HONG KONG: Thousands of people attended a pro-Beijing rally in Hong Kong Sunday in support of China’s decision to effectively bar two pro-independence legislators from taking office, as fears grow of the city’s freedoms being under threat.
Beijing’s ruling last week preempted a decision by the Hong Kong courts over whether lawmakers Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching should be disqualified from Parliament after deliberately misreading their oaths of office, inserting expletives and draping themselves with “Hong Kong is not China” flags.
Beijing’s interpretation of the city’s constitution issued on Monday said that any oath taker who does not follow the prescribed wording of the oath, “or takes the oath in a manner which is not sincere or not solemn,” should be disqualified.
On Sunday rowdy crowds, waving Chinese flags, surrounded the government’s headquarters in a show of support for Beijing’s unprecedented decision, slammed by pro-democracy activists and legal experts as a massive blow to Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
Supporters chanted slogans such as “fight against Hong Kong independence, support the interpretation” at the rally, which was attended by pro-Beijing legislators.
“The cancer cells are those who are promoting Hong Kong independence... we will fight them to the end,” lawmaker Michael Tien told the crowd who cheered loudly in response. “China will never, ever tolerate the splitting of the nation,” Tien said.
Priscilla Leung, another pro-China legislator who attended the rally, said the lawmakers’ behavior at the swearing-in ceremony “humiliated all of the Chinese people.” Police said that 28,500 people attended the rally.
The Hong Kong High Court’s decision into whether Leung and Yau should be disqualified is still pending.
Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” deal which protects its freedoms for 50 years, but there are growing concerns those liberties are disappearing.
Thousands attend pro-Beijing rally in Hong Kong
Thousands attend pro-Beijing rally in Hong Kong
Hundreds rally in Paris to support Ukraine after four years of war
- Demonstrators chanted: “We support Ukraine against Putin, who is killing it“
- “Frozen Russian assets must be confiscated, they belong to Ukraine“
PARIS: Around one thousand took to the streets of Paris on Saturday to show their “massive support” for Ukraine, just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Demonstrators marching through the French capital chanted: “We support Ukraine against Putin, who is killing it,” and “Frozen Russian assets must be confiscated, they belong to Ukraine.”
“In public opinion, there is massive support for Ukraine that has not wavered since the first day of the full-scale invasion” by the Russian army on February 24, 2022, European Parliament member Raphael Glucksmann, told AFP.
“On the other hand, in the French political class, sounds of giving up are starting to emerge. On both the far left and the far right, voices of capitulation are getting louder and louder,” he added.
In the crowd, Irina Kryvosheia, a Ukrainian who arrived in France several years ago, “thanked with all her heart the people present.”
She said they reminded “everyone that what has been happening for four years is not normal, it is not right.”
Kryvosheia said she remains in daily contact with her parents in Kyiv, who told her how they were deprived “for several days” of heating, electricity and running water following intense bombardments by the Russian army.
Francois Grunewald, head of “Comite d’Aide Medicale Ukraine,” had just returned from a one-month mission in the country, where the humanitarian organization has delivered around forty generators since the beginning of the year.
Russia’s full-scale invasion sent shockwaves around the world and triggered the bloodiest and most destructive conflict in Europe since World War II.
The war has seen tens of thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of military personnel killed on both sides. Millions of refugees have fled Ukraine, where vast areas have been devastated by fighting.
Russia occupies nearly 20 percent of Ukrainian territory and its heavy attacks on the country’s energy sites have sparked a major energy crisis.
