Protest over NPC delegate's plan to allow more mainland visitors
Anti-mainland sentiment eased as the flow of people across the border slowed during the Lunar New Year celebrations.
Anti-mainland sentiment eased as the flow of people across the border slowed during the Lunar New Year celebrations, but locals protested yesterday against a National People's Congress delegate's idea to allow more mainlanders to visit the city.
About a dozen people protested in a shopping mall in Tsuen Wan, outside the closed office of the delegate, Michael Tien Puk-sun, who is also a district councillor and lawmaker.
They were demanding that Tien not table his proposal at the national legislature's meeting in Beijing next month.
The plan, which Tien has mentioned previously, would extend the individual visit scheme to three more mainland cities in addition to the 49 currently included.
Earlier protests with a similar theme erupted into clashes in which police officers used pepper spray inside shopping malls. But the protest yesterday, inside a largely empty mall, attracted a different crowd and caused no chaos, though several plainclothes police officers could be seen monitoring the situation.
"If the government continues to ignore the public while the NPC delegates fail to convey true public opinion [to Beijing], the discontent will only grow," said Roy Tam Hoi-pong, convenor of the Population Policy Concern Group.