June 30, 2004

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Potential Chinese explosive testing

It appears China may be stockpiling and testing but the US has caught them out. There's even photographic proof.

(via Richard)

posted by Simon on 06.30.04 at 11:07 AM in the




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Unfortunately for the people of Honk Kong it does look like apathy in the face of Beijing's softly spoken approach could well have a significant impact on the march. But just you wait.

I am expecting this quiet approach to wear off right after the demonstrators pack up and go home, Beijing is probably holding the worst regulations back until the route is clear of people.

China has discovered that if you release new legislation after a protest instead of before it, people will be caught on the wrong footing and the resulting protests will appear to be muted and reactionary, and thus can be described as an unwarranted reaction from a few hard-line lunatics with little public support rather than as a representative protest by the larger population.

There have also been several reports that Beijing officials have warned travel operators off of sending mainland tourists to Hong Kong during the march so that they can't see what is going on, and of the Chinese media preparing to screen carefully selected footage of demonstrators and announce that it is a celebration of the handover and that many of the protesters are really Honk Kong residents displaying their love for the Chinese mainland.

I live too far away from Hong Kong to go to the march, but I urge anybody who reads this blog, especially native Chinese and Hong Kong residents to go along.

The more people who attend, the more chance of this making headlines around the world.

We have already seen R. Schriver and Colin Powell speak out in congress against the latest restrictions being placed on Hong Kong's efforts to reform and to become a democracy, and the US senate has recently carried the motion of censure against China proposed by Sam Brownback over the issue of suffrage and personal freedom.

posted by: Angry Chinese Blogger on 06.30.04 at 12:54 PM [permalink]

oh why.. oh why.. in the 150 years of colonial rule the british did not implement a full democratic government for hk till patten in the dying light of the british imperial sun.

the chinese fully expected to walk in with their governor to replace the white one and it will be business as usual for everyone just under a different flag.

but the british as history gives it (as in india/ pakistan/ bangladesh, middle east/ iraq/ saudi arabia, rhodesia, south africa ... etc.), screws up again (one view) or salted the earth and laid the landmines to hinder the incoming chinese (another view)

posted by: mw on 06.30.04 at 05:06 PM [permalink]

MW: trotting out the old hoary why didn't the British do something until the end doesn't change the situation. Firstly Patten did makes ammends by starting on the road to democracy. Secondly the British, for all their faults, did their level best to incorporate into the Basic Law safegaurds to ensure democracy would come to HK. UNfortunately the CCP chose to over-ride the clear intent of the Basic Law and that is why several hundred thousand people will march tomorrow.

posted by: Simon on 06.30.04 at 05:27 PM [permalink]

As I understood things, Britain small, China big.

By the time anybody thought about giving Hong Kong a democratic government Britain had been stripped of its' status as a super power by a US insistance that it hand back its empire after world war 2. It couldn't implement a full democracy because this would probably have lead to China mucling in early. Also if there had been free elections before the handover, I'm certain that the 1997 government of China would have simply held a new election and rigged it in favour of Chinese puppets.

posted by: Angry Chinese Blogger on 07.01.04 at 09:52 AM [permalink]




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