The Baltimore Sun: Fears mar Hong Kong anniversary 5 years under Beijing, economy, liberties erode

July 2, 2002

HONG KONG - As Hong Kong commemorated five years of Chinese rule with flags and fireworks, political leader Tung Chee-hwa began his second term yesterday amid widespread worries that the territory's economy will stay bad and local freedoms will dwindle.

Protesters lashed out at Beijing's "murderous regime" as Chinese President Jiang Zemin said Hong Kong had succeeded in retaining its capitalist ways and now should better support the mainland.

Jiang urged those in the former British colony to "keep enhancing their sense of the country and of the nation," drawing a rebuke from a pro-democracy lawmaker who noted that Beijing stops most political opposition figures from even visiting the mainland.

"Unite with people who ban us?" legislator Emily Lau asked. "They are so hostile, the mainland authorities and Mr. Tung. They exclude us from almost everything. When they come here, we've never been invited to a meeting with them - never."

Outside the anniversary ceremonies - and out of earshot of the dignitaries - demonstrators clamored for improved human rights in Mainland China, an accounting of the 1989 massacre of students in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square and an "end to the one-party dictatorship."

The protests showed Hong Kong retains Western-style freedoms unheard of in mainland China, although pro-democracy activists complained that police are making it more difficult and worried that the situation will worsen during Tung's second term as chief executive. [...] Nearby, about 100 Falun Gong practitioners sat in lotus positions in a silent appeal for Beijing to stop its deadly crackdown on the meditation group suppressed in China.

Falun Gong remains legal in Hong Kong, but practitioners [appealed because] immigration officials prevented more than 100 practitioners from entering to attend the protests.

The Hong Kong Security Bureau declined to discuss specifics but said police needed to ensure that visitors "would not cause trouble."

Under cloudy morning skies, a police band hoisted the Chinese and Hong Kong flags to mark Hong Kong's return from Britain to China on July 1, 1997. Hong Kong closed the ceremonies last night with a spectacular fireworks show over Victoria Harbor.

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