2014-09-01
Pro-democracy lawmaker Leung Kwok Hung, nicknamed Long Hair, is expelled by security guards during a briefing session on Sept. 1, 2014 as he and other pan-democracy legislators protest against Beijing’s rejection of demands for the right to freely choose Hong Kong’s next leader in 2017.
EYEPRESS NEWS
Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong have vowed to press ahead with a civil disobedience campaign, heckling a top Beijing official on Monday as he tried to explain why China’s parliament has ruled out full democracy for the former British colony.
Li Fei, a Hong Kong affairs committee member of China’s top legislative body, the National People’s Congress (NPC) , was forced to speak over the shouts of veteran lawmaker and activist Leung Kwok-hung, also known as “Long Hair,” as he took the podium at the Asia World Expo convention center.
“The central government broke its promise,” the activists chanted, while others held banners bearing the slogan: “Shameless!” before being ejected from the meeting.
Police later confirmed they had fired pepper spray at protesters outside the venue for “behaving violently,” although no details of the violence were given.
On Sunday, organizers of the Occupy Central universal suffrage campaign said Hong Kong has now entered “an era of civil disobedience,” after the NPC confirmed that only candidates vetted by a pro-Beijing committee will be allowed to enter the 2017 race for the territory’s next chief executive.
Thousands gathered outside the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong as Li arrived in the city ahead of Monday’s conference, with organizers counting some 5,000 participants, mostly students.
Police said just 2,600 were present at the peak of the protest, however.
Abuse of powers
Yvonne Leung, a student leader at the Hong Kong Federation of Students, hit out at Hong Kong police for abuse of their powers.
“Everyone should be free to go in and out of a hotel, but [some of the protesters] were carried away,” Leung said of Sunday’s protest.
“I think this constitutes an unreasonable use of force.”
She said the Federation would begin a series of student boycotts of classes in September, in protest at the NPC’s decision.
Occupy co-founder Benny Tai, the Alliance for True Democracy, Scholarism, and the Federation of Students, have said that more information on the movement’s plans will be released in the next few weeks.
‘Hostile foreign forces’
Beijing officials have repeatedly said they won’t accept the election of anyone who is disloyal to China, while official media has increasingly accused “hostile foreign forces” and “Western political forces” of fueling dissent in China, including Hong Kong.
