Day after new pro-Beijing chief chosen, Hong Kong police move to arrest activists
Day after new pro-Beijing chief chosen, Hong Kong police move to arrest activists:- Hong Kong police are to charge nine leaders of the 2014 pro-democracy campaign with violating public order, protest leaders said — a controversial and potentially divisive decision coming just a day after a new chief executive was chosen for the semi-autonomous territory.
On Sunday, an elite election commission dominated by Beijing loyalists picked Carrie Lam, a career civil servant, as Hong Kong’s new chief executive, despite the fact that opinion polls showed she was not the most popular candidate among the general public.
The 2014 “Umbrella Movement” that saw tens of thousands protest in Hong Kong’s downtown for more democracy opened up divisions in this former British colony and Lam vowed on Sunday to “heal the divide and ease the frustration.”
Yet less than 24 hours later, several students and academics who took part in the 2014 pro-democracy movement, also known as Occupy Central, said they had received phone calls from the police informing them they faced criminal charges.
“The timing is obviously deliberate,” said Professor Chan Kinman, a sociology professor who was a core leader of the movement, and has been told he will face three charges of creating a public nuisance and inciting others to do the same.
He said the authorities apparently delayed the announcement of the charges to avoid a public backlash that might have upset Lam’s chances of being chosen by the 1,200-member election committee.
Chan, who has been told to report to police later on Monday, said that, as far he could ascertain, the first charge alone could attract a prison sentence of up to seven years.
“Carrie Lam said her government’s first mission is to mend cleavages in society and to create a dialogue, but now with this action, I don’t see how the government can create a dialogue with the opposition,” he said in an interview.
“People were very frustrated yesterday when the most popular candidate wasn’t chosen, and the people’s will was not respected by Beijing,” Chan said. “It seems the authorities want to send a signal they will continue their hardline approach to civil society and the opposition.”
The chief executive’s role in Hong Kong is a tough balancing act, with demands from the central Chinese government in Beijing often at odds with the wishes of the city’s 7.3 million people. But there are already doubts about Lam’s ability to balance those demands: she is believed to have been strongly backed by Beijing, and Chinese state media warmly welcomed her “election” Monday.
Under the terms of the 1997 handover from British rule, China vowed to grant Hong Kong significant autonomy under the “One Country, Two Systems” model, but critics say it has not fully kept that promise — for example, when booksellers from the territory were spirited out of Hong Kong in 2015 to face detention and interrogation on the mainland .
The pro-democracy protests began in September 2014 with a peaceful sit-in in central Hong Kong. When police used tear gas, and protesters used umbrellas to defend themselves, the protests were nicknamed the Umbrella Movement or Umbrella Revolution, and tens of thousands of people turned out to express support.
The protests, though peaceful at first, were subsequently marred by periodic scuffles with police.
Lam served as chief secretary — effectively the second most powerful role in the city’s administration — during the protests, before standing down in January to compete in the chief executive’s race. She is due to take over on July 1, but said she did not know in advance of the decision to make the arrests.
“Prosecution actions are undertaken independently by the Department of Justice, under the Basic Law,” she told a news conference Monday, referring to the territory’s mini-constitution.
“I made it very clear that I want to unite society and bridge the divide that has been causing us concern,” she said, according to local media. “But all these actions should not compromise the rule of law in Hong Kong.”
Also facing charges are the two other founders of the Occupy Central movement — University of Hong Kong law professor Benny Tai, and Reverend Chu Yiu-ming — as well as six other student leaders and legislators who played important roles in the movement, protest leaders said.
Joshua Wong, one of the most recognizable figures in the student movement, is not among those who have been told they will be charged, but said the decision proves that Lam is taking a hardline approach that will only further “polarize society.”
Mabel Au, director of Amnesty International Hong Kong, said the charges were “a blow to the rights of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly” in the territory, adding that the timing raised questions about whether “political maneuverings” were a factor.
“This vindictiveness shows contempt for well-established freedoms in Hong Kong and will only lead to more political tensions,” she said in a statement.
Source:- https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/day-after-new-pro-beijing-chief-chosen-hong-kong-police-move-to-arrest-activists/2017/03/27/9fedf110-12c5-11e7-924b-58851f3a675d_story.html?utm_term=.6abe23e623d1
