Beijing Dangles an Olive Branch

How did Robert Chow score meetings with officials like Wang Guangya?

It's all relative isn't it.

Now that the Hong Kong pan-democrats seem completely tame next to the localists, the Chinese government has decided to grant the pan-dems mainland travel documents from now on.

But the pan-democrats aren't buying it. Leung Yiu-chung of the Neighbourhood and Worker's Service Centre says it is a two-pronged strategy by Beijing to break the ice with opposition lawmakers, while cracking down hard on independence advocacy.

Leung Yiu-chung isn't convinced by Beijing's olive branch

"If officials would like to talk about relaunching the city's political reform process, I would go anytime, even this afternoon, but there is no need for another sightseeing trip," To said.

What was also bizarre about the announcement was that it came not from Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, but from the pan-democrats' fiercest critic, Robert Chow Yung, who runs the pro-establishment group Silent Majority for Hong Kong.

He has managed to score meetings with Wang Guangya, director of the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the National People's Congress, and Chen Zuoer, chairman of the semi-official Chinese Association of Hong Kong and Macau Studies.

The fact that Chow got these meetings -- one purportedly lasting as long as two hours -- shows that even Leung Chun-ying doesn't quite have the guanxi touch anymore.

Nevertheless, at least three pan-democrats who have been unable to renew their mainland travel documents for more than a decade -- Democrat James To Kun-sun, "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung from the League of Social Democrats, and Leung Yiu-chung -- have said they will not apply for permits.

Leung Kwok-hung isn't applying for a permit anytime soon

"I also found it very strange that Chow was informed before the local government. It seems Beijing has downgraded the local government," Leung Yiu-chung said.

When asked if he knew about the announcement from Beijing, Leung Chun-ying declined to confirm, only saying he had been "working hard to advocate that the central government promptly allow our pan-democrat friends [to visit the mainland]".

Hmmm... since when were the pan-democrats his "friends"?

Even Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, Hong Kong's sole representative on the National People's Congress Standing Committee didn't know about the latest development. She saw it as a gesture to the pan-democrats that "if you are not [advocating independence] there is no reason why there should be no communication [between us]".

Very interesting development, but also good on the pan-democrats for sticking to their guns. Democracy is worth much more than a travel permit to the mainland...

Blue Team out in Force

Robert Chow Yung has another signatory campaign up his sleeve

The Hong Kong government isn't having much luck trying to sell its electoral reform package so now it seems the Alliance for Peace and Democracy -- the pro-Beijing group led by Robert Chow Yung -- will be trying to garner support through a signature campaign starting this Saturday.

From May 9-17, the group's 1,000 member organizations will set up booths around the city to gather signatures from Hong Kong people aged 18 and above.

However, the group doesn't have much credibility, as its last campaign in October claimed to collect 1.83 million signatures, but didn't check signatories for their ID cards, and as a result many members of the media reported being able to put down fake names and in multiple locations.

Nevertheless, Chow believes people will only sign the petition once, which is naive thinking on his part.

The group believes that by getting a lot of signatures from the public, that will pressure the pan-democrats to change their votes and support the government's electoral reform package.

Seems like wishful thinking for the Beijing-loyalist group, as none of the pan-democrats want to be seen as a traitor to the true universal suffrage cause.

This latest exercise is yet another distraction in the fight for democracy in Hong Kong. One colleague I talked to yesterday felt the government has been untruthful the whole time.

"They said they wanted to discuss it with us -- but once their package comes out, they adamantly say there is no chance for discussion," my coworker said.

I mentioned how the government campaign to sell it to the public has backfired in its face, and now they are soliciting feedback, but then weren't the protests last year sending a signal that a good percentage of people are not happy with what was being planned in terms of how the next chief executive would be elected?

In the meantime for Chow's group to mount yet another signature campaign shows it has a lot of resources coming from somewhere... This indirect way of trying to push the electoral reform package through doesn't address the issues that really need to be tackled and creates even deeper divisions in the community...

Keeping Up Morale

A Lego dramatization of the Umbrella Movement on show at Admiralty

A referendum was supposed to take place tonight at Admiralty to gage what protesters thought should be the next plan of action.

But it was called off hours before it was due to start, mainly because protesters had different views about how to move forward and felt the poll would not achieve much.

Have your portrait taken at the site with an "umbrella"

"The public may feel that there are problems with the movement's organization and leadership, and we admit that... I promise that in the future, we will have sufficient notification and discussion with protesters, before making a major, formal decision, said Occupy co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting.

Federation of Students' Alex Chow Yong-kang said some protesters felt there was no need for a vote because them occupying the streets proved they supported the issues in the referendum.

It's an embarrassing gaffe for the Occupy/Umbrella Movement, but tonight there was a strong turnout in Admiralty.

There was a mini concert held, a guy with a guitar sang a few songs followed by speeches by others to fire up the crowd, marking Day 29.

A yellow umbrella mobile hanging by the escalator

The newest thing now is to take a portrait at the protest site and with the camera shutter open for a long exposure, a guy with a yellow light "draws" between two people to make it look like they are holding an umbrella.

We also saw a young woman using a whiteboard marker drawing on the hood of her convertible -- how did she drive it in there? She wrote "I love students" complete with a drawing of an umbrella and lion with the banner "I want true democracy", referring to the Lion Rock banner stunt. She invited two kids to write "add oil" in Chinese.

There wasn't any hard feelings about not having the vote -- it was probably for the best.

However this weekend Robert Chow Yung's group was out in force, collecting signatures to support the police, an indirect pro-Beijing reference. They were in every neighbourhood including mine soliciting signatures, though I heard even children's autographs were accepted, which may explain why they had some 300,000 on the first day.

A woman draws on the hood of her car

This numbers game just creates a greater divide between people instead of trying to inch closer to some kind of consensus...

But it got really ugly in Tsim Sha Tsui last night, when some anti-Occupy supporters had scuffled with journalists, when a RTHK reporter was dragged to the ground, and a TVB reporter and two TVB cameramen were injured.

And people try to claim Umbrella Movement protesters are inciting violence?

A Patriotic March

The scene looking at the marchers finishing the route around 4.15pm

Today the anti-Occupy Central movement occupied the streets of Hong Kong from Victoria Park in Causeway Bay to Chater Garden in Central.

Police estimate 111,800 marchers attended this time, compared to 98,600 for July 1.

Then how is it that today's march ended at 6.30pm and past 10pm on July 1?

Obviously someone tallied the numbers wrong...

In any event, the march today screwed up my plans to hit the gym in the early afternoon. I should have gotten off the bus at Douglas Street, just before Landmark, thinking there would be a closer stop, but I was wrong. I took the bus all the way to Immigration Tower in Wan Chai and had to fight the Food Expo crowds going to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre to get to the MTR to return to Central.

As I crossed the overpass, it seemed like I had seen the last bit of the marchers and thought it was funny that the march ended so quickly because there didn't seem to be anyone behind the group that was approaching Southorn Playground.

And when I got to Central, the head of the march hadn't arrived yet.

The marchers seemed to go past the Chater Garden finish...

However, after I finished my swim over an hour later, there were still lots of people marching -- obviously in drips and drabs.

There was talk of many being coerced into participating, lured by the prospect of having a work day off or some kind of monetary reward (perhaps funded by an entity based in Western), or people, many elderly, were bussed in to make it easier for them to get to the starting point.

Anti-Occupy Central co-founder Robert Chow Yung must be extremely pleased with the turnout, despite having only 900 people showing up to run the same route earlier in the morning. They were hoping for 10,000...

Some people who were interviewed for the march said they didn't want Occupy Central to happen because they worried about violence, which indicated the propaganda against the movement has effectively brain washed people.

No matter what side you are on, we all want a peaceful resolution of how universal suffrage will be implemented in 2017. Who said the Occupy Central people were planning to be violent? Civil disobedience does not equal violence.

It's interesting the Occupy Central camp hasn't done much to clear up this serious piece of misinformation, and they were exposed as being naive by leaks of Jimmy Lai Chee-ying's emails who donated money to their cause.

In the meantime, it's not surprising but disappointing to see Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has signed the anti-Occupy Central petition, along with Health Secretary Dr Ko Wing-man, Education Secretary Eddie Ng Hak-kim, and Development Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po.

Leung made sure the media covered his public signing the petition and when reporters asked about him taking sides, he said: "There is no neutrality in it. There is no 'middle area' between breaking the law and not breaking the law".

So the ball is now back in Occupy Central's court, though it's interesting to note senior Beijing officials will meet all 70 Hong Kong lawmakers in Shenzhen next week for a last-ditch attempt at resolving electoral reforms for the 2017 election of the next chief executive.

Even though many people have been out of Hong Kong for the holidays, the city has been anything but quiet these days...