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30 June 2012| last updated at 08:50PM

Pepper spray fired as Chinese leader visits H.K



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HONG KONG: Police fired choking volleys of pepper spray against Hong Kong crowds demonstrating against President Hu Jintao Saturday as he visited the unruly city to mark its return to Chinese rule.

 

The incident underscored tensions surrounding the 15th anniversary on  Sunday of the financial hub’s handover from British control. The anniversary coincides with the inauguration of a new and unpopular leader of the local  government.
 
On the second day of Hu’s three-day visit, hundreds of protesters demanding  an investigation into the recent death of a well-known mainland dissident  rallied near the Chinese leader’s five-star hotel. 
 
Some tried to break through giant barricades, which are being used by  police for the first time since they battled violent protests during a 2005  meeting of the World Trade Organization in Hong Kong.
 
Police unleashed riot-control measures to keep the demonstrators back,  hitting a number of reporters and photographers including three AFP  correspondents in the process with eye-stinging pepper spray.
 
As the faceoff developed, other protesters chanted anti-Beijing slogans and  unfurled a huge banner with the Chinese character “injustice” written on it.
 
Another Hong Kong reporter was briefly detained after shouting questions to  Hu about the 1989 Tiananmen Square bloodshed, as the president visited the  construction site for a new cruise-ship terminal earlier on Saturday.
   
Hu’s visit comes as discontent toward Beijing surges to a new post-handover  high, and his visit has drawn sneers and ridicule from Hong Kongers, who  cherish freedoms in the city such as the right to protest not seen in China.
 
There has been palpable anger over the death of veteran Tiananmen activist  Li Wangyang, who was found dead in his hospital ward in China earlier this  month. His family say he died under suspicious circumstances.
 
The towering barricades in Hong Kong are likely to defy Hu’s stated wish to “walk more” and “see more” during his trip to the semi-autonomous city, which  returned to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997. 
 
“Are we celebrating the handover anniversary or staging a war?” one  Facebook user wrote.
 
Metal fences set up to keep potential demonstrators in a so-called “petition zone” and “protest zone” are so far away from Hu’s hotel that he is  unlikely to see or hear any protests, a fixture of Hong Kong’s daily life.
 
The director of Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor, Law Yuk-kai, criticised the  security measures as an attempt to shield the Chinese leader from any 
“embarrassing demonstrations”. He said the city was “under siege”.    
 
Police had vowed to respect the right to protest during Hu’s visit, after  they were criticised for heavy-handed tactic during a visit by Chinese Vice  Premier Li Keqiang last year, prompting a special inquiry.
 
But some users on social media likened the security tactics for President  Hu to the Great Wall of China or the Berlin Wall.
 
“The Berlin Wall separated East and West Germany, let’s hope this wall of  barricades can separate Hong Kong from China forever,” one anti-Beijing user  wrote.
 
“Get out of Hong Kong!” another writer told the Communist Party and the  People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in a post on the Facebook page of the Hong Kong  chief executive, which was flooded with anti-Beijing comments.
 
The remarks came a day after Hu attended a military ceremony that shed a  rare light on the secretive PLA garrison stationed in Hong Kong.
 
On Sunday he will preside over the inauguration of new Chief Executive  Leung Chun-ying, who has been dogged by allegations of conflicts over his  business interests and unauthorised renovations at his luxury home.
 
The cloud over Leung is emblematic of a widening income gap, and of the  mistrust felt among Hong Kong’s seven million people against the pro-Beijing  business elites who, as part of a special committee, voted him into office.
 
The city maintains a semi-autonomous status with its own legal and  financial system under the “one country, two systems” model that applies to  both Hong Kong and the casino haven of Macau, across the Pearl River Delta. AFP

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