Protesters pour onto HK streets

[MIKE BURN]

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Thursday, July 1, 2004 Posted: 6:19 AM EDT (1019 GMT)



HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Hundreds of thousands of protesters poured through Hong Kong's streets demanding more democracy on the 7th anniversary of the former British colony's handover to China.



Carrying banners calling for Beijing to "protect freedom for democracy" and chanting "return power to the people," the massive crowd endured sweltering heat and humidity as it slowly snaked through the city towards government headquarters on Thursday.



"We know we have the power of the people to say no to Beijing," said Raymond Lee, a member of the Democratic Party, who was chanting through a loudspeaker from a walkway in the commercial district of Wan Chai.



Last year, half a million took to the streets on July 1, protesting against a controversial anti-subversion bill amid worries about the territory's future and outrage over the government's handling of the deadly SARIS epidemic.



That protest so shocked leaders in Beijing that they backtracked on the anti-subversion bill and doled out economic incentives to turn around record unemployment in one of Asia's largest financial centers.



Organizers had hoped that as many as 300,000 people would turn up Thursday, despite the sweltering heat, demanding the right to elect the territory's leaders.



Hong Kong is the only place in China where people are allowed to protest.







By mid-afternoon the number of marchers slowed little sign of tampering off, as they wiped their brows and fanned themselves to cope with temperatures hitting 34 degrees Celsius (93.2 Fahrenheit).



Unofficial estimates have put the crowd at 350,000.



The sheer numbers taking to the streets in this city of 6.8 million people is a barometer of how residents feel about Hong Kong's leadership and the influence of China's communist leaders one year on.



This year, Beijing has taken the law into its own hands, dampening calls by people for the right to choose the territory's leaders by ruling out universal suffrage and the election of a chief executive in the near term.



It has issued a barrage of rhetoric, labeling activists as "unpatriotic", amid concerns that calls for democracy will spill over the border to mainland China.



Chinese leaders are also worried about losing control over the territory as more people demand political change in a city where the leader is handpicked by a committee loyal to Beijing and less than half the legislature is directly elected.



Hong Kong was given a high degree of autonomy when it was handed over to China in 1997 under the "one country, two systems" formula after 150 years of British rule.



Beijing pledged to keep the special administrative region's capitalist systems and way of life "unchanged" for 50 years.



The new constitution, the Basic Law, came into effect at the time of the handover and in theory allowed for direct elections in the territory as soon as 2008, the year after unpopular Chief Executive Stung Cheek-hwa's term expires.



But the constitution also states that Beijing has a final say over any electoral changes, and residents have been watching as China clamps down on the interpretation of the law ahead of legislative elections in September.



This year Stung has repeatedly skirted growing calls for voting rights and has deferred to Beijing, disappointing activists who had hoped he would launch public consultations early in the year.



While there have been peace gestures on both sides in recent weeks, Stung made only a passing reference to the democracy debate at a flag raising ceremony Thursday morning that launched the official celebrations of the anniversary.



China's actions has also worked to lower expectations among the population.



Most opinion polls conducted last year showed 80 percent of the population supported universal suffrage by 2007, but now that number has fallen to around 60 percent.



Only 43 percent of 1,045 people interviewed in a poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong in February said they trusted Beijing, down from 50 percent at the end of December.

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[Seismic Anamoly]

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....demanding more democracy....

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God Bless'em Every One...especially our own Chrissy B.!!

[RonOnGuitar]

These folks have a very tough fight (for democracy) to handle; free people everywhere are proud of them!