BEIJING: President Xi Jinping has sternly stated today that anyone attempting to split any region from China would perish, with their bodies smashed and bones ground to powder!
“Any external forces that support the splitting of China can only be regarded as delusional by the Chinese people,” President Xi Jinping said insinuating towards the four months of anti-Beijing protests in Hong Kong.
It is pertinent to mention here that rallies erupted in multiple neighborhoods of Hong Kong, with protesters blocking roads, sabotaging train tracks, and trashing pro-China businesses.
According to Beijing external forces were fueling unrest in the former British Colony. Initially the protests were sparked by opposition to a now-scrapped proposal to allow extraditions to mainland China, but have since transformed into a larger movement for democracy and accountability of police.
Keeping in mind the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square using troops and tanks that left over a thousand dead, many believe that China would send troops in, once the Hong Kong Police fails to contain the protests.
Relevant pieces published earlier:
Hong Kong: Million March against extradition law!
HONG KONG: A million people marched through the streets here today demonstrating against planned extradition law.
Pundits at the helm of affairs noted that today’s demonstration was the biggest since Hong Kong was returned to China by Britain and the Tiananmen protests.
It is pertinent to mention here that Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing leaders are pushing a bill through the legislature that would allow extraditions to any jurisdiction with which it does not already have a treaty (including mainland China).
Protester thrashing: Hong Kong police officers cleared
HONG KONG: An appeal court here today overturned the conviction of two police officers and reduced the sentence of five others over the 2014 videotaped beating of a pro-democracy protester!
The case before the Court of Appeal centered on the beating of protester Ken Tsang during the 2014 “Umbrella Movement”, a pro-democracy protest that occupied parts of the city for more than two months but failed to win any concessions from Beijing.
A group of officers were filmed by journalists beating Tsang after he had been dragged to a corner of a park away from where he was arrested.
In their judgement the three judges said Tsang was “kicked, stamped on and beat(en) for a sustained period while he was lying defenseless on the ground with his hands tied behind his back, causing obvious and serious injuries to his face, neck, shoulder, chest and back.”
The beating, the judges added, “will have shaken everyone’s faith not only in the Hong Kong police force but in the rule of law itself.” But they ruled the initial trial judge’s sentence of two years for the officers was “manifestly excessive”.
News Pakistan
