China’s Leadership Praises Hong Kong’s Top Official
By AUSTIN RAMZY
DECEMBER 26, 2014
HONG KONG — President Xi Jinpingof China praised Hong Kong’s leader, Leung Chun-ying, on Friday, offering a top-level endorsement of Mr. Leung’s performance after months of pro-democracy demonstrations.
Mr. Xi said that under Mr. Leung, whom he met with Friday in Beijing, the Hong Kong government had “worked diligently, orderly promoted political reform according to the law, strived to develop the economy, improved people’s livelihood, maintained the rule of law and the overall stability of Hong Kong,” according to a report from the state-run China Central Television.
Mr. Leung was on a three-day visit to Beijing to offer a work report to the Chinese leadership. His visit came less than two weeks after the police in Hong Kong cleared the main camp of student-led pro-democracy demonstrators who had occupied several main intersections in the city for two and a half months.
The protesters were upset with a limited proposal for electoral reform in Hong Kong put forward by the Chinese government.
Mr. Leung offered no compromise to the demonstrators, and that tough stance was long understood to have not only Beijing’s support but also its authorship. Still, the comments on Friday from Mr. Xi and other top Chinese officials, including Premier Li Keqiang, were a public reminder that Mr. Leung has Beijing’s backing. The protesters’ call for Mr. Leung to step down is unlikely to be met anytime soon.
While the authorities have dismantled the main protest camps in Hong Kong, there are also signs that the demonstrators and their grievances will not dissipate soon. Groups have held smaller, mobile protests in the crowded commercial districts of Causeway Bay and Mong Kok in recent days.
Beginning on Christmas Day in Mong Kok, the police arrested 26 men and 11 women, ranging in age from 13 and 76, who were accused of blocking roads and disturbing residents.
Near the site of the main protest camp in the Admiralty district, about 50 protesters are staying in about two dozen tents near the main Hong Kong government offices, where they are closely watched by the police. The surrounding walls, which were covered during the protests with thousands of notes, posters and banners, have largely been scraped clean, however.
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