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China-Japan-Koreas

Riot police break up Hong Kong rally for China's Muslim Uighur minority

2019-12-23

[AlAhram] Hong Kong riot police broke up a solidarity rally for China's Uighurs on Sunday -- with one officer drawing a pistol -- as the city's pro-democracy movement likened their plight to that of the oppressed Moslem minority.

The initially peaceful rally descended into chaos when a small group of protesters removed a Chinese flag from a nearby government building and tried to burn it, an AFP news hound on the scene said.

Organisers stopped the flag being burned but riot police then swooped in with pepper spray, sparking anger from the crowd who threw water bottles.

One officer drew his side-arm and pointed it at the crowd but did not fire. Multiple protesters were seen being detained.

The rally in support of Uighurs is likely to anger Beijing.

China has faced international condemnation for rounding up an estimated one million Uighurs and other mostly Moslem ethnic minorities in internment camps in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

The emergence of a huge surveillance and prison system that now blankets much of Xinjiang has been watched closely in Hong Kong which has been convulsed by six months of huge and sometimes violent protests against Beijing's rule.

Pro-Uighur chants and flags have become commonplace in Hong Kong's marches but Sunday's rally was the first to be specifically dedicated to Uighurs.

Around 1,000 people gathered in a square close to the city's harbourfront listening to speeches warning that the Chinese Communist Party's crackdown in Xinjiang could one day be replicated in Hong Kong.

"We shall not forget those who share a common goal with us, our struggle for freedom and democracy and the rage against the Chinese Communist Party," one speaker shouted through a loudspeaker to cheers from the crowd.

Many of those attending were waving the flag of "East Turkestan", the term many Uighur separatists use for Xinjiang, which has a white crescent moon on a blue background.

Others wore blue face masks displaying the East Turkestan flag. Flags for Tibet -- another restless region of China that has long been under a security lock down -- were also flown as well as Taiwan flags.

FEARS FOR THE FUTURE
China runs Hong Kong on a "one country, two systems" model which allows the financial hub key freedoms that are denied people on the authoritarian mainland.

Come 2047 -- 50 years after Britannia handed the city back -- the deal ends.

Many Hong Kongers fear an increasingly assertive China is already eroding those freedoms, especially since Xi Jinping became president.

Many at Sunday's rally said they felt a mainland style government is around the corner.

"The Chinese government are control freaks, they can't stand any opinions they disagree with," Katherine, a protester in her late twenties and a civil servant, told AFP before police moved in.

"In Xinjiang they are doing what they are doing because they have the power to do so. When they take over Hong Kong they will do the same," she added.

China rolled out a sweeping crackdown on Uighurs and other Moslem minorities after a series of deadly attacks by murderous Moslems.

It bristles at any criticism of its policies in Xinjiang and warns against foreign criticism.

Beijing initially denied the existence of the Xinjiang camps, but now says they are "vocational training centres" necessary to combat terrorism.

Few Moslem countries have openly criticised China given its huge economic clout.

But increasingly high profile figures are speaking out.

Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil, a German of ~~Ottoman~~ Turkish origin, criticised China's actions last week and the Moslem community's silence but has since come under a barrage of attacks from Beijing.

Posted by:trailing wife

#4 Will abstain, Frank.

Posted by: Dron66046 2019-12-23 17:02

#3 Confucius to students: "Two temperers:
Our East produce weapons for emperors,
While West fashions finks
In weak armour (big chinks!)
Whom their ancestors think little whimperers."

Posted by: Chuger Trotsky1832 2019-12-23 13:52

#2 Dron - please lose the "Chinks" references?

Posted by: Frank G 2019-12-23 05:35

This is one reason why I wasn't so jubilant about the HK riots. Good for us, that the Chinese were busy a while, but really all they had wanted was to extradite some individuals that were bribing their way to bail and impunity under the corrupt HK judiciary.

The people of Hong Kong made a grave error in allowing muslims as fillers in their crowds. They were practically aligning their righteous struggle for self determination with muslim criminal goals. Now comes the overt claim to solidarity with uighurs; now they'll suffer for it and not many will bother. In fact many, like me will identify with the Chinese fist in this regard.

The muslim is alway ready to walk with you in any anti-govt demonstration, he/she will readily volunteer for any activism to that end. Which is why you will find many Zaids and Mustafas in every chanting crowd. It's part of the koranic teachings on lawfare and gradually infusing instability into kafir societies. They will piggyback on everything from feminism to refugee rights to further their cause.

I shared earlier about the trafficking, money laundering gangs based in HK that the Chinese wanted to extradite. Many of the trafficking gangs use hawala, bitcoin and real estate deals to facilitate huge transfers. The multi-ethnic gangs from across the south China sea operate freely in the zone under protection from trade syndicates and lax laws. One such group is the 19 Sam Gor, with considerable clout in the HKSAR.

In reality, no one was going to rendition law abiding HK citizens to China for internment in camps. Only heinous offenders like a money launderer for traffickers who killed his pregnant girlfriend - the case that spurred the CPC to try to enact the bill through Carrie Lam.

That the HKSAR is hopelessly corrupt and often works for criminal interests without moral friction is known to everybody in the Asian underworld. It remains the one region where no definite laws have existed for a long time to deter human trafficking and sex-slavery, making it a perfect hiding place for bosses of these networks as business owners and regular entrepreneurs.

Posted by: Dron66046 2019-12-23 03:45

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