By MIN LEE, Associated Press Writer
HONG KONG - Pro-democracy figures claimed fresh momentum Saturday after tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents rallied on the 15th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown, but Beijing's local allies denounced the protest as a ploy to seek independence.
AP Photo
Hong Kong people hold a candlelight vigil every year to commemorate China's military crackdown on unarmed students rallying for democracy in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. This year's event was highly charged after China recently ruled out full democracy in the near term for Hong Kong.
Organizers claimed they attracted a 82,000 people, up from around 50,000 last year. Police put the number at 48,000.
Hong Kongers still mourn the hundreds, if not thousands, of people killed when China used troops and tanks to crush the mainland's democracy movement. China's decision in April that Hong Kong citizens cannot directly elect their next leader in 2007 and all lawmakers in 2008 added to the high emotions this year.
"People are geared up to speak out," opposition lawmaker Lee Cheuk-yan said Saturday. "Their fight for democracy back then is the same fight as ours."
Beijing claims it had to use troops to break up a counterrevolutionary riot, and its local allies voiced sharp criticism Saturday of the candlelight vigil.
The Wen Wei Po newspaper, seen by many here as a local mouthpiece for Beijing, charged Saturday that the demonstrators are engaged in a plot to seek independence.
"Hong Kong has returned to the motherland with significant autonomy, but democracy sympathizers are still shouting 'return power to the people." Who do they want to return power to?" Wen Wei Po asked in an editorial.
Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp has never advocated independence, though opposition lawmakers and activists say they would like to see China become democratic.
Most Hong Kong newspapers ran huge pictures of the rally, during which demonstrators held up thousands of candles, creating a sea of flickering lights that took on the appearance of a big outdoor rock concert.
"No longer just a vigil but a fight," the English-language South China Morning Post said in a banner headline.
Wen Wei Po and other pro-Beijing media didn't print such images.
Politics here have grown more turbulent since July 1, when 500,000 people marched against an anti-subversion bill they viewed as a threat to freedoms. Tung had to withdraw it.
Emboldened by that success, many people began clamoring for universal suffrage. Beijing told Hong Kong in April it won't happen any time soon, by ruling out full democracy in the near term and telling Hong Kong to instead focus on economic development.
Separately, a leading opposition lawmaker said Saturday that Hong Kong leader Tung Chee-hwa had urged him several times to stop organizing in support of China's pro-democracy movement.
"He (Tung) approached me once ahead of Hong Kong's handover to China, before he took office, and he looked me up in the next two years as well," Szeto Wah said in an interview with radio RTHK.
"I know you're patriotic, just like I'm patriotic," Szeto, who is banned from the mainland, quoted Tung as telling him. He said he rejected Tung's request.
Tung's office declined immediate comment.
Tung was chosen by an 800-member committee loyal to Beijing. While ordinary Hong Kong citizens can elect 30 of 60 lawmakers in September, the rest will be picked by special interest groups such as business leaders, who tend to side with Beijing and Tung.
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The Hong Kong Special Duties Unit is not a civilian coorperation but a Unit in the Hong Kong Police Force with one purpose Search and destroy threats of terrorism.
