those arrested to turn off a large fan in the detention centre where they were held were refused. Lee said "the police officers told them there was no switch to turn the fan off". A few of those arrested were detained for over 24 hours, he said.
Lee believed the treatment was in breach of Article 28 of the Basic Law, and violated the International Bill of Human Rights.
He said 30 of those arrested were seeking legal advice on whether to take action over their treatment.
Hong Kong Shield spokesman Adrian Chow said his group would be meeting with the Independent Police Complaints Council today.
Albert Li Sau-Sang, chairman of the Hong Kong Confederation of Tertiary Institutes Staff Unions, condemned what he called excessive force.
"There is no need to use batons to beat the students on the head again and again," he said.
"It has damaged the professional and civilised image of the Hong Kong police force. As a teacher, we need to say thank you to these students, who are the conscience of society and the future of Hong Kong."
Hundreds of parents attended a march, organised by the Umbrella Parents concern group, to police headquarters in Wan Chai yesterday to protest against the police tactics.
A letter of complaint addressed to police chief Andy Tsang Wai-hung was handed to officers outside the building. Organisers estimated 2,000 people attended the march.
Lawmaker Fernando Cheung warns that protesters might meet violence with violence
Lawmaker Fernando Cheung worries that the violence police are meting out is going to be returned and will escalate beyond control
Lawmaker Dr Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung has lately been at the forefront of the Occupy Central movement, where he thinks keeping the peace is getting tougher, with the "oppressed considering using violence against violence".
A social work professor, Cheung, 57, often leads the fight for the underprivileged and marginalised. Now he is worried that protest violence will escalate to become deadly, and he urged the government to open dialogue.
"The vast majority of violence occurring so far was inflicted upon protesters by the police and pro-establishment protesters. But I'm feeling - I'm sensing - that this is going to change," Cheung said.
"I sense that ... peaceful protection like wearing shields is not going to help [protesters] against police brutality. And they are thinking about using offensive means to protect themselves. I can sense that we are stepping into a very dangerous zone, where the oppressed are considering using violence against violence," he said.
"I'm certainly very worried. I want to stop it, but I have no confidence in that."
When some protesters broke windows at the Legislative Council in November in the middle of the night, Cheung was one of the few who rushed to the scene and tried to call people off.
He said it was time to move the battle back to the community, and he called for a retreat from occupied sites as the stakes get higher.
"The only party that can stop the violence right now is the government. [Chief Executive] C.Y. Leung has to step out of his office, come out and open dialogue with the protesters immediately. Otherwise, I'm not sure where this campaign is going to lead to," Cheung warned.
He said the lack of upward mobility was a frustration for the younger generation, but was not the sole reason people were out on the streets. He said there was also a yearning for a society that "plays fair".
Cheung said the government was not doing its part for Hongkongers, choosing to commit resources to big infrastructure projects that did little for the general public.
He also said the Legislative Council needed to take responsibility for its failure to represent the people.
"I think the assessment of the failure of the whole Legislative process - or the Legislative Council itself - is correct," he said. "We are constantly hijacked by people who really don't represent the Hong Kong people, because of the functional constituencies and the distorted election system, which is why people are out on the streets."
He gave the pan-democrats little credit for their role. "Throughout the campaign, we've been rather irrelevant," he said, adding that they needed to do a better job of negotiating with the government.
But Cheung expressed hope that people would understand that lawmakers were worried about hijacking what was originally a student-led movement, causing a reluctance to "come out to lead".
Still, Cheung said the government bore ultimate responsibility for the protests. He added that with Hong Kong's level of wealth, there should not be tolerance for a high rate of poverty and inequality.
Those injustices are what Cheung lobbies against. He said it was his passion for social work that made him run for the position of legislator for the first time in 2004.
Cheung's involvement in social work started in secondary school, when he regularly volunteered for social services. His father was a headmaster and his mother was a nurse, which also instilled in him early on the importance of public services.
But Cheung said he found himself very isolated in his first four years as a lawmaker in the social-work constituency, unable to get sector consensus.
He failed in his next attempt to run as an independent lawmaker, but made his comeback in the 2012 election.
Now he focuses on broader social issues like poverty and the ageing population, especially on the lack of residential care services for the elderly and disabled.
"I'd rather put my energy into looking at the whole problem of injustice at the societal level," he said. "Income disparity, the problem of poverty, the problem of a lot of vulnerable groups that are not being served appropriately, including the disabled, the elderly and minorities and so forth."
And because he has a 23-year-old daughter with a severe intellectual disability, Cheung also became one of the few champions for the disabled community.
But he said it was increasingly hard to lobby the government over social policies. The government had little will to budge on such issues, he said, which was why he saw the fight for democracy as so important.
"We should not have a system that favours only the rich and powerful."
________________________________________________
Fernando Cheung
1957: born in Macau
1980: graduated from Baptist University (then named Baptist College) in social work and obtained a licence to work as a social worker
1991: graduated from the University of California Berkeley with a PhD in social work
1996: became a lecturer at the Polytechnic University
2004: served first term as a functional constituency lawmaker, but lost in the direct elections in 2008
An image of a yellow umbrella is spread out on the road at the site of the Admiralty Occupy protest, on December 7. Photo: Sam Tsang
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying warned yesterday that "furious resistance" is expected from some protesters in the Admiralty Occupy camp when police help bailiffs execute a court order to clear part of the protest site.
He also rejected a student leader's call to restart the political reform process, saying it would effectively mean overturning Beijing's controversial framework for the 2017 election. But Joshua Wong Chi-fung, convenor of the student group Scholarism, insisted such a move would not violate the Basic Law.
A police source said the exact date for executing the injunction order and whether officers would clear areas not covered by the order are to be decided tomorrow in a joint meeting with the plaintiff and bailiffs, though it could take place as early as Wednesday.
Police recently estimated that the number of protesters remaining in Admiralty between 8am and 9am was just over 100. The source said 1,000 to 2,000 officers would be deployed to clear the site during the bailiffs' working hours between 9am and 5pm.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Qianhai in Shenzhen, Leung said that while he would not give a specific date for when police would clear the site, he expected there could be radical resistance from protesters.
"I think we should be prepared, both psychologically and operationally, that towards the end of the illegal occupation there will be fewer people taking part and they tend to be more radical. This seems to be the pattern in illegal social movements in other countries," Leung said. "Maybe during the clearance or when police help bailiffs to execute the order, there would be some rather furious resistance."
Leung also rejected a request by students to relaunch the constitutional reform process.
"If we restart political reform, it would mean rejecting the work we have done so far, including the decision of the National People's Congress Standing Committee," Leung said.
But Wong said restarting political reform is within the power of the Hong Kong government. "When we propose restarting the five-step process, it does not violate the Basic Law, it does not violate the NPCSC's decision or other laws," he said.
The Federation of Students said if the government insisted on starting the second round of consultation on reform, which officials said would be launched soon after Occupy ends, their struggle would not stop.
Secretary for Justice Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung also called on protesters to leave as soon as possible to minimise trouble.
Meanwhile, Scholarism members, Gloria Cheng Yik-lam and Eddie Ng Man-hin, were still fasting yesterday to demand dialogue on political reform. Both were in a stable condition.
A group of people announced last night they planned to start a relay hunger strike along with the two students. A spokesman said 100 people had already said they would join the relay, with each person fasting in rotation every 28 hours.
Beijing fears compromise with Hong Kong protesters: US scholar
CNA and Staff Reporter
2014-12-07
Protestors set up tents on the street at the occupy zone in Mongkok, Hong Kong, Nov. 9. (File photo/CNS)
Chinese authorities fear that giving in to the demands of students in the recent democracy protests in Hong Kong calling for genuine universal suffrage could have dangerous implications for other "core interest" regions such as Tibet and Taiwan, a US scholar says.
In the article Democracy in Hong Kong from the Council published by US think tank Foreign Relations on Wednesday, Eleanor Albert wrote that Hong Kong enjoys certain political and economic freedoms based on "one country, two systems." But in recent years many in Hong Kong have become frustrated by the growing economic disparities in the city and weary of delays in democratic reform.
The article noted that democracy activists in Hong Kong hold protests on the anniversaries each year of the 1997 handover and the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, but recent protests reached record levels and have caught the attention of Chinese leaders. Many China experts said Beijing sees these demonstrations as a direct challenge to its legitimacy, fearing a political compromise could have dangerous implications for other regions like Tibet, where many Tibetans desire greater autonomy or independence, or Taiwan, with which China seeks unification.
The article cited Richard Bush, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, as saying Beijing's leadership is concerned that an elected democratic chief executive in Hong Kong "would seek to destabilize Communist Party rule in China."
Beijing also fears that any political compromise could set a dangerous precedent and spark dissent in other sensitive regions, including Tibet, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Macau and Taiwan, the article said.
Beijing's reluctance to allow Hong Kong to develop into a full-fledged democracy with free and fair elections is a perennial bone of contention. Experts say a source of the problem is ambiguity in the Basic Law, the city's constitutional document, which Beijing continues to reinterpret.
Michael F Martin, an Asian affairs specialist and analyst for the Congressional Research Service, says when Beijing proposed universal suffrage, it used the word "keyi," which translates widely to mean "may," "can," "possible," or "able to," thus making it difficult to discern whether or not Beijing's decisions comply with the Basic Law.
Some experts pointed out that by not compromising, China is missing an opportunity to experience democracy through Hong Kong, a process which could open the door for political reforms in mainland China. But Roderick Wye, an analyst specializing in China and East Asia, wrote in Newsweek: "Beijing is not going to accept any system in Hong Kong that does not give it ultimate control."
The article said that the younger generation in Hong Kong has developed political grievances because they feel they are not reaping the benefits of their city's wealth and face stiff competition from the influx of mainlanders.
Occupy Central had put rule of law under severe threat in Hong Kong, China's ambassador to Britain, Liu Xiaoming, wrote. Photo: Sam Tsang
British MPs were banned from entering Hong Kong because their visit could “pour oil over fire” and give Occupy Central activists “the illusion of external support”, the Chinese ambassador to Britain has written.
In an article published in British newspaper The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, Liu Xiaoming also wrote that the ban on entry was “not intended to insult the committee”, as China was only safeguarding its national sovereignty and security.
Liu was referring to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, which is conducting an inquiry into the implementation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, which paved the way for Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China. The committee planned to visit the city this month, but its chairman, Richard Ottaway, was informed on November 28 that the eight members of parliament would not be granted visas.
Liu Xiaoming wrote that "a visit to Hong Kong by British MPs would pour oil over fire". Photo: SCMP Pictures
On December 1, British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman told the Telegraph that the decision was “mistaken” and “counterproductive” as it “only amplifies concerns, rather than diminishing them”.
However, Liu wrote in his article that even the British government had reiterated that universal suffrage in Hong Kong is a matter for Beijing and Hong Kong to decide.
“According to its statement, the committee wishes to examine the UK government’s position on political reform in Hong Kong, especially universal suffrage … It looks like the Foreign Affairs Committee intends to overturn the UK government’s position by intervening in Hong Kong’s political reform,” Liu said.
“Right now, a visit to Hong Kong by British MPs would pour oil over fire. The illegal Occupy Central campaign is still ongoing and the rule of law and public order in Hong Kong is under severe threat. Against such a backdrop, what kind of message would British MPs bring to Hong Kong? They would only feed the arrogance of the illegal activists by giving them the illusion of external support.”
He added that London had also banned an American citizen from entering the country in November on grounds of the public interest.
“If uninvited or unwelcome guests insist on coming over, they would certainly be regarded as being arrogant. And to blame the host for refusing to extend his welcome would only be categorised as hysterical,” Liu said.
Retribution on Mong Kok store shows up incivility of Occupy's civil disobedience
Alice Wu says it is clear that some protesters are in fact engaging in 'uncivil' disobedience, as one Mong Kok store found out
Alice Wu
There's a fine line between activism and hooliganism. Trying to blur that line would be a real affront to justice. Photo: AP
With some protest flashpoints now taking place outside the main rally sites, the Occupy movement has adopted a wholly alien take on civil disobedience. The trio who founded the movement may have turned themselves in to the police, but last week's defining moment has to be the "Mong Kok shopping escapade".
It all began when a salesperson in one Mong Kok shop allegedly told protesters they were the reason the shop was losing business. As retribution, a group of "Occupy shoppers" last week stopped the store from closing and "occupied" it. Supposedly exercising their right as consumers, they ransacked the store, unfolded articles of clothing, and removed clothes displayed on mannequins before buying something.
While they didn't loot or damage property, what they did was sinister. This was no "creative" interpretation of consumer rights. It was an act of revenge on someone simply for having a different opinion.
Civil disobedience isn't about revenge or intimidation. More disturbing is how such a protest is a display of the growing gulf that separates us from the democratic values we've supposedly been fighting for. Freedom of speech that is exercised only when one agrees with what's being said is no freedom at all. And throughout the past three months, this is just the sort of disturbing "freedom" we've seen played out openly on our streets.
It's also the type of abuse of rights that we have condoned for years among our rowdy lawmakers. There's something wrong with narcissism so inflated that one feels perfectly entitled to exercise one's rights at the expense of other people's.
It's not only the bullying; it's also the schadenfreude blatantly glorified in the name of activism. For speaking his mind, the salesperson and his colleagues had to be punished with disorder and by being forced to spend time putting back all the displaced merchandise. That was why the "Occupy shoppers" ransacked the place: so they could feel gratified that they had created a need for someone else to exert themselves. It was a twisted way of exercising power over another, and a big slap in the face of equality.
It's incivility, not civil obedience. Gandhi once lamented his unsuccessful attempt to stage mass civil disobedience in Kheda in 1919 because of protesters' lack of civility. He called their resort to incivility "a drop of arsenic in milk". That is surely what the Occupy founders must be contemplating now. Surrendering to the police does very little - if anything - to change the poison-laced milk.
How activism degenerated to this level of baseness is something we, as a community, must reflect on. No amount of tunnel vision and disaster fatigue can justify our turning a blind eye to the sort of toxic politics that have been brought to the fore.
Writer, journalist and former activist Benjamin Pimentel wrote in September that there is "a fine line between activism and hooliganism". Trying to blur that line would be nothing short of despicable, and a real affront to justice.
Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA
Did a whole group of British MPs really have to visit in such a high-profile way while Occupy Central is in progress? Photo: AFP
I don't know about you, but I have been completely baffled over the recent row between Beijing and London concerning a proposed visit to our city by some members of the British Parliament.
Things got off to a bad start with the reference to visas in a Post story last week, "Cameron steps into row over lawmakers' visas". A spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing was quoted as saying: "Whether to grant visas, and who to give them to, are the decisions of the country."
There are two things wrong with this statement: first, British passport holders do not need a visa to enter Hong Kong; secondly, under the Basic Law, control over entry to the special administrative region is one of the matters specifically reserved for the Hong Kong government under "one country, two systems".
So the immediate reaction might be to query why someone who apparently has no authority over the subject - and clearly no knowledge about it either - is speaking to the media at all.
But the initial response may be too superficial. The British government and Parliament do have a legitimate interest in Hong Kong affairs, bearing in mind that the UK was a signatory with China to the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, registered with the UN as an international treaty. So MPs can reasonably argue that they want to check how the treaty is being implemented.
But did a whole group really have to visit in such a high-profile way while Occupy Central is in progress? With emotions in the street running so high and tension over imminent clearance operations so severe, was this really the best time? Could they not have taken evidence from witnesses here by video conference, as when the last governor, Chris Patten, responded recently to an inquiry by the US Congress?
And if a site visit was deemed essential, could it not have been done in a low-profile way, with a handful simply slipping into the territory? Seen from this perspective, perhaps the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman was not so far out of line after all.
By deciding to come to Hong Kong in their collective official capacity as the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, did the British MPs not tip the visit over the edge into the realm of foreign policy, thereby giving Beijing a legitimate locus? How would the British government have responded if the National People's Congress had sent a delegation to the UK to take evidence under oath about how Chinese people were being treated there?
But we are straying too far from the main point. There is far too much aggravation in the air. London is being too clumsy, Beijing oversensitive. Situation normal, the cynics might say.
But was there not a much better way for Hong Kong to have handled the whole brouhaha? Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying could have issued a statement along the following lines. "Hong Kong and the United Kingdom continue to enjoy a close and friendly relationship at all levels. We very much appreciate the interest our British friends have in our well-being. We understand why Members of Parliament like to keep abreast of events here. However, we are going through a brief period of turmoil and emotions are running high. We would not wish to inflame those sentiments further.
"We would therefore be grateful if the committee would not visit Hong Kong in its official capacity until things have calmed down. Later, when conditions have returned to normal, I would be happy to play host to Mr Richard Ottaway and his colleagues, visiting us in their private capacities."
Does that sound too diplomatic? Isn't the whole point of diplomacy to minimise friction and maximise points of common interest?
Mike Rowse is managing director of Stanton Chase International and an adjunct professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. [email protected]
Joshua Wong, pictured during a hunger strike last week, said Scholarism members had no plans to clash with police. Photo: Dickson Lee
Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung said the student group would arrange for secondary school pupils and elderly people to leave Occupy Central's main protest site in Admiralty for their safety if police started clearing up.
Wong, speaking during a Commercial Radio programme on Monday morning, said that if there were signs that police were using force during a clearance, the group would tell the most vulnerable protesters to leave first to avoid injury.
“If the first wave involves [police] quick reaction teams, there is a need for us to let experienced protesters stand on the front to delay police in order to let those who cannot afford the risk of arrest to leave first,” he said.
Wong said the group had no plans to clash with police, and urged protesters not to throw any objects at officers or attack them. But he suggested protesters bring along home-made shields to protect themselves from batons.
“Protesters understand they would be arrested but that doesn’t mean they are prepared to be beaten,” he said.
Wong and two other students have given up a hunger strike, which started last Monday, to demand dialogue with the government over political reform. The officials ruled out dialogue with Wong, saying talks were possible only within the framework of the Basic Law and Beijing’s guidance on city elections in 2017.
Some 100 people have already signed up for the relay hunger strike. Photo: Samuel Chan
As of 1pm today, two other Scholarism members, Gloria Cheng Yik-lam and Eddie Ng Man-hin, had been fasting for more than 110 hours. They were the second batch to join the hunger strike to demand dialogue on political reform.
Wong said today he had now recovered “70 to 80 per cent” from the exhaustion and dizziness caused by the fast.
Since last night, a group of people started a “relay hunger strike” along with the two students. Two people will each fast in rotation every 28 hours. Nine others already wrote their names on an enrolment form placed outside their tent next to the two students on hunger strike outside government headquarters in Admiralty.
A spokesman for the volunteer hunger strikers said 100 people had already said they would join the relay.
No gib chance!
