OxBlog

# Posted 2:42 PM by Patrick Belton

ON A BRIGHT NOTE FOR NEW YEAR'S DAY, a quite massive rally in favour of democracy took place this morning in Hong Kong, with the number of participants ranging in various estimates from 37,000 to 100,000. Activists were particularly aroused by the decision by pro-Beijing HK chief executive Tung Chee-hwa to appoint 102 non-elected members to the city's legislature, though the Basic Law negotiated between Britain and China before the territory's handover in 1997 gives him that right. The demonstration today is the largest in favour of democracy since July, when a half million residents of Hong Kong protested; in parliamentary elections in November with 400 seats at stake, pro-democracy candidates largely routed candidates sympathetic toward Beijing. China's response has been wary, with Chinese security agencies stepping up their monitoring of Hong Kong in the wake of Beijing's surprise at the July protests.

Among the groups struggling for democracy in Hong Kong are the Hong Kong Voice of Democracy, the Frontier, and Legislative Councillor Emily Lau (a US- and British-educated former journalist, and the Council's only female member). Their struggle, as a former British territory now joined with an authoritarian regime, is poignant, and their cause is that of all freedom-loving peoples, wherever they live.

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