Parting gift: Hong Kong activists unfurl another yellow banner for Zhang Dejiang
Large pro-democracy message hung from building next to elderly centre visited by senior Chinese official
Another giant yellow banner bearing the words “I want genuine universal suffrage” was unfurled during state leader Zhang Dejiang’s visit, this time on the face of a residential building next to an elderly centre the state leader toured on Thursday.
League of Social Democrats chairman Avery Ng Man-yuen confirmed the banner was hung by his party and said it did so to tell the National People’s Congress chairman that Hong Kong residents were not as satisfied with the government as officials here wanted the senior official to believe.
“Hongkongers want genuine universal suffrage and we want an end to the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship,” Ng said. “Hong Kong police have used a counterterrorism operation to paint a picture that the city is peaceful. In fact, people here are very dissatisfied with the government.”
Zhang arrived in Hong Kong on Tuesday morning and left on Thursday afternoon.
That banner was quickly removed. But hours later, the league hung banners in other locations.
Such banners were a symbol of the pro-democracy Occupy movement that paralysed parts of Hong Kong for 79 days in 2014.
Lion Rock became a protest site during the movement when rock climbers hung a large yellow banner reading “I want real universal suffrage” on the mountain.
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.
Earlier Thursday, Demosisto members Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Oscar Lai Man-lok were subdued by police while trying to get close to Zhang’s motorcade as he left government headquarters at Tamar.