DOCSLIB.ORG

Social Movements in China and Hong Kong the Expansion of Protest Space.Pdf

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Social Movements in China and Hong Kong the Expansion of Protest Space.Pdf Social Movements in China and Hong Kong Publications Series Edited Volumes 9 Movements in SocialSocial Movements Movementsin Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Department of Sociology of the University of Hong Kong. in China Gilles Guiheux is Professor of Sociology at the Department Chinaof Orientaland Languages and Civilisations of the UniversitéHong China and Hong Kong Paris Diderot. and Hong Kong Kuah-Pearce | Guiheux (eds.) Over the last two decades, China and Hong Kong have The Expansion of been testing grounds for protest movements in rural So- and urban settings. As a result of the changing socio- Protest Space economic landscape, the building of a legal state and globalisation, Chinese on the mainland are increasingly Edited by defending their rights and local interests. Likewise, in Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce and Gilles Guiheux Hong Kong, with the change of sovereignty from British colonial rule to Chinese rule, Hong Kong Chinese have become politically active and willing to protest for their freedom and interests. Social Movements in China and Hong Kong: The Expansion of Protest Space provides a comprehensive view, from multi-disciplinary perspectives, of economic issues such as labour rights, labour unions, anti-globalisation, individual entrepreneurship and the law; and those that concern cultural, religious and gender matters that are considered pertinent by the citizens in mainland China and Hong Kong and hence worthy of their protest actions, despite the inherent risks. Such actions have resulted in the expansion of protest space. )3". 9 789089 641311 www.aup.nl ISBN 978 90 8964 131 1 Social Movements in China and Hong Kong Publications Series General Editor Paul van der Velde Publications Officer Martina van den Haak Editorial Board Wim Boot (Leiden University); Jennifer Holdaway (Social Science Research Coun- cil); Christopher A. Reed (The Ohio State University); Anand A. Yang (Director of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and Chair of International Studies at the University of Washington); Guobin Yang (Barnard College, Colum- bia University) The ICAS Publications Series consists of Monographs and Edited Volumes. The Series takes a multidisciplinary approach to issues of interregional and multilat- eral importance for Asia in a global context. The Series aims to stimulate dialo- gue amongst scholars and civil society groups at the local, regional and interna- tional levels. The International Convention of Asia Scholars (ICAS) was founded in 1997. Its main goals are to transcend the boundaries between disciplines, between nations studied, and between the geographic origins of the Asia scholars involved. ICAS has grown into the largest biennial Asia studies event covering all subjects of Asia studies. So far five editions of ICAS have been held respectively in Leiden (1998), Berlin (2001), Singapore (2003), Shanghai (2005) and Kuala Lumpur (2007). ICAS 6 will be held in Daejeon (South Korea) from 6-9 August 2009. In 2001 the ICAS secretariat was founded which guarantees the continuity of the ICAS process. In 2004 the ICAS Book Prize (IBP) was established in order to cre- ate by way of a global competition both an international focus for publications on Asia while at the same time increasing their visibility worldwide. Also in 2005 the ICAS Publications Series were established. For more information: www.icassecretariat.org Social Movements in China and Hong Kong The Expansion of Protest Space Edited by Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce and Gilles Guiheux Publications Series Edited Volumes 9 Cover design: JB&A raster grafisch ontwerp, Westland Layout: The DocWorkers, Almere ISBN 978 90 8964 131 1 e-ISBN 978 90 4851 055 9 NUR 761 © ICAS / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2009 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright re- served above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or in- troduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Table of Contents Acknowledgements 7 Note on Romanisation 8 1 Framing Social Movements in Contemporary China and Hong Kong 9 Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce & Gilles Guiheux 2 Social Protests, Village Democracy and State Building in China: How Do Rural Social Protests Promote Village Democracy? 25 Baogang He 3 Social Movements and State-Society Relationship in Hong Kong 45 Ngok Ma 4 Social Movements and the Law in Post-Colonial Hong Kong 65 Albert H.Y. Chen 5 Defining Hong Kong as an Emerging Protest Space: The Anti-Globalisation Movement 91 Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce 6 ‘Old Working Class’ Resistance in Capitalist China: A Ritualised Social Management (1995-2006) 117 Jean-Louis Rocca 7 Justifying the New Economic and Social Order: The Voice of a Private Entrepreneur 135 Gilles Guiheux 8 The Rise of Migrant Workers’ Collective Actions: Toward a New Social Contract in China 155 Chloé Froissart 6 SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN CHINA AND HONG KONG 9 Grassroots Activism and Labour Electoral Politics under Chinese Rule, 1997-2008 179 Ming K. Chan 10 Hong Kong’s Trade Unions as an Evolving Social Organisation and Their Prospects for the Future 205 Sek Hong Ng & Olivia Ip 11 Non-governmental Feminist Activism in The People’s Republic of China: Communicating Oppositional Gender Equality Knowledge 227 Cecilia Milwertz & Wei Bu 12 The Hong Kong Catholic Church: A Framing Role in Social Movement 245 Beatrice Leung 13 Religiosity and Social Movements in China: Divisions and Multiplications 259 David A. Palmer Contributors 285 Bibliography 287 Index 309 Acknowledgements The journey from the conception of the idea of this book to its final product was a long and arduous one. The idea first came out of the de- bates on the emergence of social movements in both China and Hong Kong at the end of the twentieth century. The excitement surrounding these developments was discussed between the two editors which cul- minated in a conference jointly organized by the Centre for Anthropo- logical Research at the University of Hong Kong and the French Centre for Research on Contemporary China (Hong Kong). We are grateful to the authors for their contributions that were first presented at this con- ference on March 23rd and 24th, 2005. Along the way, we have benefited from various people who have walked this journey with us and helped us realise the publication of this book. We would like to express our gratitude to the Faculty of So- cial Sciences and the Centre for Anthropological Research at the Uni- versity of Hong Kong; the Consulate General of France in Hong Kong and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (D’Alembert scheme) for their financial support. We would also like to express our appreciation to colleagues at the Department of Sociology for administrative assis- tance. In the production of this book, we are indebted to Huang Yedan who painstakingly helped to edit the stylistic contents of all chapters. We would also especially like to mention the anonymous reviewers for their comments that helped sharpen the arguments of the various chapters in this volume. We would like to thank Paul van der Velde and Martina van den Haak for their faith in our work and the editorial team at Amsterdam University Press for turning the manuscript into this wonderful book. As editors, we have had the pleasure of working closely on this vol- ume, and in this process we have come to appreciate our strengths and limitations and scholarship from different traditions. The editors have worked in equal partnership on this volume. Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce and Gilles Guiheux May 2009 Note on Romanisation Chinese terms and place names in the text are transliterated using the hanyu pinyin system, unless otherwise stated. 1 Framing Social Movements in Contemporary China and Hong Kong Khun Eng Kuah-Pearce & Gilles Guiheux Introduction Since 1979, economic reforms have led to a radical transformation of Chinese society. At the time of the planned economy, individual lives were being taken care of, and the citizens did not have to worry about their present and future livelihood, over which they did not have much influence anyway. Jobs, accommodation, education and health care were provided by the State or State-related institutions. Besides, society was almost static as social status was quasi-inherited from one genera- tion to another and jointly decided by political factors and the position of the individual in the production system. It was considered, and sta- ted in the Chinese constitution as such, that the People’s Republic of China was ‘based on the alliance of workers and peasants’. Rapid industrialisation and urbanisation together with the progres- sive institutionalisation of a market economy has put the society back on the move. Chinese society is now fluid. Individuals are free to move from one location to another, and although the hukou system control- ling population movement is still in place, it has been largely eroded. Masses of people have moved from the interior to the coastal cities in search of employment, resulting in a large floating population. Follow- ing Deng Xiaoping’s tour of the south in 1992 and the relaunching of the economic reforms, civil servants and Party members have turned into entrepreneurs, with some of them becoming incredibly wealthy. On the other hand, some have experienced downward social mobility. Massive lay-offs started in the middle of the 1990s in the State sector, and many workers in their 40s or 50s without qualifications, especially women, were not able to find new jobs. Pensioners have also greatly suffered, living on very small allowances. Since we moved into the twenty-first century, Chinese society has become more diverse, and so- ciologists have been working on producing adequate tools to analyse mobility.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Reviewing and Evaluating the Direct Elections to the Legislative Council and the Transformation of Political Parties in Hong Kong, 1991-2016
    Journal of US-China Public Administration, August 2016, Vol. 13, No. 8, 499-517 doi: 10.17265/1548-6591/2016.08.001 D DAVID PUBLISHING Reviewing and Evaluating the Direct Elections to the Legislative Council and the Transformation of Political Parties in Hong Kong, 1991-2016 Chung Fun Steven Hung The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong After direct elections were instituted in Hong Kong, politicization inevitably followed democratization. This paper intends to evaluate how political parties’ politics happened in Hong Kong’s recent history. The research was conducted through historical comparative analysis, with the context of Hong Kong during the sovereignty transition and the interim period of democratization being crucial. For the implementation of “one country, two systems”, political democratization was hindered and distinct political scenarios of Hong Kong’s transformation were made. The democratic forces had no alternative but to seek more radicalized politics, which caused a decisive fragmentation of the local political parties where the establishment camp was inevitable and the democratic blocs were split into many more small groups individually. It is harmful. It is not conducive to unity and for the common interests of the publics. This paper explores and evaluates the political history of Hong Kong and the ways in which the limited democratization hinders the progress of Hong Kong’s transformation. Keywords: election politics, historical comparative, ruling, democratization The democratizing element of the Hong Kong political system was bounded within the Legislative Council under the principle of the separation of powers of the three governing branches, Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. Popular elections for the Hong Kong legislature were introduced and implemented for 25 years (1991-2016) and there were eight terms of general elections for the Legislative Council.
    [Show full text]
  • Macro Report August 23, 2004
    Prepared by: LI Pang-kwong, Ph.D. Date: 10 April 2005 Comparative Study of Electoral Systems Module 2: Macro Report August 23, 2004 Country: Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, CHINA Date of Election: 12 September 2004 NOTE TO COLLABORATORS: The information provided in this report contributes to an important part of the CSES project. Your efforts in providing these data are greatly appreciated! Any supplementary documents that you can provide (e.g., electoral legislation, party manifestos, electoral commission reports, media reports) are also appreciated, and may be made available on the CSES website. Part I: Data Pertinent to the Election at which the Module was Administered 1. Report the number of portfolios (cabinet posts) held by each party in cabinet, prior to the most recent election. (If one party holds all cabinet posts, simply write "all".) In the context of Hong Kong, the Executive Council (ExCo) can be regarded as the cabinet. The ExCo comprises the Official Members (all the Principal Officials in the Government Secretariat have been appointed concurrently the Official Members of the ExCo since July 2002) and the Non-official Members. The members of the ExCo are appointed by the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), while the Principal Officials are nominated by the Chief Executive and are appointed by the Central People’s Government of China. Name of Political Party Number of Portfolios Official Members (with portfolios) of the Executive Council: All the Official Members do not have party affiliation. Non-official Members (without portfolio) of the Executive Council: 1. Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong 1 2.
    [Show full text]
  • UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Riverside UC Riverside Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Beyond New Waves: Gender and Sexuality in Sinophone Women's Cinema from the 1980s to the 2000s Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4h13x81f Author Kang, Kai Publication Date 2015 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE Beyond New Waves: Gender and Sexuality in Sinophone Women‘s Cinema from the 1980s to the 2000s A Dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Comparative Literature by Kai Kang March 2015 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Marguerite Waller, Chairperson Dr. Lan Duong Dr. Tamara Ho Copyright by Kai Kang 2015 The Dissertation of Kai Kang is approved: Committee Chairperson University of California, Riverside Acknowledgements My deepest gratitude is to my chair, Dr. Marguerite Waller who gave me freedom to explore my interested areas. Her advice and feedback helped me overcome many difficulties during the writing process. I am grateful to Dr. Lan Duong, who not only offered me much valuable feedback to my dissertation but also shared her job hunting experience with me. I would like to thank Dr Tamara Ho for her useful comments on my work. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Mustafa Bal, the editor-in-chief of The Human, for having permitted me to use certain passages of my previously published article ―Inside/Outside the Nation-State: Screening Women and History in Song of the Exile and Woman, Demon, Human,‖ in my dissertation. iv ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Beyond New Waves: Gender and Sexuality in Sinophone Women‘s Cinema from the 1980s to the 2000s by Kai Kang Doctor of Philosophy, Graduate Program in Comparative Literature University of California, Riverside, March 2015 Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Hong Kong's Endgame and the Rule of Law (Ii): the Battle Over "The People" and the Business Community in the Transition to Chinese Rule
    HONG KONG'S ENDGAME AND THE RULE OF LAW (II): THE BATTLE OVER "THE PEOPLE" AND THE BUSINESS COMMUNITY IN THE TRANSITION TO CHINESE RULE JACQUES DELISLE* & KEVIN P. LANE- 1. INTRODUCTION Transitional Hong Kong's endgame formally came to a close with the territory's reversion to Chinese rule on July 1, 1997. How- ever, a legal and institutional order and a "rule of law" for Chi- nese-ruled Hong Kong remain works in progress. They will surely bear the mark of the conflicts that dominated the final years pre- ceding Hong Kong's legal transition from British colony to Chinese Special Administrative Region ("S.A.R."). Those endgame conflicts reflected a struggle among adherents to rival conceptions of a rule of law and a set of laws and institutions that would be adequate and acceptable for Hong Kong. They unfolded in large part through battles over the attitudes and allegiance of "the Hong Kong people" and Hong Kong's business community. Hong Kong's Endgame and the Rule of Law (I): The Struggle over Institutions and Values in the Transition to Chinese Rule ("Endgame I") focused on the first aspect of this story. It examined the political struggle among members of two coherent, but not monolithic, camps, each bound together by a distinct vision of law and sover- t Special Series Reprint: Originally printed in 18 U. Pa. J. Int'l Econ. L. 811 (1997). Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania Law School. This Article is the second part of a two-part series. The first part appeared as Hong Kong's End- game and the Rule of Law (I): The Struggle over Institutions and Values in the Transition to Chinese Rule, 18 U.
    [Show full text]
  • Hong Kong Watch * * * * * * * International Parliamentarians
    Hong Kong Watch * * * * * * * International parliamentarians condemn today’s imprisonment of the ‘most moderate and distinguished’ pro-democracy activists Today, authorities in Hong Kong have sentenced nine prominent pro-democracy activists for taking part in a peaceful protest in August 2019, including the the ‘father of Hong Kong’s democracy’ Martin Lee, ‘the owner of Apple Daily Jimmy Lai, and international barrister Margaret Ng. The nine pro-democracy activists which span the generations have received jail sentences and suspended sentences, with Jimmy Lai receiving 12 months, Lee Cheuk-yan receiving 12 months, Leung Kwok-hung receiving 18 months, Au Nok-hin receiving 10 months, and Cyd Ho receiving 8 months in prison and Margaret Ng receiving 12 month suspended sentence, Martin Lee receiving 11 months suspended sentence, Albert Ho receiving 12 months suspended sentence, and Leung Yiu-chung receiving an 8 month suspended sentence for the charge of ‘unlawful assembly’. U.N. Special Rapporteurs for human rights have previously called for the Hong Kong Government to withdraw the Public Order Ordinance which allows authorities to criminalise peaceful protest describing it as an assault on freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. A group of international parliamentarians led by Hong Kong Watch’s patron and the last British governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, have responded to the sentencing of the prominent pro-democracy activists. Their comments follow calls from over 100 UK MPs for the sanctioning of Hong Kong officials. U.K. Lord Patten of Barnes said: “The CCP's comprehensive assault on the freedoms of Hong Kong and its rule of law continues relentlessly.
    [Show full text]
  • Should Functional Constituency Elections in the Legislative Council Be
    Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Liberal Studies Independent Enquiry Study Report Standard Covering Page (for written reports and short written texts of non-written reports starting from 2017) Enquiry Question: Should Functional Constituency elections in the Legislative Council be abolished? Year of Examination: Name of Student: Class/ Group: Class Number: Number of words in the report: 3162 Notes: 1. Written reports should not exceed 4500 words. The reading time for non-written reports should not exceed 20 minutes and the short written texts accompanying non-written reports should not exceed 1000 words. The word count for written reports and the short written texts does not include the covering page, the table of contents, titles, graphs, tables, captions and headings of photos, punctuation marks, footnotes, endnotes, references, bibliography and appendices. 2. Candidates are responsible for counting the number of words in their reports and the short written texts and indicating it accurately on this covering page. 3. If the Independent Enquiry Study Report of a student is selected for review by the School-Based Assessment System, the school should ensure that the student’s name, class/ group and class number have been deleted from the report before submitting it to the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority. Schools should also ensure that the identities of both the schools and students are not disclosed in the reports. For non-written reports, the identities of the students and schools, including the appearance of the students, should be deleted. Sample 1 Table of Contents A. Problem Definition P.3 B. Relevant Concepts and Knowledge/ Facts/ Data P.5 C.
    [Show full text]
  • China's Spring and Summer: the Tibet Demonstrations, the Sichuan Earthquake and the Bejing Olymic Games
    THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION CENTER FOR NORTHEAST ASIAN POLICY STUDIES AND JOHN L. THORNTON CHINA CENTER CHINA’S SPRING AND SUMMER: THE TIBET DEMONSTRATIONS, THE SICHUAN EARTHQUAKE AND THE BEJING OLYMIC GAMES The Brookings Institution Washington, DC July 8, 2008 Proceedings prepared from a tape recording by ANDERSON COURT REPORTING 706 Duke Street, Suite 100 Alexandria, VA 22314 Phone (703) 519-7180 Fax (703) 519-7190 P R O C E E D I N G S RICHARD BUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for coming. I’m Richard Bush, the director of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies here at Brookings. This event is co-sponsored by the John L. Thornton China Center. My colleague Jeffrey Bader is the director of that center, but he is on vacation. So, he’s here in virtual capacity. I must thank Orville Schell of the Asia Society for giving us this opportunity to have this event today. And we’re very grateful to that. I’m grateful to the staff of our two centers, and of our communications department for all their help. I think this is going to be a really interesting event. We are very fortunate and privileged to have James Miles with us today. He’s one of the most insightful and best informed reporters covering China today. He was the only Western reporter in Lhasa during the troubles of March. And he’s going to talk about that, in just a minute. He’s been in China for some time. He was first with the BBC.
    [Show full text]
  • The Brookings Institution Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies
    THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION CENTER FOR NORTHEAST ASIAN POLICY STUDIES The 2004 Legislative Council Elections and Implications for U.S. Policy toward Hong Kong Wednesday, September 15, 2004 Introduction: RICHARD BUSH Director, Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies The Brookings Institution Presenter: SONNY LO SHIU-HING Associate Professor of Political Science University of Waterloo Discussant: ELLEN BORK Deputy Director Project for the New American Century [TRANSCRIPT PREPARED FROM A TAPE RECORDING.] THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION CENTER FOR NORTHEAST ASIAN POLICY STUDIES 1775 MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE, NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036 202-797-6307 P R O C E E D I N G S MR. BUSH: [In progress] I've long thought that politically Hong Kong plays a very important role in the Chinese political system because it can be, I think, a test bed, or a place to experiment on different political forums on how to run large Chinese cities in an open, competitive, and accountable way. So how Hong Kong's political development proceeds is very important for some larger and very significant issues for the Chinese political system as a whole, and therefore the debate over democratization in Hong Kong is one that has significance that reaches much beyond the rights and political participation of the people there. The election that occurred last Sunday is a kind of punctuation mark in that larger debate over democratization, and we're very pleased to have two very qualified people to talk to us today. The first is Professor Sonny Lo Shiu-hing, who has just joined the faculty of the University of Waterloo in Canada.
    [Show full text]
  • Beijing's Visible Hand
    China Perspectives 2012/2 | 2012 Mao Today: A Political Icon for an Age of Prosperity Beijing’s Visible Hand Power struggles and media meddling in the Hong Kong chief executive election Karita Kan Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/5896 DOI: 10.4000/chinaperspectives.5896 ISSN: 1996-4617 Publisher Centre d'étude français sur la Chine contemporaine Printed version Date of publication: 4 June 2012 Number of pages: 81-84 ISSN: 2070-3449 Electronic reference Karita Kan, « Beijing’s Visible Hand », China Perspectives [Online], 2012/2 | 2012, Online since 30 June 2012, connection on 15 September 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/chinaperspectives/ 5896 © All rights reserved Current affairs China perspectives Beijing’s Visible Hand Power struggles and political interventions in the 2012 Hong Kong chief executive election KARITA KAN ong Kong’s next chief executive was revealed on 25 March 2012, reignited frenzied probes into Tang’s extra-marital affairs and added fuel to when the 1,193-member election committee, made up largely of incriminating remarks about his dishonesty, infidelity, and “emotional fault” Hbusiness leaders, professionals, and influential persons loyal to Bei - (ganqing queshi 感情缺失 ). jing, voted in majority for Leung Chun-ying. Leung defeated his main op - Commentator Willy Lam Wo-lap and Open University computing profes - ponent, former chief secretary for administration Henry Tang Ying-yen, by sor Li Tak-shing both raised the alarm that these “black materials” ( hei cailiao garnering 689 votes over the 285 that Tang received. The third candidate, 黑材料 ) might in fact have come from national security and intelligence Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan, secured only 76 votes.
    [Show full text]
  • Milestones of Tobacco Control in Hong Kong 向「全面禁煙」目標進發 Prospect for a Tobacco Endgame 27 香港吸煙情況 Smoking Prevalence in Hong Kong
    目錄 CONTENTS 04 前言 46 香港吸煙與健康委員會的發展 Foreword Development of Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health 06 獻辭 全力邁向無煙香港 Messages 57 Towards a Tobacco Endgame in Hong Kong 香港控煙重要里程 全球控煙趨勢 24 Global trend of tobacco control Milestones of Tobacco Control in Hong Kong 向「全面禁煙」目標進發 Prospect for a tobacco endgame 27 香港吸煙情況 Smoking Prevalence in Hong Kong 30 控煙工作多管齊下 Multi-pronged Tobacco Control Measures 監測煙草使用與預防政策 Monitor tobacco use and prevention policies 保護人們免受煙草煙霧危害 Protect people from tobacco smoke 提供戒煙幫助 Offer help to quit tobacco use 警示煙草危害 Warn about the dangers of tobacco 確保禁止煙草廣告、促銷和贊助 Enforce bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship 提高煙稅 Raise taxes on tobacco 前言 FOREWORD 2017 marks the 35th anniversary of tobacco control and also the decennial of the indoor smoking ban in Hong Kong. Through the concerted efforts of the Government and different sectors of the community for more than 30 years, the general public are aware of the health hazards of smoking and a supportive atmosphere for smoking cessation has been successfully created across the territory. The Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance was enacted in 1982, a key milestone for tobacco control legislation in Hong Kong. Since its enactment, the Government has adopted a progressive and multi-pronged approach on tobacco control which aligns with the MPOWER measures suggested by the World Health Organization. The smoking prevalence in Hong Kong has gradually reduced from 23.3% in the early 1980s to 10.5% in 2015, which is one of the lowest in the world. Thirty-five years ago, both indoor and outdoor places were smoky and hazy.
    [Show full text]
  • China (Includes Tibet, Hong Kong, and Macau) 2018 Human Rights Report
    CHINA (INCLUDES TIBET, HONG KONG, AND MACAU) 2018 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is an authoritarian state in which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the paramount authority. CCP members hold almost all top government and security apparatus positions. Ultimate authority rests with the CCP Central Committee’s 25-member Political Bureau (Politburo) and its seven-member Standing Committee. Xi Jinping continued to hold the three most powerful positions as CCP general secretary, state president, and chairman of the Central Military Commission. Civilian authorities maintained control of security forces. During the year the government significantly intensified its campaign of mass detention of members of Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (Xinjiang). Authorities were reported to have arbitrarily detained 800,000 to possibly more than two million Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, and other Muslims in internment camps designed to erase religious and ethnic identities. Government officials claimed the camps were needed to combat terrorism, separatism, and extremism. International media, human rights organizations, and former detainees reported security officials in the camps abused, tortured, and killed some detainees. Human rights issues included arbitrary or unlawful killings by the government; forced disappearances by the government; torture by the government; arbitrary detention by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison and detention conditions; political prisoners;
    [Show full text]
  • Minutes Have Been Seen by the Administration)
    立法會 Legislative Council LC Paper No. CB(4)969/15-16 (These minutes have been seen by the Administration) Ref : CB4/SS/2/15 Subcommittee on International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) (ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office) Order Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday, 24 March 2016, at 4:30 pm in Conference Room 2A of the Legislative Council Complex Members : Hon Cyd HO Sau-lan, JP (Chairman) present Hon LEE Cheuk-yan Hon Alan LEONG Kah-kit, SC Dr Hon Kenneth CHAN Ka-lok Hon Dennis KWOK Attendance by : Agenda item I invitation Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau Mr Jackie LIU Principal Assistant Secretary (Financial Services) Mr Henry YIM Assistant Secretary (Financial Services) Hong Kong Monetary Authority Mr Clement LAU Head (External) Ms Linda TSE Senior Manager (External) - 2 - Department of Justice Ms Melody HUI Senior Government Counsel (Treaties and Law) Miss Emma WONG Senior Government Counsel Clerk in : Mr Anthony CHU attendance Chief Council Secretary (4)1 Staff in : Miss Joyce CHAN attendance Assistant Legal Adviser 1 Ms Wendy JAN Senior Council Secretary (4)7 Ms Prima LAI Legislative Assistant (4)1 Action I. Meeting with Administration (File Ref: G10/34/9C -- Legislative Council Brief L.N. 35 of 2016 -- International Organizations (Privileges and Immunities) (ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office) Order LC Paper No. LS36/15-16 -- Legal Service Division Report LC Paper No. CB(4)720/15-16(02) -- Background brief prepared by the Legislative Council Secretariat LC Paper No. CB(4)769/15-16(01) -- List of follow-up actions arising from the discussion at the first meeting on 16 March 2016 LC Paper No.
    [Show full text]