2015-03-10
Hong Kong police arrest a demonstrator during anti-parallel protests in Hong Kong, March 8, 2015.
Citizenside
The Chinese government is now moving to crack down on low-level “smuggling” between Hong Kong and mainland China following angry demonstrations in several Hong Kong shopping districts over the weekend, but the latest cross-border standoff is increasingly being linked to broader political tensions.
More than 100 Hong Kong protesters on Sunday gathered in the town of Tuen Mun, not far from the internal border with mainland China, in a show of public anger over the practice of “parallel trading” in which traders re-sell goods acquired in the city at a mark-up across the border.
Protesters chanting “clamp down on parallel trading” stormed a shopping mall, kicking the luggage of anyone who looked as if they might be carrying goods in bulk, and prompting business owners to shut down early, local media reported.
During the protests in Tuen Mun and Sheung Shui, protesters were seen kicking the bags and belongings of passersby and surrounding and insulting people seen dragging or pushing luggage, government broadcaster RTHK reported.
Four people were arrested during scuffles with police in Tuen Mun, it said.
Hong Kong officials and politicians have condemned the protests, saying they will harm the city’s international image as a safe and courteous place of business.
But protest organizer Leung Kam-shing, who heads the Sheung Shui Parallel Traders’ Concern Group, warned of further violence if the government doesn’t abolish multiple-entry permits used by the traders to cross the border several times a day.
“The industry and commerce minister in China can see how this is affecting Hong Kong, and yet our own officials … just blame us, with no pledge to end the multiple-entry visa,” Leung told RFA on Monday.
Cross-border tensions
The protests have underscored long-running tensions between Hong Kong residents and their “compatriots” from the mainland, and come after a string of street confrontations and online flame-wars involving mainlanders in the former British colony.
But many now fear that even minor cross-border tensions will be politicized by Beijing.
League of Social Democrats chairman Andrew To, who also heads the Wong Tai Sin District Council, said the protests are harmful to Hong Kong’s democratic tradition of peaceful dispute settlement.
“If you are unhappy about the multiple-entry permits system … then you deal with that, you don’t go targeting tourists or other people,” To said.
“People will start to think that you’re trying to do more than just protect your own rights,” he said.
To said the protests would also harm the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong, which is calling for universal suffrage and public nominations in 2017 elections, rather than a system in which candidates are vetted by Beijing.
“The Chinese government is telling people that people in Hong Kong want independence, and that we hate mainlanders,” To said.
“So I think this will have a very bad impact on our movement.”
