Hong Kong protesters stage sit-in ahead of Jinping’s visit
Pro-democracy protesters climbed a statue in Hong Kong yesterday and staged a sit-in ahead of a visit by President Xi Jinping to mark 20 years since the city was handed back to China by Britain. Xi’s visit this week comes at a time when fears are growing that Beijing is tightening its grip on semiautonomous Hong Kong. High-profile student activist Joshua Wong was among more than 20 demonstrators who encircled the sculpture of a golden bauhinia flower which became the emblem of Hong Kong in 1997.
The statue was given to the city by China as a present to mark the handover. Some activists chained themselves to the sculpture while others climbed into its petals. Prodemocracy lawmakers Nathan Law and Leung Kwok-hung, also known as Long Hair, were among the protesters sitting at its base as police cordoned off the square, which is a popular tourist attraction.
Xi is due to land in Hong Kong on Thursday for a three-day visit to attend anniversary celebrations and swear in the city’s new leader Carrie Lam. The city is ruled under a “one country, two systems” deal, enshrined in the handover agreement, which allows it rights unseen on the mainland, including freedom of speech and an independent judiciary. But there are concerns that China is increasingly interfering in a range of areas, from politics to education and the media. Protesters at the bauhinia statue chanted “Long live the Umbrella Movement!” and “I’m a Hong Konger!”
The Umbrella Movement was the name given to mass rallies in 2014 calling for democratic reforms. Wong and Law were among the student leaders of those protests, which ultimately failed to win concessions. Activists yesterday also called for the release of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo who was granted medical parole this week due to late-stage liver cancer but remains in the mainland. The writer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, now 61, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2009 for “subversion” after spearheading a bold petition for democratic reforms. “Free Liu Xiaobo! Free all political prisoners! Universal suffrage now!” the protesters chanted.
In another development, China’s increasingly powerful navy launched its most advanced domestically produced destroyer yesterday, at a time of rising competition with other naval powers such as the United States, Japan and India. The first 10,000-ton Type 055 entered the water at Shanghai’s Jiangnan Shipyard yesterday morning, the navy said in a statement. It said the ship is equipped with the latest air, missile, ship and submarine defense systems. China is believed to be planning to produce four of the ships. “The launch of this ship signifies that our nation’s development of destroyers has reached a new stage,” the navy said.
A photo on the navy’s website showed multicolored streamers being shot out of tubes while sailors and shipyard workers stood dockside next to a massive Chinese flag. It said the chief of the People’s Liberation Army’s General Armaments Department, Zhang Youxia, presided over the ceremony, in which a bottle of champagne was broken over the ship’s bow. The Type 055 is significantly larger than China’s other modern destroyer, the Type 052, representing the rising sophistication of China’s defense industries. Once heavily dependent on foreign technology, China in April launched its first aircraft carrier built entirely on its own, based on an earlier Ukrainian model.
In terms of displacement, it is roughly equivalent to the Arleigh Burke class of destroyer. China’s navy is undergoing an ambitious expansion and is projected to have a total of 265-273 warships, submarines and logistics vessels by 2020, according to the Washington, DC-based Center for Naval Analysis. That compares with 275 deployable battle force ships presently in the US Navy, China’s primary rival in the Asia Pacific, with the once-yawning gap between the two narrowing rapidly. China says it needs a powerful navy to defend its 14,500 kilometers of coastline, as well as its crucial maritime shipping routes. —Agencies