Twenty years after Britain returned its colony, China’s president provokes pro-democracy anger
Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters delivered a rebuke to President Xi Jinping after the Chinese leader warned that Hong Kong must not become a launchpad for challenges to Beijing’s authority.
Organisers said 60,000 people joined the two-mile march – held every year since 1997 – blaming thunderstorms for falling short of the goal of 100,000 demonstrators. Police reportedly put the turnout at 14,500.
On 1 July 1997, Britain handed Hong Kong back to China after more than 150 years of colonial rule. The date is now marked with a march, one of the larger demonstrations in the territory’s packed protest calendar, and the city remains the only place on Chinese soil where mass demonstrations are permitted. This year’s rally coincided with the first visit by the Chinese president and creeping pessimism over Beijing’s increasingly hardline stance towards the territory.
“Any attempt to endanger China’s sovereignty and security, challenge the power of the central government … or use Hong Kong to carry out infiltration and sabotage activities against the mainland is an act that crosses a red line and is absolutely impermissible, ” Xi said as he ended his trip. He was hundreds of miles away when the protest march began.
“Xi doesn’ t understand Hong Kong people. The Communist party’s solution to the world’s problems is money, because that is all they have, ” said Martin Lee, a veteran activist and former legislator. “The Communists don’ t have core values and principles to stand on, but we cherish our freedoms, civil rights and the rule of law.”
Lee, 79, is known as the “father of democracy” to supporters and a “traitor” or, worse, a “running dog of the colonialists”, in Communist party circles.
“We are walking a very difficult path, the road of democracy, and so long as we continue to walk we are bound to be successful, ” he said at the end of the rally. “Even if our country will be the last in the entire world to reach that goal, we will still get there.
