HONG KONG — Police fired choking volleys of pepper spray against Hong Kong crowds demonstrating against President Hu Jintao yesterday as he visited the unruly city to mark its return to Chinese rule. The incident underscored tensions surrounding the 15th anniversary today of the financial hub’s handover from British control. The anniversary coincides with the inauguration of a new and unpopular leader of the local government.
On the second day of Hu’s three-day visit, hundreds of protesters demanding an investigation into the recent death of a well-known mainland dissident rallied near the Chinese leader’s five-star hotel. Some tried to break through giant barricades, which are being used by police for the first time since they battled violent protests during a 2005 meeting of the World Trade Organization in Hong Kong.
Police unleashed riot-control measures to keep the demonstrators back, hitting a number of reporters and photographers including threecorrespondents in the process with eye-stinging pepper spray. As the faceoff developed, other protesters chanted anti-Beijing slogans and unfurled a huge banner with the Chinese character “injustice” written on it.
Another Hong Kong reporter was briefly detained after shouting questions to Hu about the 1989 Tiananmen Square bloodshed, as the president visited the construction site for a new cruise-ship terminal earlier yesterday. Hu’s visit comes as discontent toward Beijing surges to a new post-handover high, and his visit has drawn sneers and ridicule from Hong Kongers, who cherish freedoms in the city such as the right to protest not seen in China.
There has been palpable anger over the death of veteran Tiananmen activist Li Wangyang, who was found dead in his hospital ward in China earlier this month. His family say he died under suspicious circumstances.
The towering barricades in Hong Kong are likely to defy Hu’s stated wish to “walk more” and “see more” during his trip to the semi-autonomous city, which returned to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997.
“Are we celebrating the handover anniversary or staging a war?” one Facebook user wrote.
Metal fences set up to keep potential demonstrators in a so-called “petition zone” and “protest zone” are so far away from Hu’s hotel that he is unlikely to see or hear any protests, a fixture of Hong Kong’s daily life.
The director of Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, Law Yuk-kai, criticised the security measures as an attempt to shield the Chinese leader from any “embarrassing demonstrations”. He said the city was “under siege”.
Police had vowed to respect the right to protest during Hu’s visit, after they were criticised for heavy-handed tactic during a visit by Chinese Vice-Premier Li Keqiang last year, prompting a special inquiry. But some users on social media likened the security tactics for President Hu to the Great Wall of China or the Berlin Wall. — AFP
