China reach in focus at U.S.- Philippine security talks
[I]By Manuel Mogato | Reuters[/I]:
[QUOTE]MANILA (Reuters) - China is likely to be high on the agenda at top level U.S.-Philippine security talks on Monday as Washington refocuses its foreign policy on Asia and Manila realizes its limits in trying to solve territorial disputes with Beijing alone.
China has maritime spats with several countries in the South China Sea, believed to be rich in oil and gas and crossed by important shipping lanes, and its neighbors fear its growing naval reach in staking claims.
Those disputes are pushing the Philippines to seek closer cooperation with the United States, which in turn has prompted China to warn Washington against getting involved, denouncing last week's U.S.-Philippine military drills as bringing the risk of armed conflict closer.
"I'm sure we need to be diplomatic, but I don't think we should tip-toe around the Chinese on this," said Walter Lohman, director of the Asian Studies Center with the conservative Washington-based Heritage Foundation think tank.
"...There is nothing new about the U.S. exercising with the Philippines. We shouldn't refrain because the Chinese don't like it. In fact, I expect the (Washington meeting) will come up with some agreement on increasing the frequency and variety of exercises, ship visits. Also expect agreement on hardware, joint use of Philippines' training facilities and bases."
The talks also coincide with a potential new source of tension between Washington and Beijing after blind activist Chen Guangcheng was reported late last week to have sought U.S. protection in the Chinese capital after an audacious escape from 19 months under house arrest.
On Sunday, China said it had made "stern representations" to the Philippines about its proposal for international arbitration over Scarborough Shoal, site of the most recent stand-off between the two sides.
"China urges the Philippines to earnestly respect China's sovereignty and do nothing to expand or complicate matters," the ministry cited Deng Zhonghua, head of its department of boundary and ocean affairs, as saying.
Manila's moves to strengthen security ties with its former colonial master coincide with the U.S. foreign policy "pivot" towards Asia to concentrate on, among other things, North Korea's nuclear ambitions and China's military buildup.
Twenty years after the Philippines voted to remove American bases, it now wants to give U.S. troops more access to its ports and airfields.
"We enjoy a really close military-to-military relationship with the Philippines and I think certainly coming out of this two plus two, we'll be looking for ways to improve and enhance that relationship," said Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain John Kirby, referring to talks between the defence and foreign secretaries, the highest-level security talks yet between the two sides.
"But it is safe to say that ... our relationship with the Philippines is part and parcel of the larger shift to focus on the Asia-Pacific."
A Philippine general familiar with the discussions to be held in Washington said the United States had a list of airfields in the Philippines that it could use for routine deployment of tankers, fighters and transport planes.
"These are not new bases for the Americans, these are still our facilities," said the general who declined to be identified. "They are only asking us if we can share some of our idle space with them."
Kirby said the United States wanted to continue "a rotational and training" relationship. "We're certainly not looking ... for permanent basing there."
This is nevertheless a sensitive area for Philippine President Benigno Aquino, some of whose political advisers are uncomfortable with an expanding U.S. role.
The U.S. plan to use Philippine airports is not new. At the height of U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan in the mid-2000s, Manila allowed U.S. military planes to refuel at an airport in northernmost Batanes province, close to Taiwan.
"We don't want them back, they create noise when most of us are already asleep," Budget Secretary Florencio "Butch" Abad said of U.S. transport planes landing at night in Basco airport.
Abad is one of Aquino's closest political advisers. Another political adviser told Reuters Aquino would not allow a de facto basing arrangement.
"That's a violation of our constitution," he said.
Philippine foreign and defence officials, however, will use the Washington talks to try to get U.S. backing on its position in the South China Sea, invoking freedom of navigation.
"I think we would want all nations, including the U.S., to make a judgment as to what is happening there (in the South China Sea) and what the implications are to their own security," Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario has said.
A retired Philippine flag officer said Washington, which is shuffling and redeploying its forces around Asia, including in Japan and Australia, wanted to rebuild the "air bridge" between Northeast and Southeast Asia.
"They are trying to plug these holes when they left Clark in 1992," he said, referring to a former U.S. air base in the northern Philippines. "They need airfields more than ports because most of their tactical aircraft are based too far from potential hotspots in Southeast Asia."
Richard Jacobson, of Pacific Strategies and Assessments, cautioned both sides against playing the China card, saying he did not see naval standoffs in the South China Sea as dramatic enough to improve U.S.-Philippines relations.
"It appears more likely that any new strategic partnership will evolve gradually over time," Jacobson told Reuters.
([I]Additional Reporting By Paul Eckert and David Alexander in WASHINGTON, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING[/I])[/QUOTE]
Four Shocks That Could Change China
[I]4/29/2012 @ 4:45PM[/I]:
[QUOTE][URL="http://www.daylife.com/image/0dC99EpdC68Pg?utm_source=zemanta&utm_medium=p&utm_content=0dC99EpdC68Pg&utm_campaign=z1"][IMG]http://blogs-images.forbes.com/paulroderickgregory/files/2012/04/300x198.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
[I](Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)[/I]
In the past four months, the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) has experienced four shocks that could materially affect, if not eventually end, its “leading role” in Chinese society.
First, on December 13 of last year, a mob of villagers forced out local party leaders and the police and took control of the town of Wukan. Enraged by illegal land grabs and police brutality, the villagers installed their own representatives after gaining concessions from national authorities. The Wukan uprising is symbolic of the two hundred thousand mass protests reported for 2010.
Second, on February 27, a key government think tank issued its China 2030 report in conjunction with the World Bank. Rapid growth could only be sustained, the report argued, by giving free rein to the private sector and ending the preferential treatment of the state economy: The role of the government “needs to change fundamentally” from running the state sector to creating a rule of law and the other accoutrements of a market economy. A month later (on March 28), the state council approved a financial reform pilot experiment to legalize private financial institutions and allow private citizens to invest abroad.
China 2030 is an open warning that China’s vaunted state capitalism model cannot sustain growth and usher China to the next level. A faltering economy would pose an imminent threat to the CPC’s claim to its leading role.
Third, on April 10, charismatic regional party leader, Bo Xilai, was fired as party boss of Chongqing and expelled from the Politburo. Bo Xilai embodied the party faction favoring state-led economic development and Maoist ideology. Bo’s status as the son of one of China’s “Eight Immortals” did not save him from charges of political deviation and corruption. Bo’s influential wife was arrested under suspicion of murder of an English business associate.
Fourth, on April 27, blind dissident and noted civil rights lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, evaded the security guards guarding his house in his home village and made it to Beijing, where he gained refuge in the U.S. embassy. Guangcheng’s escape shows the sophistication, dedication, and coordination abilities of the dissident community and is an embarrassment to the CPC and its security forces.
From the relative safety of the U.S. Embassy, Guangcheng can inform the Chinese people of their constitutional rights and the world community of the beatings and torture he and his family suffered on orders from the CPC. The U.S. Embassy can express its concerns over his charges of human rights abuse without directly involving itself in internal Chinese politics.
These four shocks took place against the backdrop of the looming Eighteenth Party Congress. The Congress of 2270 delegates will elect the Central Committee and appoint the coveted standing committee of the Politburo and the party General Secretary, who also holds the title of President.
Party Congresses do not take place until their orchestration is complete. There is no exact date set for the Congress, other than late 2012. In the USSR, Stalin waited to hold party congresses until all his ducks were lined up in a row. The CPC apparently has some more finishing touches to complete.
USSR power struggles occurred when an aged leader died. Deng Xiaoping insisted on mandatory term limits to spare China geriatric and unstable leaders, bereft of new ideas and prone to irrationalities (such as Mao and his Cultural Revolution). Two of the four shocks show that regular turnover breeds regular power struggles. China 2030 and the Bo Xilai case are manifestations of the ongoing power struggle that is taking place amidst a background of civil unrest.
Public acceptance of the party’s leading role requires belief in the image of party harmony and unity. Why give all power to a monopoly party torn apart by competing factions? Perhaps Bo Xilai has the answers, not Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao? Stalin and his successors went to extraordinary lengths to conceal factional disputes. Bo Xilai’s public humiliation serves as a warning to his sympathizers but at the price of revealing the party’s confusion and disunity.
Bo Xilai’s demotion was not supposed to happen in this way. Bo Xilai’s assignment to the backwater Chongqing was intended to put him out to a quiet pasture. Term-limited leaders feared his ambition, his “leftist Chongqing model.” Bo Xilai’s enforcer’s spectacular flight to the U.S. Consulate and Bo’s wife’s arrest on murder charges lent drama, but other excuses would have been found to get rid of him.
Bo Xilai’s removal on the eve of a party congress is nothing new. The party boss of Shanghai was sentenced to eighteen years in prison on charges of financial fraud and corruption to clear the way for the current leadership prior to the Seventeenth Party Congress. A similar fate awaits Bo Xilai and many of his followers – a worse fate perhaps awaits his wife.
The CPC’s social compact calls for the party to orchestrate rapid growth and rising living standards in return for public acceptance of its political monopoly and repression of doubters and dissidents. China 2030 and the Bo Xilai case make clear that the party’s factions disagree on how to fulfill this compact. Bo Xilai’s sinking forces stand for the “state advance, private sector retreat” policy of a close alliance between state enterprises and banks and the party. China 2030 and its “liberal” supporters propose to privatize or otherwise rationalize state enterprise, break the state banking monopoly, and place the private sector on an equal footing.
Dismantling or weakening China’s national “Chongqing model” is more easily said than done, as the expression goes. In an understated tone, China 2030 warns that it will “require strong leadership and commitment, steady implementation with a determined will… that will ensure public support…and oversight of the reform process.” In more direct language: Any attack on China’s state-party alliance will be met with the stiffest of resistance by vested-interest groups.
China 2030 requires a delicate balancing act by its “liberal” supporters. They, like their “conservative” opponents, have freely fed at the trough of China’s state capitalism. Even the most conscientious, such as the revered premier “Grandpa” Wen, have not restrained their children, friends, and relatives from amassing huge fortunes. Those less sensitive collect their tributes directly. Party connections have made poor China a land of 115 billionaires.
That the liberals are prepared to break with the state capitalism model so admired in the West suggests they know something we do not.
Few Western observers understand that China’s growth comes from the private sector, not from the national champions run by party-affiliated state capitalists. Starting from virtually zero in 1980, private enterprise has grown to at least half of GDP. The private sector has grown at least three times faster than the state sector. Studies show that private enterprises are at least twice as productive as state enterprises despite enormous handicaps from Chinese officialdom.
The Wukan uprising helps explain why CPC liberals, who themselves have financially benefited from state capitalism, embrace China 2030. They fear the backlash of ordinary people who experience the demands for bribes, arbitrary treatment, illegal land grabs, denials of licenses, and other demeaning harassment inflicted on them by indifferent officials, who appear to be immune from punishment.
Public outrage and a new inspiring voice speaking from the U.S. embassy create a tinderbox that a spark could ignite. For the CPC, dissident Guangcheng’s escape could not have come at a worse time.
The public revelations of the Bo Xilai case add fuel to China’s tinderbox. Earlier, ordinary Chinese believed that corruption was a local affair. Their mayor or police chief may be corrupt but at least the stalwart party leaders in Beijing want the best for the country. Just as the victims of Stalin’s Great Terror appealed to Stalin to save them, the villagers of Wukan placed their trust in higher party officials. Now they learn through the internet and even Politburo members are as crooked as the local officials who just shook them down.
The CPC leaders may simply be paying lip service to China 2030 to cement their power base. But if they are serious, how in the world can they implement this “radical” change in course?
Mikhail Gorbachev’s USSR of 1987 commends itself as a historical parallel with the same ingredients. Gorbachev had warnings that the planning system had failed. He was pestered by dissidents such as Andrei Sakharov. He was aware of official corruption, albeit at a much lower scale than today’s China. His KGB brutally suppressed the occasional riot, but Gorbachev knew that higher bread prices could bring people to the street. As a reformer, he was opposed by conservative party heavy weights who wanted the system continued. Gorbachev succeeded in destroying state planning and inadvertently the party, but his economic reform failed and the USSR collapsed.
Clearly CPC leaders are not fighting for power to preside over collapse. They intend to strengthen their power by elevating the more-productive private sector while somehow convincing the party elite to sacrifice wealth “for the good of the country.” Such appeals usually fall flat.
We are inept at foreseeing big changes, such as the Soviet collapse or the Arab Spring. Major changes often fail by narrow margins. China might be democratic today if Tiananmen Square had played out differently. Vladimir Putin might not be president of Russia today if the December weather had been warmer or if his police had killed demonstrators at Bolotnaya Square.
The leaders of the CPC are trying to avoid a constellation of events that increase the likelihood of dramatic change. The CPC leadership understands that it could happen, and they are afraid.
[I]Paul Roderick Gregory’s latest book, ”Politics, Murder, and Love in Stalin’s Kremlin: The Story of Nikolai Bukharin and Anna Larina, ” can be found at amazon.com.[/I][/QUOTE]
China sends more ships to disputed shoal: Philippines
[I]AFP – Thu, May 3, 2012:[/I]
[QUOTE]The Philippine military on Thursday accused China of sending more ships to a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, describing the move as an insult that would further inflame tensions.
Four Chinese surveillance ships and 10 fishing boats have anchored off the disputed Scarborough Shoal, with the fishermen taking giant clams and corals that are protected under Philippine law, a regional military spokesman said.
It is the largest number of Chinese vessels seen at the shoal since the two countries began a sovereignty standoff there almost a month ago, according to Major Loel Egos, whose northern command covers the area.
"They are just worsening the insult, bringing in all these fishing boats and all we can do is resort to diplomacy," Egos told AFP.
"They really want to test what a little country like the Philippines can do against a giant."
Egos said the Philippines, which has one of the weakest militaries in the region, has just two coast guard ships and a fisheries bureau vessel at the shoal that are unable to do anything about the Chinese fishing.
Asked about the increased Chinese presence, President Benigno Aquino's spokesman said the Philippines would show restraint.
"We do not wish to escalate any tensions right now," spokesman Edwin Lacierda told reporters.
"Therefore, what we're doing for now is to just to document the situation... and consequently, raise it before the (international) tribunals."
But foreign department spokesman Raul Hernandez called on China to "stop all forms of action that could aggravate the situation".
Ships from the two countries have been in a standoff over the shoal since April 8, after the Philippines detected eight Chinese fishing vessels there.
The Philippines sent its biggest warship to the shoal with the intention of arresting the fishermen, but two Chinese government vessels blocked those efforts.
The Philippines pulled back its warship shortly afterwards in an effort to lower the tensions and the initial batch of Chinese fishing vessels left, however both sides kept boats there to assert their sovereignty.
The Philippines says the shoal is well within the country's 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone, as recognised by international law.
But China claims the entire South China Sea as its historical territory, even up to the coasts of the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries.[/QUOTE]
Dispute Between China and Philippines Over Island Becomes More Heated
[I]May 10, 2012[/I]
By JANE PERLEZ [The New York Times]:
[QUOTE]BEIJING — China escalated its quarrel with the Philippines over an island in the South China Sea on Thursday, halting Philippine bananas at customs for longer inspections and starting an official media campaign that suggested that any claims on the island represented an infringement of Chinese sovereignty.
So far, China has not brought the United States into this renewed round of tension with the Philippines, but in the past few weeks the Chinese have said that the Philippines was daring to challenge China around an island in the South China Sea because of its alliance with Washington.
China and the Philippines have competing claims on the island, known as Huangyan Island by the Chinese and Panatag Shoal by the Philippines.
The South China Sea has become a major testing ground of China’s foreign policy and its growing maritime power, even as the top Communist Party leadership is preoccupied by a power struggle before the 18th Party Congress to be held this fall. Some Western analysts have suggested that Beijing’s increasing belligerence with the Philippines is aimed at shoring up domestic public opinion during a delicate transition period by using the issue of sovereignty as a popular rallying point.
The People’s Liberation Army Daily, the newspaper of the army, ran a tough editorial on Wednesday saying that China would not stand for anyone’s snatching the sovereignty of Huangyan Island. “Not only the Chinese government will not agree, neither will the Chinese people, and the Chinese Army will disagree even more,” the editorial said.
At the Foreign Ministry, a spokesman, Hong Lei, said at the regular briefing Thursday that the Philippines should stop escalating tensions and warned that Manila must take responsibility for the dispute over the island.
A new round in the longstanding quarrel began earlier in the week when Fu Ying, the vice minister of foreign affairs, told the chief Filipino diplomat in Beijing that Manila was “severely damaging the atmosphere of the bilateral relations between China and the Philippines.”
An account of the meeting between the Chinese official, Ms. Fu, and the chargé d’affaires of the Philippine Embassy in Beijing, Alex Chua, appeared prominently in the Chinese press.
Ms. Fu was quoted as urging the Philippines to withdraw all its vessels from the island waters and to stop operations against Chinese fishing boats and Chinese law enforcement vessels.
At sea, the dispute flared in early April when the Philippines said one of its warships had found eight Chinese fishing vessels near the disputed island. Philippine Navy personnel boarded the Chinese vessels, where the Filipinos claimed they found large quantities of illegal coral and fish. Chinese surveillance ships arrived, preventing the arrest of the Chinese fishermen, the Philippines said at the time.
Soon afterward, the United States held annual maritime exercises with the Philippines, exacerbating China’s arguments that Manila was acting with the support of its American ally.
The South China Sea has taken on a new importance for China in the past several years as a promising source of oil and gas close to home.
A recent report on China’s involvement in the South China Sea by the International Crisis Group, a nongovernmental research organization that focuses on conflict resolution, noted that much of the attention on the sea stemmed not only from the issue of sovereignty but also “the region’s abundant natural resources and strategic location.”
The uncertainty of China’s legal claims and attempts to enforce sovereignty in areas that were far from what was reasonably considered to be part of China’s exclusive economic zone put China at odds with other claimants, including Vietnam and the Philippines, the report said.
On Wednesday, China’s largest offshore oil producer, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, began drilling a deep-sea well in an area about 200 miles southeast of Hong Kong. The drilling was not believed to be in hotly disputed waters. But the company announcement that it would drill for 56 days and was optimistic about finding oil was heralded in the Chinese press.
The drilling operation is using the first deep-sea drilling platform developed by its own engineers.
The extension of the dispute to banana imports came Thursday when a document by the Chinese government agency in charge of quarantining questionable food imports was made public on a Chinese Web site, saying that 1,200 containers of bananas from the Philippines had been held at various ports on the grounds of “quarantine concerns.” The quarantine agency urged the local authorities to increase examinations for harmful organisms, the official Xinhua news agency said.
In what appeared to be another punitive economic action against the Philippines, the China International Travel Service, a large government-run travel agency, said it was postponing trips to the Philippines on grounds of safety. The Chinese Embassy in Manila warned Chinese citizens to be especially vigilant Friday when it said anti-Chinese rallies were planned in the Philippines.
[I]Bree Feng contributed research[/I].
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
[B]Correction[/B]: May 10, 2012
[SIZE=1]A previous version of this article misstated the day when anti-Chinese rallies are planned in the Philippines. It is Friday, not Saturday[/SIZE].[/QUOTE]
US to welcome Philippine leader amid China tensions
AFP:
[QUOTE][IMG]http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/aUw0ajfqS0c9H8qtafEXPg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zODA7cT04NTt3PTUxMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/afp.com/photo_1337980810913-1-0.jpg[/IMG]
[I]President Barack Obama will welcome Philippine President Benigno Aquino, pictured in 2010, next month, the White House said Friday, as the United States steps up support to the ally locked in disputes with China[/I]. (AFP Photo/Ted Aljibe)
President Barack Obama will welcome Philippine President Benigno Aquino next month, the White House said Friday, as the United States steps up support to the ally locked in disputes with China.
Obama will hold talks with Aquino at the White House on June 8, the latest sign of a growing alliance after a rare joint visit to Washington by the Philippine foreign and defense ministers at the end of April.
"The Philippines is a long-standing friend and ally of the United States, and the president looks forward to discussing with President Aquino the close strategic, economic and people to people ties between our two countries, and our cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region," a White House statement said.
"The two leaders will also discuss ways to deepen bilateral cooperation."
The Obama administration has put a renewed focus on Southeast Asia, stepping up ties to the economically dynamic region where several countries are embroiled in territorial disputes with a growing China.
The Philippines has had particularly rocky relations with China. The two countries have both been posting non-military ships in disputed Scarborough Shoal to exert their claims.
The United States has been helping to upgrade the notoriously antiquated Philippine military and Aquino has agreed to let a greater number of US troops rotate through the country.
But both Aquino and the Obama administration have said that they do not plan a permanent military presence in the Philippines, which would be politically sensitive in the former US colony.[/QUOTE]
Philippines, China 'to show restraint' over shoal
[I]AFP – Tue, May 29, 2012[/I]:
[QUOTE]China and the Philippines have agreed to show restraint in their tense standoff over a disputed shoal in the South China Sea, Manila's defence chief said Tuesday.
Defence Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said he had held a brief meeting with his Chinese counterpart in the Cambodian capital on Monday during which both sides agreed to tone down the rhetoric and find "a peaceful resolution" to the spat.
"We agreed on three points: to restrain our actions, to restrain our statements so that it does not escalate, and then we continue to open our line of communication until we come up with a peaceful resolution to the case," Gazmin told reporters.
Gazmin made the remarks after attending talks with the defence ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Phnom Penh.
Relations between Beijing and Manila have plunged recently with both sides pressing their conflicting claims to the Scarborough Shoal.
The two countries have had ships posted around the shoal since early April, when Chinese vessels prevented a Philippine Navy ship from arresting Chinese fishermen.
China has also impounded Philippine fruit shipments and warned tourists against visiting the Philippines.
China and several ASEAN nations have rival claims to uninhabited islands in the South China Sea, which is believed to be rich in hydrocarbons and straddles strategic shipping lanes vital to global trade.
Chinese Defence Minister Liang Guanglie, on an official visit to close ally Cambodia, is set to meet with his ASEAN counterparts later on Tuesday for what Phnom Penh called "informal" discussions about the maritime dispute.[/QUOTE]
In Hong Kong, Frustration 15 Years After Return to Chinese Rule
[I]June 29, 2012[/I]
By KEVIN DREW [The New York Times]:
[QUOTE]HONG KONG — The last time President Hu Jintao of China visited this former British colony, in 2007, the public mood was positive, buoyed by the approaching Beijing Olympics and a surging mainland economy that was pouring tourist and investment money into the territory.
But Mr. Hu, who arrived Friday and is to stay through Sunday to mark a change of local government and the 15th anniversary of the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, is encountering a very different sentiment this time. Public mistrust of the central government in Beijing is at its highest since the handover in 1997, while approval ratings for Leung Chun-ying, the incoming Hong Kong chief executive, have dropped sharply before his inauguration.
Pressing economic worries have contributed to public frustration that has been building for months, both with Beijing and with the political and economic system in Hong Kong since 1997, a system in which special interests controlled by a small circle of wealthy tycoons select the chief executive.
“We still cannot choose our chief executive, and that has caused many problems,” said Andrew Shum, 25, who is organizing one of the demonstrations this weekend near where Mr. Hu will be leading meetings. “People don’t trust the chief executive, because they don’t have a voice in voting for him.”
Fifteen years after the handover, Hong Kong faces a wide set of challenges, analysts say: Property prices have soared to their highest levels since 1997; the gap between rich and poor, already the greatest in Asia, is at its highest level in four decades; air pollution continues to worsen; and no clear path has been presented to usher in a system to allow the public to directly elect leaders. Beijing has previously said that direct elections of the chief executive may be held as early as 2017, but has not provided any guarantees.
A sense of urgency is beginning to take hold of many involved in politics here.
“I don’t think any Hong Kong government official can afford a honeymoon with legislators or the public,” said Miriam Lau, chairwoman of the Liberal Party, which supports business interests. “There are too many issues to face.”
While Hong Kong’s economy is seen as robust, driven by financial and real estate industries that have helped the government build fiscal reserves of 662 billion Hong Kong dollars, or about $85 billion, recently released statistics point to worrying developments.
Property prices in Hong Kong, among the highest in the world, surged in June past the previous record set in 1997, according to Centaline, a local real estate firm that tracks prices. According to the Hong Kong government, the Gini coefficient, an international measure of income inequality, for the territory rose in 2011 to its highest level since 1971. The gap between rich and poor in Hong Kong is greater than in Britain, Singapore or the United States, the government said.
Echoing the Occupy movements across the globe, residents poured onto the streets on July 1 last year to voice anger at the growing inequality in Hong Kong. Organizers said that rally drew more than 200,000 people. And while the police gave a much lower number, most observers said the march had drawn the most people onto the streets since at least 2004.
“It is harder today to jump up to the middle class than in 1997, when you could still do it with hard work alone,” said Gordon Hon, 39, a Hong Kong resident with a two-year university certificate in social work who leads rock climbing and other outdoor pursuits.
“Hong Kong has moved on to a knowledge-based society, and I would need more education to earn more,” he said.
Much of the public anxiety is rooted in Hong Kong’s complex relationship with mainland China. Although the city’s economy has become increasingly dependent on mainland visitors since 1997, the city retains significant cultural and political differences. Cantonese is the predominant Chinese dialect spoken in Hong Kong, not the Mandarin of the mainland.
Beijing guaranteed that Hong Kong’s civil liberties, which include independent courts and a free press, would be preserved for the first 50 years after the handover. But many here worry that the Hong Kong way of life is yielding to the flood of people coming from the mainland, either as tourists or immigrants, and increasing business ties with mainland interests. Many also say that it is mainland visitors, coming to Hong Kong with large amounts of cash, who are fueling the property market’s soaring prices.
A recent poll by the University of Hong Kong’s Public Opinion Program found that 37 percent of Hong Kong residents mistrusted the central government in Beijing, the highest figure since 1997. The local news media have said that reports of human rights abuses on the mainland, like the extrajudicial detention of Chen Guangcheng, the rights advocate who has since been allowed to leave for the United States, have fed Hong Kong residents’ concerns about China.
Organizers are expecting a large turnout for the annual July 1 demonstration on Sunday, and are planning a separate rally Saturday that they hope will include presenting Mr. Hu with a petition calling for answers regarding the mysterious death of Li Wangyang, a dissident whose body was found June 6 with a cloth tied around his neck. Reports of his death set off protests in Hong Kong after the police in Hunan Province initially labeled it a suicide.
Mr. Leung, the incoming chief executive, has said he wants to speed up the construction of public housing and has promised to form a committee to study ways to ease poverty in Hong Kong. He has also said he wants to ensure better access to education and medical care. But how effective a leader he will be is already a growing question. His credibility came under sharp attack in June when he was forced to admit to having illegal additions to his luxury home — after having used the same issue to bring down a political rival — in the form of a basement and a glass canopy.
In March, Mr. Leung had attacked Henry Tang, then the front-runner for chief executive, for first denying and then acknowledging that a large basement had been built under his own home without government authorization.
Popular anger over the perception that this was another case of Hong Kong’s privileged flouting the law helped Mr. Leung win enough votes from the 1,200-member election committee to push Mr. Tang aside.
In a separate poll by the Public Opinion Program, commissioned by the newspaper The South China Morning Post, 70 percent of respondents said the disclosures that Mr. Leung also had illegal structures at his home had lowered their opinion of his integrity. Fifty-two percent said the incident had adversely affected their view of his suitability as chief executive.
[I]Zakiyyah Wahab contributed reporting.[/I][/QUOTE]
Hồng Kông rầm rộ xuống đường chống Bắc Kinh
[I]Đăng ngày 2012-07-01 13:52[/I]
[COLOR=#0000ff]Tú Anh[/COLOR]
[QUOTE][IMG]http://www.viet.rfi.fr/sites/viet.filesrfi/dynimagecache/0/194/3000/1495/410/204/sites/images.rfi.fr/files/aef_image/HONGKONG manif 1-7bis.JPG[/IMG]
[COLOR="#000069"]Dân Hồng Kông rầm rộ xuống đường phản đối chính quyền Bắc Kinh ngày 01/07/2012[/COLOR]. REUTERS/Bobby Yip
HỒNG KÔNG - TRUNG QUỐC
Hồng Kông tràn ngập rừng người dứt khoát bày tỏ lòng bất mãn đối với chế độ Trung Quốc nhân kỷ niệm 15 năm ngày Luân Đôn trao trả nhượng địa cho Bắc Kinh. Trước giờ tuần hành, AFP cho biết số người tập trung lên đến « nhiều chục ngàn » với khẩu hiệu « cùng chiến đấu chống đảng Cộng sản ».
Vào giữa ngày hôm nay, ngày kỷ niệm 15 năm nhượng địa trở lại chủ quyền Trung Quốc, chủ tịch Hồ Cẩm Đào đã rời Hồng Kông về lại Bắc Kinh sau hai ngày thăm viếng bị chống đối mãnh liệt.
Trong khi đó, người dân Hồng Kông tiếp tục hành động biểu lộ bất mãn đối với chính sách của Bắc Kinh bị xem là « đang cướp đoạt quyền tự do và dân chủ », là làm « đời sống » dân Hồng Kông trở thành đắt đỏ.
AFP mô tả vào lúc 17 giờ chiều, tức là hơn một giờ sau khi đoàn biểu tình tuần hành, nhiều chục ngàn người vẫn còn chờ đến phiên mình tại địa điểm tập trung. Họ mặc y phục màu tang đen trắng và có người mang cờ của Anh Quốc. Họ lên án chế độ Trung Quốc « phá hoại Hồng Kông và quyền dân chủ của người dân ».
Hàng năm, ngày 01/07 vẫn có biểu tình nhưng năm nay lòng bất mãn của dân chúng Hồng Kông lên rất cao. Sự kiện tân lãnh đạo đặc khu hành chánh Lương Chấn Anh tuyên thệ nhậm chức trước sự chứng kiến của chủ tịch Trung Quốc Hồ Cẩm Đào được xem là hành động « can thiệp thô bạo ». Diễn văn của chủ tịch Trung Quốc đã bị gián đọa nhiều lần vì lời hô to của một người trong cử tọa « chấm dứt chế độ độc đảng » và « phản đối đàn áp Thiên An Môn ». Ở bên ngoài hội trường, người biểu tình đốt chân dung của Lương Chấn Anh với khẩu hiệu « bài trừ đảng Cộng sản ».
Động thái đầu tiên của lãnh đạo Trung Quốc khi đến Hồng Kông là viếng thăm và dự lễ duyệt binh tại căn cứ của lực lượng quân đội Trung Quốc, được xem là đã nổ súng đàn áp phong trào sinh viên năm 1989, càng làm dân Hồng Kông bất bình thêm.
Theo AFP, dân chúng tại đặc khu hành chánh lên án dân có tiền tại Hoa Lục chạy qua Hồng Kông làm giá nhà đất leo thang, giành chổ của con em địa phương ở trường học và nhà giữ trẻ.
Cuối cùng, chính quyền Bắc Kinh bị tố cáo là đang tiến hành chính sách trấn áp tự do ngôn luận, tự do báo chí bằng biện pháp kiểm duyệt gian trá « chỉ đạo qua điện thoại ».[/QUOTE]
Mass protests as Hong Kong marks 15 years under China
BBC:
[I]1 July 2012 Last updated at 11:00 ET:[/I]
[QUOTE] [IMG]http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/61286000/jpg/_61286592_61286591.jpg[/IMG]
[COLOR="#0000FF"] The BBC's Juliana Liu and legislator Albert Chan Wai-yip explain why the protests are taking place[/COLOR]
Tens of thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have marched through the streets of Hong Kong as the former British colony marked 15 years since the return to Chinese rule.
The rally for human rights takes place annually, but has been bolstered this year by anger towards Beijing.
Earlier, China's visiting President Hu Jintao swore in businessman CY Leung as the territory's new leader.
During the ceremony, a lone heckler tried to interrupt Mr Hu's speech.
On the streets outside, massive crowds beat drums and waved flags as they marched though the city to call for full democracy and express their frustration with the mainland.
[B]'Rule of law'[/B]
[QUOTE][B]At the scene[/B]
[COLOR="#0000FF"]Juliana Liu BBC News, Hong Kong[/COLOR]
There was a carnival atmosphere, with pro-democracy political parties chanting slogans. Members of civic groups showed off their singing and dancing skills. And supporters of the Falun Gong spiritual group, which is banned in mainland China, sat peacefully in the lotus position, before joining in the protest with their marching band.
Elaine Mok, a demonstrator who took part with her extended family, told me she marches nearly every year in order to fight for justice and the rule of law, and to oppose mainland interference in Hong Kong affairs. They were there, she said, to remind their Chinese overlords that Hong Kong people want the right to vote, as promised when this city returned to mainland rule.
Most of the protesters were professionals like Ms Mok. Some families brought their young children. A broad cross-section of Hong Kong society gathered to agitate against one-party rule in China and to demand the right to universal suffrage, which people here increasingly believe is their natural birthright.[/QUOTE]
The BBC's Juliana Liu, who was at the protest, says there was a carnival atmosphere with political parties shouting slogans and civic groups showing off their singing and dancing skills.
One of the main complaints was that the system used to choose Hong Kong's leader is designed to install Beijing's choice.
A so-called electoral college of 1,200 business leaders and other influential citizens, mostly loyal to Beijing, selects the leader.
Elaine Mok, who was taking part in the protest with her family, said the march was about the right to universal suffrage.
"We're fighting for justice. We're fighting for the rule of law," she told the BBC. "The Chinese government is interfering with the workings of the Hong Kong government, and that's not right."
"We are fighting for the right to vote. It should have happened by now."
According to Paul Yip, a demographic specialist at the University of Hong Kong, some 82,000 people attended the rally - about 20,000 more than last year's demonstration.
Organisers, meanwhile, put the figure much higher, at 400,000.
[B]'Joyous occasion'[/B]
Our correspondent says Mr Hu's visit was a far cry from his last appearance five years ago, when he toured Hong Kong in a blaze of pre-Olympic glory.
At the swearing-in ceremony, Mr Hu offered "warm congratulations" to the 57-year-old Mr Leung and his team and described the 15th anniversary as a "joyous occasion".
AdvertisementHu Jintao offered greetings to the people of Hong Kong
He reiterated Beijing's commitment to the "one country, two systems" policy whereby Hong Kongers are allowed many more political freedoms than Chinese people on the mainland.
Mr Hu continued the address despite an interruption by a member of the crowd, who was heard calling for a condemnation of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre and an end to one-party rule in China.
The man, who was a guest at the inauguration ceremony, was quickly bundled out of the harbourfront building by security.
Mr Hu, whose visit was carefully choreographed, left before Sunday's protests began.
But on Saturday, police had to shield the president from demonstrators, and officers used pepper spray to disperse crowds who were demanding an investigation into the death in China of a Tiananmen activist, Li Wangyang, last month.
His visit comes as public confidence in the Beijing government has fallen to a new low.
People are unhappy with record property prices, an increasing wealth gap, a lack of democracy and a string of political scandals, our correspondent says.
Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997, has a comparatively high degree of autonomy from Beijing.
But China's leaders in Beijing have resisted public pressure for full democracy in the city.
Mr Leung replaces Donald Tsang, who took office in 2005. [/QUOTE]
