Reuters, Hong Kong :
Authorities worried about increasingly strident calls for Hong Kong independence are taking no chances ahead of a rare visit from one of China’s top ranking officials, shutting down swathes of the city and reportedly gluing down pavers to quell the prospect of violent protests.
Mainland Chinese media have cited the visit by Zhang Dejiang, China’s No. 3 and the first senior official to come since the 2014 Occupy democracy protests, as an example of Beijing’s concern and support for the Asian financial hub. Yet tensions are so palpable that thousands police have been mobilised to secure the city during Zhang’s visit, which begins on Tuesday. Local media reported pavement bricks were being cemented to prevent them being used as missiles while police were camping atop a mountain where a pro-democracy banner was hung two years ago.
Independence, a taboo topic under both British and Chinese rule, has become increasingly mainstream subject in Hong Kong, with some activists calling for an outright breakaway from China, a move some politicians say would imperil Hong Kong’s economic and political future.
“These young people have no idea that they could be putting Hong Kong on a potentially dangerous collision course with the motherland and bringing an unmitigated disaster,” wrote former top Hong Kong security official Regina Ip in an editorial in the state-run China Daily.
“Separatism, or rather the anti-mainland doctrine in disguise, will…doom Hong Kong.” “(We) are facing a very great threat from China: Our culture, our language, our people…we are dying!” said Chan Ho-tin, the head of the newly-formed National party, expected to contest legislative elections in September.
“The problem with young people is that they are not 100 percent pre-occupied with economic considerations,” said Michael Tien, a Hong Kong delegate to China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress, which Zhang heads.
“A lot of young people saying they don’t want development, they want a better environment, they want better work-life balance, they want better quality of life.”
Meanwhile, one of China’s most powerful officials said he would listen to political demands from Hongkongers in a conciliatory start to a visit Tuesday that has stirred anger in a city resentful of Beijing’s tightening grip.
The three-day trip by Zhang Dejiang, who chairs China’s communist-controlled legislature, is the first by such a senior official in four years and comes as concerns grow in semi-autonomous Hong Kong that its long-cherished freedoms are under threat.
