Monday, December 05, 2005

Hong Kong march for democracy: 4 December 2005

Late last week, organizers believed 50,000 might turn out for Sunday's 'march for democracy' from Victoria Park to government headquarters in Lower Albert Road. Come the day, however, many more people turned out: 63,000 - 100,000 - 250,000, depending on whom you believe. As Wallace and Gromit would say: it was a grand day out.
South China Morning Post: paid subscription, no links.
Tsang gets the message: Hong Kong's The Standard
Unassuming retired civil servant (Anson Chan) was the most important protester: Hong Kong's The Standard
Politics on the streets: right-on editorial in, of all places, the UK's Financial Times
Hong Kong Civic Exchanges's indefatigable Christine Loh in her latest subscription newsletter, emailed out soon after the event, has a timeline of the past 20 years and the slow -- two steps forward, one step backward -- progress towards universal sufferage in Hong Kong:
The evening news reported 250,000+ people marched peacefully for democracy today ... again. Police figures are much smaller. Unlike previous marches, no one could say people came out because they were unhappy about the economy, suffered negative equity or didn't like former chief executive CH Tung. They clearly flooded out because they wanted to tell the authorities here and in Beijing they wanted universal suffrage soon.
The timeline itself is too long to re-publish here, and is not available on the Civic Exchange website. But the website is worth a look-see, and is where you can subscribe to the weekly newletter: Civic Exchange.

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