{"id":17726,"date":"2014-09-28T04:09:53","date_gmt":"2014-09-28T04:09:53","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2014-09-28T04:09:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-28T04:09:53","slug":"Pro-Democracy-protests-expand-in-Hong-Kong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=17726","title":{"rendered":"Pro-Democracy protests expand in Hong Kong"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pro-democracy protests expanded in Hong Kong today, a day after demonstrators upset over Beijing’s decision to limit political reforms defied onslaughts of tear gas and appeals from Hong Kong’s top leader to go home.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And with rumors swirling, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying reassured the public that speculation that the Chinese army might intervene was untrue.<\/p>\n

At dawn today, police officers tried to negotiate with protesters camped out on a normally busy highway near government headquarters that was the scene of the tear gas-fueled clashes that erupted the evening before.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An officer with a bullhorn tried to get them to clear the way for the commuters that would soon be streaming into work.<\/strong> A protester, using the group’s own speaker system, responded by saying that they wanted Leung and his cabinet to “do something good for Hong Kong. We want real democracy.”<\/p>\n

The mass protest, which has gathered support from high school students to seniors, is the strongest challenge yet to Beijing’s decision to limit democratic reforms for the semi-autonomous city.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The protests began with a class boycott by students urging Beijing to grant genuine democratic reforms to this former British colony.<\/p>\n

When China took control of Hong Kong from the British in 1997, it agreed to a policy of “one country, two systems” that allowed the city a high degree of control over its own affairs and kept in place liberties unseen on the mainland.<\/strong> It also promised the city’s leader would eventually be chosen through “universal suffrage.”<\/p>\n

Hong Kong’s residents have long felt their city stood apart from mainland China thanks to those civil liberties and separate legal and financial systems.<\/p>\n

Beijing’s insistence on using a committee to screen candidates on the basis of their patriotism to China – similar to the one that currently hand-picks Hong Kong’s leaders – has stoked fears among pro-democracy groups that Hong Kong will never get genuine democracy.<\/p>\n

University students began their class boycotts over a week ago and say they will continue them until officials meet their demands for reforming the local legislature and withdrawing the proposal to screen election candidates.<\/p>\n

Although students started the rally, leaders of the broader Occupy Central civil disobedience movement joined them<\/strong>, saying they wanted to kick-start a long-threatened mass sit-in demanding Hong Kong’s top leader be elected without Beijing’s interference.<\/p>\n

Occupy Central issued a statement Monday calling on Leung to resign and saying his “non-response to the people’s demands has driven Hong Kong into a crisis of disorder.”<\/p>\n

The statement added that the protest was now “a spontaneous movement” of all Hong Kong people.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Source AP<\/em>
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