May Fourth protests remembered
About 3,000 people braved the rain to celebrate the 92nd anniversary of the May Fourth Movement in Wan Chai yesterday.
Senior officials from the Hong Kong government and the Central Government Liaison Office attended the flag-raising ceremony in Bauhinia Square.
Short documentaries were shown and a marching band of uniformed youths played rousing songs. Participants also read aloud the May Fourth Declaration. The movement was created in Beijing in 1919, after the end of the first world war. China had entered the war on the side of Britain, France and Russia against an alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy.
China's condition for joining the war was that Germany, if defeated, would be forced to return Chinese territory in its possession, such as Shandong. Yet the post-war Treaty of Versailles awarded Shandong to Japan, which also fought against Germany, setting off widespread protests in China.
On May 4 that year, thousands of students demonstrated against the West's betrayal of China. The Chinese government agreed not to sign the treaty and Shandong was returned to China in 1922.
The May Fourth student movement has since served as a rallying cry for Chinese patriotism.
