Huge Rally in HK for Freedom, Universal Suffrage and Autonomy 同心合力 悍衛我城

Joint Sino-British Declaration violated, huge number of Hongkongese took to the street today, filling up streets that span four districts on Hong Kong Island to express their anger at the pro-China puppet Hong Kong government. Angered by the illegal approval at the Legislative Council of the NE New Territories which aims at dissolving the Hong Kong-China Border as well as the issuing of the "White Paper" by China, claiming her full right to govern Hong Kong, people from all walks of life came together today to fight for freedom, universal suffrage and full autonomy. 

立法會強行溶解中港邊界，中共違反中英聯合聲明，眼見香港赤化，我哋群起 悍衛我城

New York Times with video news:

Huge Crowds Turn Out for Pro-Democracy March in Hong Kong, Defying Beijing

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/02/world/asia/hong-kong-china-democracy-march.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=WO_HCT_20140701&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=2

BBC News:

Hong Kong police arrest democracy protesters at sit-in

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-28122434

Financial Times:
Video News on 7 1 Rally
http://video.ft.com/3653694735001/Hong-Kongers-march-for-democracy/editorschoice

Financial Times:  

Patten attacks China over Hong Kong judiciary remarks

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c8a5a7c6-035d-11e4-817f-00144feab7de.html#axzz36Y8TFpCP

The Guardian:

Hong Kong police detain hundreds after mass protests

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/02/hong-kong-police-detain-hundreds-protest

CNN:
Hundreds arrested at sit-in following huge pro-democracy rally in Hong Kong
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/07/01/world/asia/hong-kong-democracy-protests/index.html?hpt=ias_c1

Amazing Time Lapse Video on the Rally:

The Long-term Causes that led to the Protest (Commentary from entry posted on 17 June 2014)

Since the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People’s Republic of China in 1997, the People’s Republic of China has been increasingly interfering with Hong Kong’s internal affairs which violated the “One Country, Two Systems” principle enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration ensuring Hong Kong full autonomy on all internal affairs except defense and diplomacy. For instance, even as of 17 years since the handover, Hongkongese were still unable to elect its “Chief Executive”, an equivalent to the president of a country, as the position is still appointed by a pro-China committee. The Legislative Council is still not fully elected by the Hong Kong general public but largely controlled by pro-China legislators. Every day, a quota of 150 is given to immigrants from the People’s Republic of China and, ironically, as an autonomous state, Hong Kong is deprived of the right to filter or refuse entry of these people. It is an attempt to change Hong Kong’s demography. And, in recent years, deprived of any mechanism to regulate the inflow of visitors from China, Hong Kong have seen a dramatic increase in number of visitors.  In 2013, the total number of visitors had exceeded 54 million people, six times the population of Hong Kong and, among them, 75% came from China. These visitors from China have been buying up daily necessities such as milk powder and smuggling them to China in huge quantities in broad daylight, overloading the public transport systems, driving up rent and effectively shut down local and traditional shops with great cultural significance all around the city in huge numbers. Worst still, the People’s Republic of China has just issued a “White Paper” in June, claiming that China has the right of total governance in Hong Kong, an act that violated the Sino-British Joint Declaration and essentially an attempt to abolish the constitution of Hong Kong.

Two Systems for Two Peoples

The growing identity of Hongkongese as a separate group of people different from that of the Chinese of the People’s Republic of China had never been stronger as China’s aggression escalates. As a matter of fact, Hong Kong had been separated from Mainland China since the British takeover in 1841, which since then developed into a community with its own distinct identity. It was not until 1997 that Hong Kong was handed over to the present People’s Republic of China, without first consulting the Hong Kong public.

Gary Yeung

Special thanks to Richard for editing the text!

Another entry about the NE New Territories Development is reposted on the International Urban Sketchers Website:
http://www.urbansketchers.org/2014/06/hong-kongese-protest-against.html