Hong Kong (AsiaNews) - Fuelled by the scandals related to deaths of activist Li Wangyang and fear of losing freedoms granted by the Basic Law, the population of Hong Kong will take to the streets to demonstrate against the visit of Chinese President Hu Jintao . The communist leader will arrive in the Territory on 29 June to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the island's return to the motherland, but the visit, which ends Sunday, July 1, will probably be marked by street protests and formal demonstrations. Meanwhile, analysts and experts speculate about the future of Hong Kong.
The Chinese regime's news agency Xinhua, has announced that Hu will
arrive Friday "to attend the ceremony of the 15th anniversary of the
return of Hong Kong" and to attend the inauguration of the fourth
post-British local government. Before
leaving, the President will announce a series of economic measures to improve the
use of the yuan in the Territory and for an expansion of financial services
offered on-site.
Many
believe that Hu, who has not visited the Territory for 5 years, will find a
very different city. The
organizers of the annual protest, the Front for human and civil rights, think
they will gather at least 50 thousand people for the march on Sunday, but hope
to exceed last year's 218 thousand. The
signs are there: for the first time the police approved the entire route, and
the scandal related to the "suicide" in prison of Li Wangyang - union
leader and one of the key leaders of the Tiananmen Square protests - has
aroused widespread indignation.
Starry
Lee Wai-king, vice president of the Democratic Alliance for the Development and
Progress of Hong Kong, says he wants to express "the real concerns of the
population in case of a meeting with President Hu. We will express as much in a
genuine manner". For Johnny Lau
Yui-siu "on the one hand, Beijing has refused to handle the death of Li in
order to appear subservient to the public, but on the other there is the
suspicious behaviors of the new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, that is pushing
many to come out on the street and so embarrass the central government. "