HKong rally marks China national day
‘US should respect concerns’
HONG KONG, Oct 1, (Agencies): Thousands of people took to the streets of Hong Kong Sunday to mark China’s national day with a pro-democracy rally, and voice growing fears that the city’s liberties are under threat from Beijing.
Emotions have been running high in the semi-autonomous city since protests in 2014 calling for Beijing to grant fully free leadership elections.
But the mass demonstrations, which blocked thoroughfares for 79 days and brought parts of the city to a standstill, failed to achieve political reform.
Sunday’s protest, dubbed an “anti-authoritarian rally”, follows the recent arrests of prominent prodemocracy activists, including a former lawmaker, that have renewed anti-China sentiment.
A number of other activists, including founding members of the 2014 campaign known as the Umbrella Movement, are also facing charges and possible jail terms.
“Authoritarian rule has already become Hong Kong’s reality,” Benny Tai, an organiser of the 2014 demonstrations, told protesters, who were mostly dressed in black.
“We are having today’s rally ... because we hope more Hong Kong people will see the true nature of the government,” Tai, a law professor, said.
Participants in Sunday’s protest singled out the city’s leader Carrie Lam, justice secretary Rimsky Yuen and Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose pictures were placed on placards saying “authoritarian clown”.
Others carried a black banner mimicking the Chinese national flag with five yellow stars drawn on it.
Police said 4,300 people had attended the rally, while AFP reporters at the scene estimated around 5,000.
University student Vince Ho, 21, said the authorities’ hardline approach towards activists was likely to spur others into action.
‘US should respect concerns on Taiwan’:
The United States must respect China’s concerns on Taiwan to avoid causing disturbances in Sino-US ties, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told visiting US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Saturday.
China considers democratic Taiwan to be a wayward province and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control. The United States has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island’s main source of arms.
China regularly calls Taiwan the most sensitive and important issue between it and the United States, and has been upset by US moves to expand military exchanges with Taiwan and continued US arms sales to the island.
Wang explained China’s position on the Taiwan issue and “demanded the US side earnestly respect China’s concerns, appropriately handle the relevant issue and avoid bringing disturbances to China-US relations”, China’s Foreign Ministry said. It did not elaborate. Beijing’s relationship with Taiwan has been frosty since President Tsai Ing-wen won election on the island by a landslide last year.
China suspects that Tsai, who leads the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, wants to declare the island’s formal independence, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China.
Personnel jailed for fatal M-misfire:
Three naval personnel have been jailed for up to two years for mistakenly launching a missile towards China that killed one person and triggered a stern response from Beijing last year.
They were convicted of causing death by negligence while on duty over the misfiring of the Hsiungfeng III (Brave Wind) supersonic missile, the district court in the southern city of Kaohsiung announced over the weekend.
The missile, dubbed “Aircraft Carrier Killer”, flew about 75 kms (45 miles) before hitting a trawler on July 1, 2016 in waters off Penghu, a Taiwanese-administered island group in the Taiwan Strait.
It killed the boat’s skipper and injured three crew members.
The accident came at a time of worsening relations between Taipei and Beijing. China insists self-ruling Taiwan is part of its territory even though the two sides split in 1949 after a civil war.
Kao Chia-chun, a Petty Officer Second Class who accidentally fired the missile, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, the court said in a statement.
His supervisors — Chief Petty Officer Chen Minghsiu and Lieutenant Junior Grade Hsu Po-wei — received two years and 14 months’ imprisonment respectively.
US carrier navigates crowded waters:
As the commanders of the largest US warship in Asia seek to maintain operational readiness amid protracted tensions over North Korea, they find themselves keeping one eye on China, too.
On Saturday, as F-18 Super Hornet jet fighters roared from the decks of the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier during routine drills deep in the South China Sea, two Chinese frigates maintained a constant line-of-sight vigil.
Officers on the Japanese-based Reagan described frequent close quarter surveillance from the ships of the People’s Liberation Army Navy in international waters.
Sometimes, they said, Chinese vessels steam in to check out the carrier en route to other destinations. Other times, Chinese frigates linger for days within the screen of US ships and planes that protect the Reagan — Washington’s only carrier based outside America.
At times, the carrier crew, to ensure safe passage, will alert their uninvited Chinese escorts, should the Reagan sharply alter course, officers said.
“We’ve had no issues. They’ve been very professional,” said Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, commander of the Reagan’s strike group, as well as the larger battle forces of the US Seventh Fleet. “We see them on a regular basis,” he said.
As Dalton spoke, the midnight blue waters beyond the flight decks made for a crowded scene, with a US and an allied Japanese destroyer also visible as the Reagan manouvered some 400 nautical miles (748 kms) from the Chinese coast.