Hongkongers in Britain have called on Suella Braverman to reconsider controversial measures in her public order bill, which they likened to the repressive measures used to crack down on democratic opposition in their home city. In a letter to the UK home secretary, aspects of the bill were described as “repressive measures that threaten to paralyse entire social movement” and posed a threat to their right to protest in Britain, including against Chinese communist repression in Hong Kong. “Many of us are, or represent and work with, Hongkongers who have…
Tag: Protest
Hong Kong police arrest six for selling ‘seditious’ book at lunar new year fair
Police in Hong Kong have raided a lunar new year shopping fair and arrested six people for selling a “seditious” book related to the 2019 anti-government protests in a move critics say has spread “terror” just days before the celebrations. National security officers accused three men and three women, aged between 18 and 62, of producing and publishing “a seditious book about a series of riots that occurred in Hong Kong from June 2019 to February 2020”, and selling it in a lunar new year stall in a shopping centre…
Australia’s credibility on human rights blighted by laws targeting climate protesters and jailing children, report says
The detention of children under 14 and new laws targeting climate protesters are harming Australia’s credibility to stand up for human rights in the region, a leading rights body has warned. Human Rights Watch called on Australia to address its own “alarming deficiencies” when the organisation on Thursday published its annual reports on the performance of nearly 100 countries. It specifically raised alarm about New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania introducing “new laws targeting peaceful climate and environmental protesters with disproportionate punishments and excessive bail conditions”. The organisation took aim…
Amid the climate crisis, Covid and crumbling democracies, I find hope in people who show the best of humanity | Trent Zimmerman
As we farewell 2022, many of the world’s citizens will be hoping for a better new year. It is hard to look back on the past year – indeed couple of years – without a high degree of angst about the direction of our global community. We have been battered by a pandemic that, while past the peak for most nations, is still disrupting societies and economies. After two years of its hermit-like isolation, 1.4 billion Chinese citizens are now experiencing a nationwide Covid onslaught for the first time with…
The Guardian view on China’s Covid U-turn: from all-out war to all but nothing | Editorial
Despite the rigidity of the Chinese Communist party’s politics and grip on power, it can sometimes change course at a startling pace. The most obvious was its economic turn from Mao to market. More recently, it flipped from its one-child policy of limiting births to actively trying to boost them. But the turnaround on its zero-Covid policy is truly astonishing in its speed. In mid-October, Beijing was still boasting of an “all-out war” on Covid-19, despite its evident unsustainability and punitive economic effects. Two weeks ago, the foreign ministry’s spokesperson…
Mother fears for Chinese Covid protester held for nine days
A young protester has been held in police detention in southern China for nine days after taking part in rallies against Covid restrictions, her mother has said, expressing fear and anguish over her daughter’s safety. China last week effectively ended its harsh zero-Covid policy, after years of economic damage and simmering public discontent that erupted in nationwide protests on a scale unseen in decades. But while the decision to lift the regulations prompted a wave of jubilation – and suggestions by state media that the government was responding to the…
Hong Kong pressures Google to remove protest anthem from searches
Google has refused to change its search results to display China’s national anthem, rather than a protest song, when users search for Hong Kong’s national anthem, the city’s security chief has said, expressing “great regret” at the decision. Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The row comes after the police said they would investigate the playing of Glory to Hong Kong, the unofficial anthem of the 2019 pro-democracy protests, at the men’s final of a sevens rugby tournament in South Korea in…
‘Now I see it’s not just me who’s angry’: readers in China on wave of protests
People living in China have expressed feelings of shock at the eruption of protests last week, with hopes that they continue, mixed with reservations about how successful they can be expected to be in challenging the one-party system. The protests have led to a shift in China’s zero-Covid policy, with the government staging an abrupt turnaround to emphasise the virus’s reduced severity as well as pushing vaccination and personal mitigation measures. Scores of people from across the country contacted the Guardian via a callout to share their reaction to the…
China’s Covid policy didn’t have to end in riot and protest. This is why it did | Stephen Reicher
On Thursday 24 November, a fire broke out on the 15th floor of an apartment block in Urumqi, capital of the western Chinese province of Xinjiang. At least 10 people died, all from the minority Uyghur community. Outrage grew at the fact that the deaths were entirely avoidable, caused by China’s draconian Covid lockdown policy. Some of the victims were sealed in their flats; the building’s fire exits were locked; fire engines were delayed by Covid barriers. Demonstrations and vigils in response soon spread across the country. Ten days later,…
Winnie the Pooh joins Chinese Covid lockdown protests
Years after he became character non grata in China, Winnie the Pooh is exacting quiet revenge against the country’s government in the form of Disney souvenirs. In what appears to be a case of incidental resistance, Disney stores in Japan are selling a line of merchandise featuring a frowning Pooh looking at a blank sheet of white paper – a symbol of ongoing protests in China against censorship and Covid-19 restrictions. The range, designed by the Japanese illustrator Kanahei, shows the image – taken from a scene in a 2011…