Thousands Rally in Hong Kong to Demand Free Elections
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: January 1, 2004
HONG KONG, Jan. 1 — A huge throng marched through this city's avenues today to demand free elections. It was the largest demonstration here since a big protest on July 1 forced the government to postpone and later withdraw a proposal for stringent internal-security laws.
While the crowd today did not match the half-million people who swamped the streets on July 1, a two-mile-long procession of protesters of all ages did make the walk from a large city park dotted with palm trees to the main government offices.
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Demonstrators called for the government to allow the public to elect the next chief executive and the entire legislature in this autonomous Chinese territory. "Democracy is what the Hong Kong people must have," said Ko Kam-fung, a 43-year-old interior designer.
Tung Chee-hwa, the current chief executive, was re-elected without opposition last year by an 800-member Election Committee loyal to Beijing. Various business and professional groups, along with the Election Committee, also select 36 of the 60 members of the legislature, while the public elects the rest.
Richard Tsoi, the spokesman for the coalition of labor unions and nonprofit groups that organized the protest today, said that 100,000 people had participated, far more than the 20,000 that the coalition had predicted in obtaining a parade permit from the police.
A police spokeswoman said tonight that the number of people waiting in the park to begin marching had peaked at 37,000, but she declined to estimate the number who actually participated in the march, which included many people who entered the procession from side streets instead of the crowded park.
Mr. Tung's administration issued a statement this evening saying "many citizens" had taken part in the procession. He added: "We will listen carefully to their aspirations."
The statement said that the government had an obligation to pursue democratic development under the Basic Law, the mini-constitution for Hong Kong that Britain and China negotiated before Britain handed over the territory to China in 1997. But the government also noted, "Hong Kong is a pluralistic society, and there are differing views on the pace of constitutional development."
Many business tycoons oppose further democracy, contending that the public does not understand the importance and complexity of creating an environment conducive to investment. Mr. Tung has said that he will begin studying constitutional reforms this year, and will work with the next legislature, to be elected in early September.
The demonstrators called for universal suffrage in elections for Mr. Tung's successor in 2007 and for the elections for the legislature in 2008.
Through state-run newspapers, Beijing has already signaled its uneasiness with allowing greater democracy in Hong Kong, particularly as long as candidates hostile to the Communist Party continue to do well in elections here. Chinese security agencies have stepped up their monitoring of the city after being taken by surprise by the protests last July, pro-Beijing political leaders said.
Pro-democracy candidates mostly routed pro-Beijing candidates in elections on Nov. 23 for 400 seats on various local councils here. Those results led many here to call for Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong's chief executive, not to exercise his right, granted by Beijing six years ago, to appoint up to 102 more people to the councils.
But Mr. Tung went ahead on Saturday and appointed 102 council members, mostly business executives not active in democratic causes.
Organizers of today's march had predicted that this decision would draw more people to the event, and some marchers said in interviews that the appointments had indeed made a difference in their decision to participate.
"If we are a democracy then why are there appointments?" asked Christine Chung, a 49-year-old nurse who said she had waited for more than three hours in the park for her turn to march. "They're not elected by the people."
Mr. Tung remains the target of considerable criticism, with many today carrying three-foot-high balloons showing Mr. Tung's face at the top of a spindly neck. Activists with megaphones periodically bellowed, "Tung Chee-hwa," and the crowd would roar back, "Against."
Lo Bahcl, a 50-year-old man who said that economic troubles had forced his last employer to push him into retirement, said that he marched because he blamed Mr. Tung for his troubles and the territory's. "The first thing I want is for Mr. Tung to step down," he said. "Things will be getting better as soon as he does this."
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The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions joined a variety of non-profit groups in organizing the New Year's Day march, and the protesters appeared to be more heavily blue-collar than last summer, when the protests also drew many businesspeople and professionals. Many of the protesters today carried small, yellow signs that read, "Lower classes want democracy."
Hong Kong's economy has rebounded from a deep recession last spring, during an outbreak of SARS, to rapid growth this winter, partly because Beijing has made a series of concessions to allay political discontent here. The stock market ended up, rising 35 percent last year, and property prices are up sharply as investors from the mainland and around the world have sought to cash in on southeastern China's booming economy.
But unemployment remains high, at 7.5 percent, and Hong Kong still has a minimal social safety net for those who lose their jobs. Many factories have moved across the border to lower-wage cities in mainland China, causing blue-collar job losses even as professionals have prospered.
Mindful that two months of almost continuous protests in 1989 prompted China's leaders to impose a bloody crackdown in and around Tiananmen Square, activists here refrained from further large protests through the autumn after their initial successes in the first two weeks of July.
Chinese officials were initially very critical of the July demonstrations, with one even comparing it to the Cultural Revolution on the mainland. But more-recent statements have been more accepting that people here have a right to demonstrate, a right still not tolerated on the mainland.
nytimes.com
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