G20: activists call on world leaders in Osaka to press Xi Jinping on Hong Kong freedoms – and thank Shinzo Abe for already raising the issue

Several Hong Kong activists gathered in Osaka on Friday, calling for world leaders to mention the city’s freedom when meeting President Xi Jinping, as one demonstrator thanked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for speaking up.

Japan’s foreign press secretary and official spokesman for the G20 conference Takeshi Osuga said Abe had raised the issues of Hong Kong and Xinjiang during a meeting with Xi on Thursday.

“The prime minister pointed out the importance of [maintaining] a free, open and prosperous Hong Kong under the ‘one country, two systems’ formula with the recent extradition bill situation in mind,” Osuga said.

Andy Chan Ho-tin, convenor of the banned Hong Kong National Party, thanked Abe for raising the issue.

“I am looking forward to other leaders doing the same and speaking up for Hong Kong people. I’d also like to thank the Japanese people for supporting Hong Kong,” the pro-independence activist said.

Chan was speaking during a press conference hosted by the Free Indo-Pacific Alliance, a group that represents exiled minorities, including Tibetans. Its president Rebiya Kadeer was a former president of the World Uygur Congress.

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The alliance had organised a series of protests against Xi in Osaka, including a rally on Friday evening, and a march at Osaka’s Shinsaibashi shopping and business hub on Saturday.

In an earlier declaration, the alliance listed 20 demands for the Chinese government, such as closing all detention camps in Xinjiang and releasing the detainees; guaranteeing freedom of religion; stopping armed threats against Taiwan; and keeping the international pledge of one country, two systems in Hong Kong.

Also there were Wayne Chan Ka-kui of the Hong Kong Independence Union; Tony Chung Hon-lam, of the pro-independence group Student Localism; and student representatives from Hong Kong’s Chinese University, Polytechnic University, Baptist University, Education University and the Federation of Students.

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Chan had previously called on Hongkongers to join him in rallies and protests in the Japanese city.

Some Hong Kong protesters also travelled to Osaka to take advantage of the summit to increase international pressure on the local and central governments.

About 50 of them hosted a rally outside a railway station in Osaka on Thursday night.

They called on the international community to pay attention to the movement against the extradition bill and the police’s use of force on protesters in Hong Kong, and help to safeguard freedom and democracy in the city.

Meanwhile, seven newspapers in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Australia ran Hong Kong protesters’ advertisements, in the form of an open letter calling for the international readers to “stand with Hong Kong at G20”.

The advertisements were arranged by a local group called Freedom Hong Kong, which raised HK$6.7 million (US$858,000) on Tuesday from more than 22,000 donors on a crowdfunding platform.

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They reiterated that their demands for the city’s government were: to withdraw the bill; release those arrested; retract all references to the protest on June 12 as a “riot”; launch an independent inquiry into the police’s use of force; and launch democratic reforms.

At leat four foreign newspapers also ran similar advertisements on Thursday. They were The Guardian in Britain, Süddeutsche Zeitung in Germany, the online version of Politico in Belgium, and The Globe and Mail in Canada.