Hong Kong Liaison Office Director Zhang Xiaoming (張曉明) has warned democracy campaigners in the former British colony against pushing for independence and confronting Beijing, Xinhua news agency reported.
Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong shut down major business districts for two-and-a-half months last year, with the “Umbrella movement” demanding open nominations in the next election of the territory’s chief executive in 2017.
Beijing has said it will allow a vote, but only for pre-screened candidates.
Photo: Reuters
In his most extensive comments since police cleared the protesters from the territory’s highways in mid-December, China’s top official in Hong Kong made it clear that Beijing is moving toward tighter control of the global financial hub.
“We could not allow any attempt to reject the central authority’s jurisdiction over Hong Kong under the pretext of a high degree of autonomy, to advocate ‘Hong Kong independence,’ or even to overtly confront with the central government through illegal ways,” Zhang said on Wednesday at a reception attended by top officials, according to Xinhua.
There is no mainstream independence movement in Hong Kong, although some activists want a continued campaign of civil disobedience this year to force Beijing to accept fully democratic elections.
Banners seeking to humiliate Hong Kong and Chinese leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), festooned streets and government buildings during last year’s protests.
Democratic Legislative Council Legislator Emily Lau (劉惠卿) said Zhang’s comments were “improper and inappropriate” for a mainland official and blurred the boundaries between Hong Kong and China’s governance systems.
“It seems they want to interfere, they want to take the lead and it is very alarming,” Lau said.
Zhang on Wednesday said it was necessary to rethink the relationship between the two and that Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests had proved its rule of law could be “fragile.”
Zhang also suggested Beijing could take a renewed interest in patriotic education, a touchy subject that sparked protests in Hong Kong in 2012.
“Priority should be given to the history, culture and national conditions of China in the education of the young people so that they could fully understand that the destiny and future of Hong Kong are closely connected to those of the motherland,” Zhang said, according to Xinhua.
About 4,000 people attended the reception where Zhang spoke, including Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), former Hong Kong chief executive Tung Chee-hwa (董建華), officials from state firms and foreign diplomats.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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