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Hong Kong’s pro-democracy groups drape banners from hills as Zhang Dejiang arrives

State leader is in the city for three-day visit, marked by a massive police security operation

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Firemen approaching the yellow banner with the words reading: ‘I want genuine universal suffrage’. Photo: Sam Tsang

As a “souvenir” for state leader Zhang Dejiang, a giant yellow banner declaring, “I want genuine universal suffrage” was draped over a steep slope on Beacon Hill on Tuesday morning.

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It was right next to the iconic Lion Rock, where police officers had been stationed since Monday to prevent exactly that kind of protest, meant to embarrass Zhang.

Firefighters arrived soon after, abseiling down the rock face to remove the 10-metre-long banner, a familiar symbol of the Occupy movement that paralysed parts of Hong Kong for 79 days in 2014.

Four hours later, the League of Social Democrats hung another banner, reading “End Chinese Communist Party dictatorship” atop a partially built flyover on the North Lantau Highway.

At almost the same time, yet another banner, bearing the words, “Universal suffrage for the whole country”, appeared on the hillside near the Tsing Ma Bridge.

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Police officers stand guard at Hong Kong International Airport ahead of Zhang’s arrival. Photo: Felix Wong
Police officers stand guard at Hong Kong International Airport ahead of Zhang’s arrival. Photo: Felix Wong

It was a day of guerilla tactics by protesters trying to greet the chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, from the moment he arrived in the city at around noon on Tuesday for his three-day visit.

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