RAISING HELL FOR A NOBLE CAUSE...

bbchris

COOL! Thanks for posting this link - I'd not seen it.

That pic at the top; the guy on the left is a very active demonstrater in Hong Kong - Mr. Cheung aka Long Hair - he's been to jail at least twice for being arrested at 'non-organised' demonstrations or 'shouting during court proceedings' - I think he's so important to Hong Kong.

He was also a fan of the Sisters of Sharon (I should tell him about TOL!! :wgrin

) - he'd come to gigs and everytime I tried to tell the audience a joke, he'd shout out in his big booming demonstrator voice "Shut up and play the guitar!" hahahahahahahahaa At least 10 times at each of the three gigs he came to!!

Did you see the "South China Morning Post" comment? They are so 'pro-China'! hahahaha

That is so cool of the BBC online - I actually wrote them an email to remind them to report on the planned march on 1 July - they even replied to me!!

Dear Christine

Thank you for your email. We are covering this story - see link below and will continue to monitor developments as they occur. Thank you for your interest in the BBC News website.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world...033956.stm

Regards

BBC News Online

Seismic Anamoly · Joined: 22 Aug 2002 Posts: 3039

LOVERS OF LIBERTY RAISE HELL IN HONG KONG...

For what it's worth, you guys...I'm Proud Of Ya.... :thumb

goodisonpark · Joined: 12 Jun 2003 Posts: 193

This was in the telegraph:

Hong Kong marches to defend its freedoms

By Richard Spencer

(Filed: 02/07/2003)

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Hong Kong yesterday to protest against new anti-subversion laws in the biggest display of discontent anywhere in China since the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989.

Pro-democracy demonstrators burn a Communist Party flag

Six years after Britain returned the territory to China, a mass gathering of the former colony's middle classes and professionals called on the government to drop the proposals which many say mark the "real handover", and quit.

The scale of the the march far outdid expectations, and overshadowed the formal celebrations of the anniversary at which the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, was guest of honour.

In a rare intervention by a member of China's leadership, Mr Wen insisted beforehand that the legislation "absolutely will not affect the different rights and freedoms that Hong Kong people enjoy under the law".

As he spoke, a handful of protesters demanding the release of political prisoners and an end to one-party rule burned the Chinese flag. They were kept away from Mr Wen, who was hustled back to the mainland border before the main demonstration began.

The Hong Kong government is determined to press ahead with a vote on the legislation, despite the huge opposition. It says it is obliged to update laws banning treason, subversion, sedition and secession under Article 23 of the Basic Law, the constitution agreed at the handover.

Critics say the government has gone further than it needed to, and that there are few common law systems in which the checks and balances of power have been replaced by ultimate loyalty to a Communist dictatorship.

There is particular concern about clauses which allow the government to ban groups judged by Beijing to be a threat to national security, and which make it an offence to reveal state secrets - a broad category in China.

The government is almost bound to get its way, as the legislative council has an inbuilt pro-Beijing majority. But it may be shocked by the size of yesterday's protest.

Police estimated 350,000, but organisers said as many as 500,000 people took to the narrow streets beneath the city's skyscrapers, far more than the 100,000 predicted.

Many marchers dressed largely in black as a sign of mourning for Hong Kong's "lost freedoms". Some held up posters showing Tung Chee-hwa, the chief executive, splattered with a custard pie.

Their anger was not just over Article 23, but also over the decline of Hong Kong since 1997. The downturn in the economy and the collapse of the property market have hit the middle classes particularly hard. The protesters were dismissed in advance by Regina Ip, the Beijing-backed security secretary, who is pushing through the law and who says she will not turn back.

One marcher, Kennis Lee, 30, said: "We know the government will go on because they don't listen. We are here because perhaps this is the last time we can say what we want. There will be no more chances."

Another, Peter Lam, 42, said it was not that they missed British rule. "It is just that we were hoping China's promise of one country, two systems, would be kept. We were willing to trust them but, six years on, we have been disappointed."

The world is your oyster but the future's a clam

Seismic Anamoly · Joined: 22 Aug 2002 Posts: 3039

"The proposed law's purpose is to protect the "sovereignty, territorial integrity, unity and national security" of China and the Hong Kong Government.

Under the law, expressing or reporting an opinion is not criminalised, unless it threatens to "to levy war or use force or other serious offences to sedition".

But emergency powers would allow a property to be entered and an individual to be stopped and searched in order to investigate SUSPECTED treason, secession, sedition or subversion.

The penalty if found guilty for such crimes would be LIFE IN PRISON. "

@#%$!! Suspected, eh?? Reasonable or Unreasonable...I doubt if it will matter...and you'll probably be considered Guilty until you can prove your Innocence...which is Bass-Ackwards...

Well...Suspect THIS... :count