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Hopes and fears: Zhang Dejiang visits Hong Kong
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Firemen approaching the yellow banner with the words reading: "I want genuine universal suffrage" in Chinese which been put up at Beacon Hill this morning. 17MAY16 SCMP/ Sam Tsang

‘Souvenir for Zhang Dejiang’: big yellow pro-democracy banner atop Beacon Hill despite police monitoring

League of Social Democrats sent volunteers up Lion Rock Country Park

A giant yellow banner bearing the words “I want genuine universal suffrage” was draped on Beacon Hill early Tuesday, despite police keeping the area under guard overnight to prevent exactly that from happening before state leader Zhang Dejiang’s arrival in the city today.

The League of Social Democrats’ vice-chairman Raphael Wong Ho-ming said the group prepared the banner bearing the pro-democracy phrase and asked volunteers to drape it on the hill in Lion Rock Country Park.

Wong said the move was aimed at the central government and Zhang Dejiang , chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee and visiting the city for three days from today.

“This is a souvenir from the League of Social Democrats to Zhang Dejiang,” the league said in its Facebook post. “The purpose is to show Hongkongers’ determination in pursuing democracy and freedom. This is to tell the visiting state leaders that they cannot pretend to be blind.”

A police spokesman confirmed the force was aware of the banner and that firefighters had been instructed to remove it.

The banner was hung despite police officers setting up camp atop nearby Lion Rock to prevent anyone from doing exactly that.

A police source earlier told the Post officers were from the rural area patrol unit and that the force had stepped up security measures for the chairman.

“There was a huge banner hung from the rock in 2014,” the source said. “We have to take precautions before Zhang’s arrival.”

But he stopped short of revealing what risk a banner would pose and did not share details of the security measures.

Lion Rock became a site of protest during the Occupy movement in 2014 when a group of rock climbers hung a large yellow banner reading “I want real universal suffrage” on the mountain to show support for the pro-democracy movement.

Many in the city associate “Lion Rock spirit” with striving for a better life, as embodied in the 1970s RTHK drama Under the Lion Rock and its title song.

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