TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PROTESTERS MARCH FOR FREE ELECTIONS
By FITSNEWS || Major transportation arteries in Hong Kong remain blocked as pro-democracy protesters have occupied the city center of the district – refusing to be dislodged by repeated volleys of tear gas.
Hong Kong’s Apple Daily is live streaming the protests … which center around the right of residents of the self-described “world city” to host free elections in defiance of the Chinese government.
A British colony from 1842-1941 – and again from 1941-1997 (following a four-year Japanese occupation during World War II) – Hong Kong became a “special administrative district” of the People’s Republic of China on July 1, 1997.
A month ago, Chinese leaders rejected Hong Kong’s effort to hold a free election – instead insisting that the district’s 3.5 million voters choose between three candidates selected by Beijing when they go to the polls again in 2017.
That decision has prompted the following unrest (captured via a camera mounted to an aerial drone) …
(Click to play)
(Vid: Via)
Gotta love that techno beat, y’all …
Meanwhile here’s the moment the tear gas was launched …
For those of you keeping score at home, the heavy-handed response didn’t work. Not only did the tear gas attack fail to dislodge the protesters, it appears to have swelled their ranks from the thousands to the tens of thousands.
In 1989, China brutally cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in Beijing – declaring martial law and mobilizing more than 300,000 troops to confront an estimated 1 million protesters. Thousands died in the ensuing violence.
Will we see another heavy-handed response from China in response to the protests in Hong Kong?
“The worst case scenario — that the Beijing government will deploy the People’s Liberation Army to restore order at the barrel of a gun—is extremely improbable,” one observer wrote. “It would be a public relations disaster for China’s leaders. However, it is equally hard to envisage any lasting rapprochement between Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement and the city’s government.”
(Pic: Via)
7 comments
Are you sleeping on the Job Will??? This is from last night and has been on zerohedge for about 12 hours. Get some no doze and get to work.
Contrast with the Occupy Wall Street people. I think they should trade places. Be careful what you wish for…
… Occupiers?? Or the global worms of last week.
You mean that wrecking party that was parading down the streets of NYC? Save the environment from cow farts while I leave a trail of my personal crud as far as the eye can see…
Yeap! The Tea Party gets it …
Well, it could go from bad to worse … The mob could turn communist. … Or Occupiers!
“… Hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers, the majority very young, have found the courage to imagine and put into practice a way of living and sharing that has nothing in common either with Hong Kong’s cut-throat capitalism nor with the crony communism rampant on the mainland. …
(pictures)
… There are no police in this world. Instead there are first-aid stations staffed by volunteers. More volunteers circulate with signs printed with the number to call if you need legal advice. There are mobile democracy classrooms. The advertising installations for fashion magazines and perfume are plastered with satirical depictions of Hong Kong’s chief executive C Y Leung. The walls of the flyover ramp bear messages of support in 61 languages, including Welsh, Scots Gaelic, Quebecois French and Pashto. Five days ago these occupied streets were kept immaculately clean by volunteers. They are still immaculately clean today. …” – Independent UK ( http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-day-of-reckoning-dawns-as-prodemocracy-protesters-told-to-leave-streets-9775737.html )
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There are pictures of the protestors walking the city streets at 3 AM picking up the litter. Is this any way to run a protest?