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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: BubbaFred who wrote (675)	9/7/2003 11:52:16 AM
From: BubbaFred	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

Protests Thwart Security Rules in Hong Kong By KEITH BRADSHER nytimes.com ONG KONG, Sept. 5 — Hong Kong's chief executive, bowing to public pressure, announced today that he was withdrawing internal-security legislation that had provoked huge protests in July. The retreat by Tung Chee-hwa, the chief executive, is a startling setback for Beijing, which rarely yields to popular demand. Beijing had insisted for much of the last year that Hong Kong pass stringent security laws as soon as possible. Mr. Tung mounted a campaign to persuade the public that the bill's opponents were unpatriotic people who disliked China and, in the words of Qian Qichen, until recently China's deputy prime minister, had "devils in their hearts." But when 500,000 people, nearly a 10th of the population, turned up to march against the legislation on July 1, in China's biggest protest since the Tiananmen Square rallies in 1989, Beijing's reaction was mostly silence. In the weeks since then, the official reaction has been unexpectedly pragmatic, leading some experts to suggest that China's new president, Hu Jintao, and his top aides may be somewhat less quick to crack down on dissent than their predecessors were. "The voices of moderation have been pretty consistently in the ascendancy," said William Overholt, an expert on Hong Kong and China at the RAND Corporation, a research and policy institute in Santa Monica, Calif. Hong Kong has preserved its economic system and many of its laws since Britain handed it over to China in 1997. Many here described the security legislation with its broad police powers, vaguely worded definitions of crimes and long prison sentences as the true transfer to Chinese rule. Hong Kong's protesters differed from the Tiananmen Square protesters in significant ways. The marchers here were mostly seeking to preserve the status quo, not change it. They also had the discipline to hold three mass rallies over two weeks and then stop to wait for Mr. Tung's response instead of demonstrating continuously, as happened in 1989. Mr. Tung began to retreat on July 7 when he dropped his original goal of winning passage for his security bill on July 9. He said today that while he still believed legislation was needed here to protect China's national security, he would not introduce a new bill until a clear public consensus supported the legislation. Mr. Tung today canceled the government's plans to issue a "consultation document" that would have asked the public what if any amendments the bill should include. Lawmakers said the bill's withdrawal made it unlikely that any security bill could be enacted before next summer's Legislative Council elections. Pro-government parties feared that their support for the security bill could cost them seats in those elections if the bill remained the subject of controversy until then. The main pro-Beijing party here, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, called on Aug. 21 for Mr. Tung to postpone the security bill until after those elections. It welcomed Mr. Tung's postponement today. "With this move I think the people in Hong Kong will concentrate more on the economy, and it will make the election not that politicized," said Ma Lik, the secretary general of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong. Democracy advocates here were pleased by Mr. Tung's decision but suspicious of his long-term plans. Mr. Tung had tried over the past year to push the legislation through using a "fast track" process that limited opportunities for amendments. Asked repeatedly during a news conference today whether he would use the same process if the legislation were re-introduced later, Mr. Tung declined to answer. Yeung Sum, the chairman of the Democratic Party, the main opposition party here, said the government might try to obtain the re-election of a pro-government majority in the Legislative Council next summer and then quickly push the legislation through in the next session. As late as mid-August, state-controlled newspapers in China were still calling for passage of the security bill. But after Chinese intelligence and security agencies sent representatives here in late July and early August to interview community leaders, the tone of remarks from Chinese officials began to change, quickly followed by changes in the official news organizations. The only reaction today from Beijing to Mr. Tung's announcement was a terse statement by the New China News Agency reporting the bill's withdrawal. Beijing has made a series of economic concessions to Hong Kong this summer in an effort to allay public anger, including some concessions that have angered officials in other Chinese cities, notably Shanghai. Today's decision eases the pressure on Beijing to offer yet more concessions to Hong Kong in order to buy support for the security legislation. Beijing and Hong Kong concluded a free-trade agreement on June 29, partly in an unsuccessful bid to discourage attendance at a march against the security legislation on July 1. But the rally still attracted about 500,000. Since then, Beijing has relaxed some of its remaining restrictions on visits here by mainland citizens. This has produced a flood of tourism that is lifting retail sales and even reviving the moribund property market, as affluent mainlanders seek a safe place to invest. Beijing and Hong Kong also agreed in July that Hong Kong would be the first city where offshore banking would be allowed for China's currency. But that arrangement provoked protests by municipal officials in Shanghai, which has considerable influence because it is the hometown of many top Communist officials and reportedly hopes someday to become a financial center to rival Hong Kong. Mr. Tung said today that while Hong Kong would still be the first city to have offshore banking in China's currency, "the time is not ripe yet" for offshore banking anywhere.

To: BubbaFred who wrote (675)	9/7/2003 9:34:25 PM
From: hui zhou	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

Well those Chinese peasants are brain dead by paying 50K and jepodized their life in container in order to smuggle to US. Then, paid lawyer $$$ to help them to stay if they were not sent to the jail. I think many Chinese immgrants, legal or illegal, are regret to come here in some degree but fail to reveal it to the others. US indeed did a great job to describe it is a sort of "paradise". Now they try to flood N Korean to US to topple the region. If many of those N Korean can't do well in S Korean, how can they adjust themselves to US? They may be better of under Kim Jong Il.