Tung Chee-hwa Takes a Stand and Political Pressure at OC Camp

Tung Chee-hwa Takes a Stand

Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first chief executive and the vice chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee, resigned in 2005, ostensibly due to leg pain. Last week, however, Tung stood for about 50 minutes during a press conference urging support for Beijing’s latest guidelines on electoral reform. When questioned about his leg, he said he now has more time to exercise, and his leg has significantly improved. He explained that his legs still feel sore if he stands for too long. In the press conference, Tung admitted that Hong Kong’s political structure is flawed, and said that even though he doesn’t agree with Occupy Central and the proposed student strikes, he knows that the organizers love Hong Kong as well.

Our take: Maybe Tung wasn’t so bad after all…

Political Pressure at OC Camp

Core Occupy Central member Tsui Siu-wah has suddenly turned his back on the civil disobedience movement, telling Chinese newspaper Sing Pao that he now wants to use legal means to achieve universal suffrage. Shiu Ka-chun, an OC member who worked closely with Tsui, tells Apple Daily that Tsui’s business partner in China might have been threatened. Other than Tsui, the founder of OC’s banking and finance group Edward Chin says he’s felt the political pressure as well. His column in the Hong Kong Economic Journal, which has run since 2006, was “abruptly” axed, after he was earlier advised to write less about politics. A spokesperson from HKEJ says the decision was due to an upcoming redesign.

Our take: Use legal means like… voting? Oh, wait.