{"id":31738,"date":"2013-01-02T20:41:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T20:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/127.0.0.1:10081\/?p=31738 "},"modified":"2013-01-02T20:41:00","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T20:41:00","slug":"31738-revision-v1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/?p=31738","title":{"rendered":"In Hong Kong, Thousands Protest China-Backed Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Protesters hold a picture of Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying on New Year’s Day in Hong Kong, January 1, 2013.<\/div>
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January 01, 2013<\/div>
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Thousands of protesters in Hong Kong are calling for the city’s scandal-ridden chief executive to step down and demanding that China allow them to elect their own leaders.<\/div>
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Police say about 17,000 protesters joined a New Year’s Day march through the city, holding signs and chanting slogans demanding the Beijing-backed chief executive Leung Chun-ying step down.<\/div>
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Leung, who took office in July, has faced widespread criticism following revelations that he tried to cover up illegal construction at his luxury homes – a sensitive issue in the crowded city, where space is at a premium.<\/div>
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Hong Kong resident Calvin Tse, was among the protesters calling for China to allow universal suffrage in the former British colony.<\/div>
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“Under the current mechanism, no matter how much we dislike the chief executive, we cannot make him step down. So, I am forced to come out to ask him to step down,” Tse explained. “We don’t even have a vote, he is elected by a small group of people. We cannot use our voting right to express our view no matter what his performance is like.”<\/div>
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Citizens in Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997, were not given the right to elect their leader until 2017. Leung was elected in March by a committee dominated by pro-China appointees.<\/div>
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Many residents were upset that Leung’s victory came after he criticized his rival, Henry Tang, for building an illegal basement in his own multi-million dollar home. Leung has apologized, but protesters insist that he step down.<\/div>
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In a statement Tuesday, Leung said he would “humbly” listen to the public’s views. Police said as many as 8,000 protesters joined a rally in support of the leader.<\/div>
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In December, Leung narrowly survived a no-confidence vote in the legislature, thanks to undemocratically appointed, pro-Beijing legislators swaying the outcome.<\/div>
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The scandal comes amid rising anger among Hong Kong residents that China is meddling in local affairs.<\/div>
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 <\/div> Continue reading the<\/span> original article. <\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/strong>
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<div>Police say about 17,000 protesters joined a New Year's Day march through the city, holding signs and chanting slogans demanding the Beijing-backed chief executive Leung Chun-ying step down.<\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ChinaHumanRights","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31738\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/minzhuzhongguo.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}