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Showing posts with the label #HongKong

A Divided Hong Kong Confronts the Arrival of the Coronavirus

#Coronavirus #HongKong #Outbreak #Wuhan #Quarantine Hong Kong announced the shutdown of major rail passenger links and limits on flights coming from the mainland. China will stop issuing visas for individual travelers to the territory. The two Hong Kong protesters were dressed head to toe in black, their faces covered in masks. They smashed their Molotov cocktails into the lobby of a public housing estate, and flames and smoke began spewing out. This was no scene from the protest violence last year over Beijing’s dominance of Hong Kong’s affairs. This was on Sunday, and the firebombing was incited by anger over the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China — and plans by the Hong Kong government to use the unoccupied housing block as a quarantine area. Angst and anger fueled by the coronavirus outbreak, which has killed more than 100 people on the mainland and has eight confirmed cases in Hong Kong, is compounding the bitterness from months of protests against Chief Ex

Hong Kong Election Results Give Democracy Backers Big Win

Democracy supporters celebrating in Hong Kong on Sunday night outside a polling station.Credit...Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times #HongKong #Democracy #Chinesegovernment #Beijing #Students HONG KONG — A surge in voting, especially by young people, allowed democracy advocates to win many more seats on local councils. Pro-democracy candidates buoyed by months of street  protests  in  Hong Kong  won  a stunning victory in local elections  on Sunday, as record numbers voted in a vivid expression of the city’s aspirations and its anger with the Chinese government. It was a pointed rebuke of  Beijing  and its allies in  Hong Kong , and the turnout — seven in 10 eligible voters — suggested that the public continues to back the democracy movement, even as the protests grow increasingly violent. Young Hong Kongers, a major force behind the demonstrations of the past six months, played a leading role in the voting surge. With three million voters casting ballots, pro-democracy

Beijing vents fury at Washington over Hong Kong Human Rights Act

#China #HongKong #Trump #US#XiJinping Chinese officials and state media have reacted with fury to the almost-unanimous passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act by the US House of Representatives on Wednesday. Though the bill has yet to go before US President Donald Trump for consideration, China wasted little time in condemning the vote, with the state-owned People's Daily describing it as "a piece of waste paper," and a "serious provocation against the entire Chinese people" in an editorial published Thursday. "If the US side goes its own way, China will take effective measures to resolutely counteract it, and all consequences must be fully borne by the US," the editorial said. The potential showdown risks undermining ongoing trade talks between Washington and Beijing during a critical juncture. Trump, who has yet to confirm whether he will sign the act, has so far appeared reticent to challenge China on the issue of Hong Kon