HONG KONG (AP) — At least 12,000 demonstrators marched on Sunday to protest
a planned anti-subversion law they fear will undermine Hong Kong’s freedoms
and put the territory more firmly under the thumb of mainland China.
“We don’t want darkness to fall on Hong Kong,” said Lee Cheuk-yan, a
legislator and union leader, as the protesters advanced to Hong Kong
government headquarters, waving signs, chanting and popping balloons.
Many sang the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome” in the peaceful
demonstration, in which the line of demonstrators stretched nearly four
miles.
Police said 12,000 people had turned out, while organizers put the number at
25,000.
The march was enormous by Hong Kong standards — rivaled in recent years
only by the crowds that turn out each June 4 to commemorate China’s bloody
crackdown on protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Ever since Hong Kong was returned from British to Chinese sovereignty in
July 1997, it has been required by its mini-constitution to outlaw
subversion, sedition, treason and other crimes against the state.
The government recently began work on the legislation. Critics say officials
are going too far — apparently to please Beijing — with a law so loosely
written it would let the authorities trample on people’s freedoms or ban
groups the government doesn’t like.
Hong Kong Secretary for Security Regina Ip has dismissed such concerns as
groundless, saying the territory’s laws also protect civil liberties, and
that will not be changed.
Many here don’t believe the government.
“I don’t want Hong Kong to become like China,” said Philip Cheung, a
48-year-old civil servant who joined Sunday’s demonstration.
“The rights we have are not guaranteed in the future,” grumbled a
25-year-old bank clerk, Sam Ho.
Since Hong Kong’s handover, free speech rights have been guaranteed under a
government arrangement dubbed “one country, two systems,” and there are
hundreds of demonstrations every year, mostly involving dozens of people or
fewer.
The size of Sunday’s demonstration indicated strong discontent among Hong
Kong’s 6.8 million citizens over the bill, which the government hopes to
pass by July.
The Hong Kong Security Bureau said the protest proves the government’s
contention that local civil liberties are intact.
“Today’s rally bears testimony to the freedom of expression and the right to
demonstrate which are enjoyed by Hong Kong residents,” the bureau said in a
statement. “These rights and freedoms are guaranteed.”
The protest snarled traffic in the city center in the late afternoon, but
appeared to be winding down peacefully early Sunday night.
Pro-democracy politicians and human rights activists opposed to the law have
been joined by some in the business community who fear the exchange of some
financial information could theoretically be targeted and wreck Hong Kong as
a business center.
http://www.ptd.net/webnews/wed/dn/Ahong-kong-subversion.RnKY_CDF.html
Posting date: 17/Dec/2002
Original article date: 15/Dec/2002
Category: Media Reports
