The N.E.D. has been outed:
"Hong Kong students reach out to China; Open letter urges president to consider reforms" by Sylvia Hui | Associated Press October 12, 2014
HONG KONG — Students leading prodemocracy protests in Hong Kong issued an open letter Saturday to President Xi Jinping of China, urging him to consider political reforms in the city and blaming the city’s unpopular leader for the demonstrations.
The letter, issued by two student groups leading the protests, said Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying was responsible for a civil disobedience campaign that has seen tens of thousands of people throng the semiautonomous city’s key thoroughfares in the past two weeks.
Thousands of demonstrators showed up in the main protest zone Saturday.
I'm so sick of agenda-pushing swill.
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The protesters have vowed to keep up the demonstrations until the government responds to their demands....
They already have.
China’s premier, Li Keqiang, said Friday that he was confident Hong Kong’s government can preserve ‘‘social stability.’’ He did not directly mention the protests, but stressed that Beijing would not change its ‘‘one country two systems’’ approach to running Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, a Chinese state-run newspaper blamed the United States for being behind the protests — a claim the US State Department strongly rejected.
Well, they are all a bunch of liars over there anyway.
Related: Hong Kong Fooley?
No longer. U.S. government are only fooling themselves.
In a commentary published on the front page of the Communist Party-run People’s Daily’s overseas edition Friday, the newspaper said the National Endowment for Democracy, a Washington-based nonprofit group, became involved in the Hong Kong protests as part of a US strategy to undermine foreign governments in the name of promoting democracy.
NED, AID, and any other alphabet organization that makes my agenda-pushing paper probably = CIA, too!
Citing unidentified media reports, the commentary claimed that Louisa Greve, a director at the nonprofit, met with Hong Kong protest leaders months ago to discuss the movement.
The group did not immediately reply to an e-mail requesting comment Saturday. According to its website, the organization is devoted to ‘‘the growth and strengthening of democratic institutions around the world,’’ and is funded largely by Congress.
Maybe you could $tart here at home?
When asked about the State Department’s role in the protests, department spokeswoman Marie Harf said Friday that US officials ‘‘categorically reject accusations that we are manipulating the activities of any person, group, or political party in Hong Kong.’’
Then it's all true.
‘‘What is happening there is about the people of Hong Kong, and any assertion otherwise is an attempt to distract from the issue at hand, which is the people expressing their desire for universal suffrage in an election that provides a meaningful choice of candidates representative of their own voters’ will,’’ Harf said.
When are we getting that in AmeriKa, rather than the fraud of elections regarding corporate war party candidates subservient to Israel and Wall Street?
Some Chinese officials contend the United States and Britain wield so much influence in Hong Kong that China cannot open the nomination process for candidates to succeed Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017 as protesters have demanded. Doing so, they argue, risks allowing voters to be manipulated and a puppet of the West to take power.
I'm wondering how the U.S. government would react to say, New York City, wanting junk the political process and demand more candidates.
Oh, right, those other guys are either shut out or ignored for the most part.
“Strategically, there is an American pivot to Asia still going on, so can you imagine it will not make use of the current turmoil?” asked Lau Nai-keung, a member of a Hong Kong committee that advises China’s Legislature. “This is how the Beijing leadership views what is going on.”
I would say they see things very clearly in Beijing.
Many who back the government say these fears are justified given the 155 years Hong Kong spent as a British colony and the autonomy it enjoys in China, and the mixed record of the United States in toppling governments overseas in the name of spreading democracy.
Even if it is a democratically-elected government, although I am surprised to see such a stark afterthought ending the article.
Maybe the AmeriKan media is finally, FINALLY, coming around, huh?
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Yup, ‘‘students are occupying.’’
"Barriers still clog parts of Hong Kong" by Michael Forsythe and Keith Bradsher | New York Times October 09, 2014
HONG KONG — The prodemocracy demonstrations that paralyzed blocks of downtown Hong Kong for nearly two weeks have dissipated to a few hardy thousand, but for reasons many residents cannot comprehend, the streets are still impassable.
The battle for territory between the student-led prodemocracy demonstrators and the Beijing-backed city government has come down to a strange standoff over the metal barricades themselves, set up on the streets and then virtually abandoned by protesters.
Related: Globe Embraces Occupy Wall Street
The students insist they remain, while the government is afraid to touch them, fearing a backlash that will inflame and re-energize the protests.
In AmeriKa they just send in "security" to bust it all up!
Senior government officials “don’t want to give them any excuse that the government is taking things by force,” said a person involved in the government’s decision-making, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicate political nature of the situation.
I wish my bash-your-head-in government felt that way.
“With any action by the government in this area, they will call out people to resist, and then there would be another incident, and we don’t want to do that,” the person said. “They can call out people in a minute.”
Do the Chinese also play chess?
The government learned this lesson when it sent the riot police to quell a protest of several thousand students on Sept. 28.
AmeriKa's never did.
The images of the police firing tear gas and pepper spray at the students prompted tens of thousands of angry residents to join them the next day.
The demonstrators commandeered the waist-high steel grilles that had been left outside by the police in anticipation of the protest, lashed them together, and sealed off a network of major arteries, mainly in the Admiralty district of the city, including long stretches of two eight-lane avenues. They limited traffic to delivery vehicles, fire trucks, and ambulances. All other traffic above ground in these areas, including passenger cars and the city’s beloved 110-year-old tram system, was shut down.
The blockaded territory far exceeds that taken by the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011, which took over a small park in Manhattan....
They finally made the referral I have been looking for.
Related:
"An Occupy Wall Street protester who became a rallying point for activists after being convicted of assaulting a police officer has been cleared of charges from another clash with police. Cecily McMillan was found not guilty Friday of obstructing government administration."
Back to Hong Kong.
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"Hong Kong protests unresolved after talks collapse" by Kelvin Chan | Associated Press October 10, 2014
HONG KONG — A pro-democracy protest that has blocked main roads in Hong Kong for almost two weeks could drag on for days yet, after talks aimed at resolving a bitter standoff between the city’s government and student demonstrators collapsed Thursday.
The government called off the talks hours ahead of the scheduled time Friday, saying the dialogue had been ‘‘seriously undermined’’ by student leaders’ call earlier in the day for supporters to turn out in force to occupy the main protest zone.
‘‘I truly regret that we will not be able to have a meeting tomorrow which will produce any constructive outcome,’’ said Chief Secretary Carrie Lam.
Even before the announcement, it was clear that the two sides hold vastly different positions over whether Hong Kongers could have more say in choosing its leader.
Student leaders vow not to retreat from the streets even as the number of protesters occupying the main thoroughfare and streets in two busy shopping districts has dwindled sharply this week.
Protesters have occupied the streets since Sept. 28, when police used tear gas in a failed attempt to disperse tens of thousands of people in front of the government complex.
The protesters are demanding the government of the semiautonomous Chinese region abandon plans to allow Beijing to screen candidates for the city’s inaugural elections for its leader in 2017. They also want current leader Leung Chun-ying, who was approved for the job by a committee of mostly pro-Beijing elites, to resign.
The government has suggested that it was impossible to meet the students’ demands because Beijing had already set down the rules for the 2017 elections.
It has also insisted that blocking roads and streets is illegal, and urged students to leave so the city can return to normal. Officials had nonetheless agreed to meet on Friday, proposing to focus the talks on legal technicalities.
That angered student leaders, who said the government was using the talks as a delaying tactic to dodge their demands.
American kids know how you feel.
Alex Chow of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of three groups coordinating the protests, said the city’s students have been asking for dialogue with the government since they walked out of classes on Sept. 22 to press their demands.
‘‘During those days we gave our sweat and our blood, we faced tear gas, and some of us were arrested and we may face imprisonment in the future,’’ Chow said.
‘‘Even now, we are open to talks with the government anytime. They’ve shown they have no sincerity to shoulder their responsibility of facing the concerns of the Hong Kong people,’’ he said.
Pro-democracy lawmakers, who so far have not played much of a role in the civil disobedience campaign, said they would join in by blocking all government funding requests in the Legislature except for the most urgent.
Student leaders are calling a rally Friday, urging supporters to redouble their efforts to occupy the main protest zone — a highway outside government headquarters that they have dubbed ‘‘Umbrella Square.’’ Umbrellas used to combat police pepper spray and tear gas have become a symbol of the nonviolent movement.
Has all the hallmarks of a U.S. destabilization campaign with glowing pre$$ coverage to prove it.
The protests have shaken the administration of Leung, the city’s chief executive, who is also facing a secret payout scandal involving a previously undisclosed deal between Leung and an Australian mining company worth $6.4 million.
The contract was dated December 2011 — several months before Leung took office, but a week after he declared he would run for the post. Both Leung’s office and the company, UGL, said it was a standard confidential contract.
This is all about getting rid of him, just as it was Yanukovych.
Hong Kong’s Justice Department said authorities will investigate after the city’s anti-corruption watchdog on Thursday received a complaint about the contract.
The government’s decision to call off the talks Thursday was greeted with sneers by the few hundred activists who continue to occupy the protest zone in Admiralty.
Down to a FEW HUNDRED, huh?
‘‘Two days ago they wanted to talk, now they won’t talk,’’ said Candice Heung, a university administrator who often joins the protest after work. ‘‘This doesn’t matter at all.’’
Couldn't agree more.
The reality, she said, is the government has no interest in sitting down with the students.
‘‘They don’t want to talk,’’ she said.
American students know just what you mean.
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"Hong Kong prodemocracy protesters return to the streets" by Simon Denyer | Washington Post October 11, 2014
HONG KONG — Thousands of people of all ages flocked back into the streets of Hong Kong on Friday evening as the government’s decision to pull out of talks breathed new life into a prodemocracy movement.
This propaganda is killing me.
Crowds at the protest sites in the city had been dwindling this week, but speakers said the government had miscalculated if it thought the popular desire for democracy was waning.
Ever feel like you are looking into a mirror, WaPo?
From a makeshift stage, students and other protest leaders were joined by volunteers, doctors, housewives, lawmakers, and academics, in expressing their support for the movement and vowing to continue the struggle until the Hong Kong government responded to their demands for democracy.
Oh, the WaPo loves Hong Kong Occupy!
But the loudest cheers of the night were reserved for Joshua Wong, the slight and bespectacled student leader who celebrates his 18th birthday Monday. He urged supporters to bring their tents, mattresses, mats, and sleeping bags to fill up the protest site in central Hong Kong and prepare for a ‘‘long-term occupation.’’
‘‘This is our only choice if the government blocks the conversation. We are tired but we don’t want to lose,’’ he said in Cantonese, before leading the crowd in an English chant of ‘‘Democracy now, democracy in Hong Kong, we will never give up.’’
How much is the CIA paying Wong?
Speakers and the crowd chanted ‘‘Stay on the streets until the end,’’ ‘‘fight on,’’ and ‘‘protect Hong Kong.’’
‘‘Hong Kong’s determination has created one historic moment after another,’’ Wong said, demanding that the government apologize for using tear gas at the start of the protests and threatening to expand the protests if authorities did not come to the negotiating table.
Above the stage, banners demanded that Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying quit, called for democracy and justice, warned Taiwan to ‘‘beware’’ of China, and quoted lyrics from a pop song imploring people to ‘‘hold tight to freedom amid the wind and rain.’’
In Washington, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said the United States should boost support for democracy in Hong Kong. Beijing responded by saying this was sending the wrong message to demonstrators and called it a ‘‘deliberate attack’’ on China.
It is certainly a thumb in the eye.
Speaking in Berlin, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the situation in Hong Kong was part of China’s internal affairs and warned other countries to respect its sovereignty, news agencies reported.
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Speaking of sovereignty:
"Chinese government using arrests to discourage wider civil movement" by Andrew Jacobs | New York Times October 10, 2014
BEIJING — Chinese authorities, determined to prevent pro-democracy rallies in Hong Kong from spilling across the border into the mainland, have detained at least 10 people in recent days, including a group of artists who attended a poetry reading inspired by the protests in Hong Kong.
In all, human rights advocates say more than 40 people across the country have been taken into police custody since a campaign of civil disobedience over the pace of democratization in Hong Kong began nearly two weeks ago. Some of those arrested have already been charged with “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” a charge that carries up to three years in jail.
The detention of several people whose only apparent crime was to attend a private poetry reading underscores the anxieties of Chinese leaders over the standoff in Hong Kong, the former British colony.
Tensions are likely to remain high. On Thursday, Chinese activists on Twitter began circulating a call to converge on Tiananmen Square this weekend with umbrellas, the protest symbol adopted by the Hong Kong protesters.
CIA-supported coups always get catchy names freighted with symbolism.
The most recent arrests took place in and around Songzhuang, an artists’ enclave on the outskirts of the capital and the setting for an Oct. 2 poetry recital. According to several artists and lawyers for those detained, seven of those taken into police custody had attended the event.
Several people were detained when the police arrived, while others were taken away the following day.
Among those arrested in recent days was Wang Zang, a poet and performance artist whose work is often politically provocative.
His wife, Wang Li, said he was probably singled out after posting on Twitter a photograph of himself, head shaved and holding out an umbrella, his middle finger raised in defiance. At his back was the national flag of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as its own.
Several mainland activists, many of them detained in recent days, had cut off their hair as a gesture of solidarity with the movement in Hong Kong.
In a group chat on the popular WeChat messaging service, friends of the detained artists said they were especially worried about Wang because of his previous work. In 2013, Wang had scrawled “principal, leave the school kids alone — get a room with me” on his naked body to protest a sexual abuse scandal involving a primary school principal accused of raping six students.
He likes Pink Floyd?
Wang’s wife said about a dozen police officers searched the family’s apartment and seized his computer, documents, and the flag and umbrella he displayed in the photo he had posted on social media.
Good thing that never happens in AmeriKa.
On Wednesday, Wang said she and her year-old daughter were held at the Songzhuang police station for nine hours without food and water. She said her daughter was bruised during a scuffle with the police, who she said used abusive language.
A man who picked up the phone at the Songzhuang police station Thursday declined to comment on Wang’s allegations.
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Time for a report:
"China’s human rights record worsening, US report says" Associated Press October 10, 2014
As if the torturing, mass-murdering war government of AmeriKa had any moral authority to issue such things.
BEIJING — A US report released Thursday says China’s human rights record has worsened in key areas over the past year, and that limits on free speech and assembly are growing.
The annual report by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China said the country has tightened restrictions on civil society, rights advocates, journalists, and religious organizations. It added that President Xi Jinping has adhered ‘‘to the authoritarian model of his predecessors.’’
That model ‘‘poses a serious challenge to US-China relations and China’s own development,’’ the report said.
What are they doing, dumping treasuries and not buying any more?
It recommended that the United States press for freedoms in China, including a look at how it issues visas to Chinese officials.
Really looking to GET A WAR going, huh?
The Chinese government did not immediately respond to the US report.
Give them a few minute, will ya?
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"China ‘strongly displeased’ by US rights report" Associated Press October 11, 2014
BEIJING — China strongly criticized a US human rights report Friday that describes tightening restrictions against rights advocates, religious organizations, and other members of Chinese civil society.
There, you happy now?
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said at a news briefing that the independent US Congressional-Executive Commission on China ‘‘twisted facts and attacked China on purpose’’ in its report.
This government has a tendency to do that. Don't take it personal.
Hong said China was ‘‘strongly displeased’’ and demanded that the commission ‘‘stop this intervention and wrongdoing which hurts China-US relations.’’
Released Thursday, the report said President Xi Jinping has adhered ‘‘to the authoritarian model of his predecessors’’ since taking power last year.
‘‘Human rights and rule of law conditions in China overall did not improve this past year, and declined in some of the areas covered by this report,’’ the commission wrote. ‘‘The limited space for peaceful expression, assembly, and religious practice in China constricted further.’’
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Time to go get me a hot meal (I will pass on the beans).
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
You understand what a blank space means, right?
