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Hong Kong protesters storm legislature as thousands rally to mark handover

49 Comments
By Jessie Pang and Alun John

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49 Comments
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Makes me wonder if the people of HK would have preferred to stay under the rule of the British!

8 ( +13 / -5 )

I'm all for free speech and all that, but do these people work? Do they get time off for this or do they take their holidays to take to the streets? 

I’d be ok with my HK employees taking to the streets to protest instead of going to work. If I were an employee, I’d be willing to lose my job to fight for my freedom.

Methinks you’re worried about a non-issue.

10 ( +18 / -8 )

Why? What about my post would indicate that?

4 ( +8 / -4 )

I'm all for free speech and all that, but do these people work? 

I was wondering that about the Trump faithful who camped out in order to see his recent rallies in the US.

Personally, when I went on protests/demos/sit-ins/occupations etc, I'd either take a day off or for some of the big London ones, they tended to be on a Saturday.

The crowd demographic was pretty varying - brickies, builders, ex army, priests, imams, nuns, doctors, nurses, refuse collectors, lawyers, etc.

If nobody protested, the world would be a much worse place.

8 ( +9 / -1 )

It's sad, but true that the ominous words of Founding Father, Jefferson, "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants",still apply to today's real-life "Game of Thrones" acted out by the ruling classes of the world. Taking time off work, losing pay, blocking streets, damaging property and causing inconvenience to others are neither here nor there in the messy struggle of speaking truth to power. The Hong Kongers (with a nod to US Army General McAuliffe) have one word for the Beijing bullies, "NUTS!"

4 ( +5 / -1 )

losing a day’s pay and disappointing people in order to voice my dissent

Better than losing the right to voice your dissent altogether.

Worth a day off in my book.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

I'm all for free speech and all that, but do these people work? 

They are not required to work on national holidays.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Better than losing the right to voice your dissent altogether.

Worth a day off in my book.

I'd be willing to lose a job for that.

7 ( +10 / -3 )

@Madden, Im sure they would have.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Perhaps Britain should have returned Hong Kong to the immediate successor of the Empire of China - the republic of China (taiwan).

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Or made an indepemdent city-state like Singapore. The deal was made with a now non-existant country/govt after all (Chinese empire).

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Maybe Trump could give China a point off their $300 billion if the Chinese government could promise to leave these HKers alone.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Lamilly

Today 04:44 pm JST

I'm all for free speech and all that, but do these people work? Do they get time off for this or do they take their holidays to take to the streets? Maybe they are on flexi hours or work shifts. I'm just saying, I would like to protest about many things but would have to balance losing a day's pay and disappointing people in order to voice my dissent

Always good to check HK's calendar before asserting idiocies.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

Must be at least one anti-democratic or pro-chinese person due to a downgrade by saying Hong Kong should've been independent in my second comment.

Yay, communist rule (sarc on this statement)

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Democracy HAS to be fought for. I salute these HK citizens in their quest for freedom against the Communist-supporting HK "government" and evil HK police. Never give in and keep hitting them hard! The world is right behind you all. SHut down businesses and "parliament".

I'm all for free speech and all that, but do these people work? Do they get time off for this or do they take their holidays to take to the streets? Maybe they are on flexi hours or work shifts. I'm just saying, I would like to protest about many things but would have to balance losing a day's pay and disappointing people in order to voice my dissent

@ Lamily - unless you are a day laborer, one days pay is a tiny sacrifice for most of us, to stand up and fight for democracy and against Communism.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

There's no bigger supporter of Hong Kong than me, but this has now spiraled ridiculously out of control. If China ends up deploying troops from the PLA garrison to retake and protect Legco, it would be hard to call it unreasonable or an overreaction. These rioters are tempting fate by calling for an unwinnable confrontation with China.

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

Exactly as M3M3M3 has put it. There’s just no way China is just going to watch this from the sidelines.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

What is this costing the CIA?

-7 ( +1 / -8 )

These rioters are tempting fate by calling for an unwinnable confrontation with China.

Why assume its "unwinnable". The free world has HK back. On their watch, the Commies wouldnt even risk killing innocent HK citizens. Just watch Trump, PM Abe and others come down like a tonne of bricks if they try.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Why assume its "unwinnable". The free world has HK back. On their watch, the Commies wouldnt even risk killing innocent HK citizens. Just watch Trump, PM Abe and others come down like a tonne of bricks if they try.

Come on, cobber. You know Trump wouldn’t do anything and Abe is an irrelevance. As an Aussie, you should know that money talks when it comes to China.

1 ( +5 / -4 )

True, but neither did PRC or ROC. It was owned by the Qing Dynasty. While in corporate law if you have a loan from one bank and it's bought out by another, you are responsible for that debt to the new bank. However, if Britain leased land from France and Germany takes over France, does the lease transfer to Germany?

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

There's rumors abound that these "Protesters" who are trying to enter the Public buildings are in-fact bused in from the Mainland with the instructions on doing exactly that, so by, giving the HK Police the excuse to shutdown all the Protests as a "Riot" and arrest everyone involved and curtail he Protests under existing HK Law... this is what has been said is the CCP way of doing things.

I dont know... just stating what I've heard.

-4 ( +1 / -5 )

HK as a Center of Finance within Asia... has it's days numbered. As an expat there, I would probably not be able to afford the non-State run schools, so my Kids would be subjected to the Chinese State Propaganda view upon the World - which has at its heart the allegiance to the "CCP", even above Parents! (That is troubling, it's like the Brown-shirts of the 1930's in Germany).

Bye bye HK.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I'm all for free speech and all that, but do these people work? Do they get time off for this or do they take their holidays to take to the streets? Maybe they are on flexi hours or work shifts. I'm just saying, I would like to protest about many things but would have to balance losing a day's pay and disappointing people in order to voice my dissent

Are you being serious? These people aren't protesting for a raise in minimum wage here, they are trying to stop citizens of Hong Kong from being able to be snatched up and flown off to a dark basement in mainland China.

Even if it wasn't a public holiday, I'd say missing a day's work would be well worth it to try to keep your country from being oppressed even further.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@rlperez@hotmail.com.au

What is this costing the CIA?

If the CIA is backing Hong Kong citizens trying to protect their freedom, then good on them.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

Makes me wonder if the people of HK would have preferred to stay under the rule of the British!

You make it sound as if they had a choice.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

As for the picture of this guy smashing the windows of a government building - I support your cause but hooliganism isn’t helping.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Hong Kong people have huge anger and anxiety. It's understandable enough.Because Xi's China is like a blackhole. A kind of darkness. Humanrights is invaluable. Freedom is the best.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Hong Kong people have huge anger and anxiety. It's understandable enough. Because Xi's China is like a blackhole. A kind of darkness. A kind of horror. Humanrights is invaluable. Freedom is the best.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

As for the picture of this guy smashing the windows of a government building - I support your cause but hooliganism isn’t helping.

These people are literally protesting for their freedom. China has repeatedly shown that they have no respect for peaceful protest, what else do you expect them to do?

0 ( +2 / -2 )

@tokyo-m they already have. lots of HKese buying properties in Japan these days. HK has been slowly losing its sap to Singapore and Shanghai.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The picture doesn't look good. They should protest peacefully rather than destroying property and riot. I support peaceful demonstration and everyone has right to protest against what they believe it was not right. However, destroying property won't be getting what they wanted.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

if the people of HK would have preferred to stay under the rule of the British!

You make it sound as if they had a choice.

Maybe they had the possibility to get independency (look at Singapore or Taiwan), the thing is they did not try. Many middle and upper class families had possibilities to migrate. One million left, probably 4 millions could have. Hard choices.

They should protest peacefully 

Like Tibet ?

destroying property

It's their property that they won't let in the hands of oppressor. Like Roland trying to destroy Durandal.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Fantastic! Hong Kong is so different than the mainland. Once you have freedoms, those freedoms can never be taken away. Something traditional Chinese have no concept of.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

extanker: "they are trying to stop citizens of Hong Kong from being able to be snatched up and flown off to a dark basement in mainland China."

Reminds me of the US " Extraordinary rendition" program where the US government-sponsored abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another with the purpose of circumventing the former country's laws on interrogation, detention and torture.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

coskuri:  "It's their property that they won't let in the hands of oppressor.''

So each protestor is only destroying his own property? I thought public and government buildings and infrastructure belong to all, public property.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

I think they are terrified of what is possible to come, with Chinese generals blaming it on the inferior HK people, brainwashed by the Brits. Nobody wants to be ruled with a boot on your neck, after you have experienced something totally different.

I will get called a racist for this, but I think most Far East Asians prefer an outside influence to guide or govern them and do not want their own people doing it. I dont think most Japanese want the US military presence to leave, even though its an obvious, elephant in the room, indication that they lost the cause. The same with the HK people; they would prefer the British common law system, as to opposed to any Chinese rule, even though they are Chinese. Imagine if the US would pull out of Japan, do you think they are capable of creating a fair democracy without any remnants of the past? I hardly think so.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Reminds me of the US " Extraordinary rendition" program where the US government-sponsored abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one country to another with the purpose of circumventing the former country's laws on interrogation, detention and torture.

Haha yeah, because the United States is the only country that has done that. I love how you try to make the US out as the only country that does anything questionable on the planet.

The big difference here is China wants to make it legal to do it to anyone in Hong Kong.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

extanker:   ""I love how you try to make the US out as the only country that does anything questionable on the planet."

But did you protest when the US did something "questionable"?

Did those responsible in the US for something "questionable" face the International Court for war crimes, Extraordinary rendition.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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