A student activist who was among six people arrested on June 4 has urged Hong Kong people not to be discouraged after he was released on bail following more than 20 hours of detention.

Wong Yat-chin, the convener of a group called Student Politicism, reported on Facebook that he was safe after being granted HK$1,500 (US$190) bail. He was required to report back to the police station on July 5.

Wong had set up a street station in Mong Kok on Friday night and was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct in a public place and obstructing a public officer. Wong said that the arrest was his third in six months.

In his Facebook post, Wong said he hoped the people of Hong Kong would not retreat. “Even if the regime sends out 7,000 police officers to keep everybody silent, everybody is still fearless.”

Meanwhile, Sham Shui Po district councilor Yan Kai-wing told Apple Daily that he was also arrested on June 4 after a street station he set up was disrupted by pro-government supporters.

Yan claimed he never made physical contact with those who overturned his table, but when the police arrived at the scene, Yan was arrested on suspicion of common assault.

Yan said that he had set up the June 4-themed street station that afternoon at a housing estate in Shek Kip Mei and was visited by a plainclothes police officer an hour later. The officer said that someone had complained about the noise from the station. The officer left after speaking to a staff member from the Housing Department who was at the scene.

Yan recalled that some pro-government supporters then arrived on the scene and complained that he was “making trouble” and at one point reportedly asked whether Yan was Chinese. The dispute escalated when a 75-year-old woman overturned Yan’s table. When the police returned, she reportedly accused Yan of pushing her.

The police told Apple Daily that two people had been arrested in connection with the incident: a 55-year-old man on suspicion of common assault and a 75-year-old woman on suspicion of criminal damage.

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港蘋國際-

Arrested activist released on bail urges Hong Kong people not to be discouraged

Nine years on, the death of Tiananmen Square activist Li Wangyang has remained shrouded in mystery, with his sister rejecting claims that he had committed suicide.

“He would not have killed himself,” Li Wangling told Apple Daily after visiting her brother’s grave in Hunan province on Sunday under the close watch of mainland Chinese public security authorities.

Li Wangyang had called for Beijing to vindicate the pro-democracy protests that led to the Tiananmen Square crackdown on June 4, 1989.

He died on June 6, 2012, after being found hanging from a bar in a hospital in Hunan. Mainland authorities said he committed suicide, but Li’s family rejected this claim.

“I believe my brother. He was a strong man. He had gone through inhumane treatment in jail for 23 years. After his release, he stayed in hospital and we were with him. How could he possibly kill himself?” Li Wangling said.

Li Wangling said she told her late brother in front of his grave about the arrests of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy figures and authorities’ suppression of commemorative events for victims of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

“I told him that since last year, Hong Kong authorities have arrested many people over June 4 commemorations,” said Li Wangling, who has been banned by mainland authorities from traveling outside China.

Li Wangling said she felt conflicted about what was happening. On one hand, she hoped that people would continue to fight for truth and justice, but on the other hand, she wished that Hongkongers could protect themselves under the city’s repression.

“If I could step forward and ward off some of the threats they were facing, I am willing to do so,” she added.

She visited her brother’s grave alone on Sunday. Her husband, Zhao Baozhu, who had accompanied her for the past eight years, was in hospital after being diagnosed with late-stage cancer.

Zhao expressed gratitude to Hongkongers for their support for mainland Chinese pro-democracy activists over the years. “Many Hongkongers continue to be unyielding despite the recent suppression from authorities. My thanks and respect go to them,” Zhao told Apple Daily during a telephone interview.

Li Wangling said she was trying to raise 100,000 yuan (US$15,600) for Zhao’s surgery. Zhao had undergone an operation earlier, but a recent examination showed that the cancer cells had spread to his liver.

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港蘋兩岸-李旺玲

Sister remembers late Tiananmen Square activist Li Wangyang

Close to 10,000 in Hungary participated in a mass demonstration on Saturday against the government’s plan to build an overseas branch of a Chinese university in Budapest, with some protesters holding placards denouncing the plan as treasonous.

The protest’s organizer said on Facebook that Hungary’s ruling party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, had sold out Hungarian students and their future, “just so it can bring the elite university of China’s dictatorship into the country.”

The Hungarian government signed an agreement in April with Fudan University in Shanghai to build a campus in Budapest at an estimated cost of US$1.8 billion. The campus, which is expected to be completed in 2024, will be the first overseas outpost of a Chinese university to be established in the European Union.

Patrik, a 22-year-old Hungarian student who participated in the protest, said that he opposed his country strengthening its relations with China. He said that the funds allocated for the project should be used “to improve our own universities instead of building a Chinese one.”

Another protester, 21-year-old Szonja Radics, said that Orbán had disguised himself as an anti-communist, but in reality, he was a friend to the Communist Party.

A deputy minister in Hungary’s government, Tamás Schanda, described Saturday’s protest as unnecessary, adding that baseless rumors and media reports amounted to “political hysteria.”

The plan to build the campus has also come under fire from opposition leaders and economists, who criticized its high cost and lack of transparency. Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony also opposed the plan, warning that it posed a serious risk to national security.

In an act of protest, the mayor rechristened the streets close to the planned campus with names such as “Dalai Lama Road” and “Free Hong Kong Road.”

Beijing has dismissed the opposition to the campus as a “a few Hungarian politicians” trying to seek attention and damage China-Hungary cooperation.

Under Orbán’s leadership, the Hungarian government has strengthened friendly ties with China, Russia and other authoritarian regimes, while Western allies have bristled at Hungary’s suppression of judicial independence and the media.

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Thousands in Hungary protest against planned Chinese university campus

Taiwan has collected 50 million tons of water in its northern reservoirs from heavy rain after enduring months of a parched landscape said to be the island’s worst drought in 56 years.

Weather across the whole island was unstable due to storms that were forecast to hit between Saturday and Monday, the Central Weather Bureau said. Thunder and strong winds were predicted, it said, advising people in mountainous areas to beware landslides and those living in low-lying regions to guard against flooding.

The bureau issued signals of strong rainfall for multiple cities, including Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, and counties including Chiayi, Pingtung, Miaoli, Changhua, Nantou, Yunlin and Taitung. Rainfall was more intense in the north, while that in the south was concentrated in Pingtung.

Taipei saw a deluge of 300 millimeters (11.8 inches) of rain within three hours on Friday, and the storms were expected to lighten on Saturday, but regional heavy rainfall was possible, bureau forecaster Lin Ping-yu said.

Between the start of Friday to 6 a.m. on Saturday, the skies had dumped 50 million tons of water on reservoirs across Taiwan, the Water Resources Agency said.

The Feitsui reservoir in New Taipei City collected 162.3 millimeters of rain, representing 34.2 million tons, raising water levels by 9.3% to hit 78% of its capacity.

In Taoyuan city, the Shimen reservoir got 41.3 millimeters of rain, making up 6.3 million tons of water, which increased levels to 20%.

Water levels at the Sun Moon Lake reservoir in the central region rose 5.7% to reach 35% of capacity.

The Techi and Liyutan reservoirs in Taichung and Miaoli both had below 30 millimeters, increasing their water levels by less than 2% to reach 8% and 14% respectively.

The Nanhua, Zengwen and Wushantou reservoirs in the southern region registered an increase of less than 1% in water levels, which remained languishing below 20% of capacity.

If rainfall in the central region climbed to 110 millimeters, water restriction measures might be relaxed, pending a meeting on Monday, the agency said. The region was supposed to face two days of water suspension in a week because of the drought.

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Drought-hit Taiwan collects 50M tons of rain, mostly in northern reservoirs

A Chinese bank has been forced to backtrack on a special loan offer for families with three children after it went viral online, with the bank now saying the plan is still being studied and is yet to be launched.

According to Chinese media reports, a netizen in Jiangxi province shared an image on Weibo advertising a “Childbirth Consumer Loan” which was said to be available at Bank of China’s Jiangxi branch.

The loan offer was described as being applicable to married individuals aged between 20 and 50 years old, who can either be at least six months pregnant or the parent of a child aged up to two years. Parents of three children could avail of a maximum loan amount of 300,000 yuan, while the maximum amount for parents of two or fewer children would be 200,000 and 100,000 yuan respectively.

The conditions stated the loan must be used to cover spending necessary for childbirth, and cannot be used for home payments or stock market trading.

Chinese media outlets reacted positively to the viral advertisement, with some saying that Bank of China was “bright” again as a result of the offer. Others said that the idea of getting a loan in order to give birth was no longer just a dream.

The Bank of China Jiangxi branch posted a clarification on its WeChat account on Friday, saying that the loan plan was still being studied and evaluated internally. It said as its existing consumer loan products were already capable of meeting customers’ demands, there was no plan to launch the three-child loan offer at the present time.

China last week replaced its two-child policy with a three-child policy in a move intended to counteract the country’s aging population. The latest census statistics suggest that while China’s population has not yet begun to decline, its growth is nonetheless the slowest in decades.

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Chinese bank backtracks on special ‘three-child’ loan offer after going viral

A district in the southern Chinese economic hub of Guangzhou entered a partial lockdown on Saturday, with public transport grinding to a halt on official orders after several new coronavirus infections cropped up.

Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province, reported six new cases on Friday, while neighboring Foshan city had two, the provincial Health Commission said. The two cities also confirmed infections in three previously asymptomatic cases, two in Guangzhou and one in Foshan.

Nansha district in Guangzhou ceased all public transport from 2 p.m. on Saturday in light of the rise in infections, until further notice, the Guangzhou Disease Control and Prevention Department said. The lockdown included canceling all outbound trips of high-speed trains and ferries, which connect the coastal city to the rest of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area.

Authorities placed residents of 10 apartment buildings in Nansha under total lockdown, meaning they were not allowed to leave their homes. A partial ban was imposed on another 20 buildings, where people would be allowed to enter and move freely within the cordoned-off area, but were forbidden from leaving.

Separately, a Chinese drugmaker said authorities had approved emergency use of its vaccines in children as young as 3 years old.

Sinovac Biotech chief executive Yin Weidong told state broadcaster China Central Television on Friday that they had finished the first and second phases of vaccine clinical trials on those aged 3 to 17. The results from hundreds of cases showed that the vaccines were as safe as those applied to adults, and the antibody levels exhibited after vaccination were also similar, Yin said.

When Sinovac would offer its COVID-19 vaccine to minors depended on the National Health Commission, he added.

Dr. Leung Chi-chiu, a respiratory medicine specialist, told Apple Daily that the results showed children’s immune response to the vaccine did not differ much from older age groups. Rather, more attention needed to be paid to the safety of the vaccines being administered to 3-year-olds as several hundred samples were not enough to rule out certain rare side effects, he added.

Leung said that there was no urgency as yet for children to get inoculated, especially in the absence of data on widespread vaccination of their age groups which could be referenced. He advised 12 to 18-year-olds to be immunized first, although children should at some point also get the jabs in order to reach herd immunity in the population.

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Guangzhou locks down district after detecting COVID cases

A Taiwanese air traffic controller on Friday took the initiative to thank a Japan Airlines flight which transported the Tokyo government’s donation of vaccines to the island.

Japan gave Taiwan 1.24 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine under a decision made by Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide, his foreign affairs adviser Miyake Kunihiko told domestic public broadcaster NHK.

The flight JL809 lifted off from Narita airport in Tokyo at 11:45 a.m. It was expected to arrive in Taipei at 2:40 p.m., but landed 43 minutes earlier.

“Japan Air eight zero nine, we Taiwanese thank you for your great help,” the air controller said at 1:39 p.m. as the plane entered Taiwanese airspace, according to a recording obtained by Apple Daily Taiwan. The captain of the flight replied: “You are welcome.”

The Taiwan Civil Aeronautics Administration confirmed the conversation. Director General Lin Kuo-shian said it was a voluntary action on the part of the controller.

Many Taiwanese people sent flower baskets to the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association to express gratitude.

Taiwanese residents are finding it difficult to get a vaccine shot despite the Japanese shipment. Foxconn founder Terry Gou has announced he will buy five million doses of the BioNTech vaccine, which the market speculates will be worth NT$6 billion (US$217 million).

It is also rumored that Gou has asked the Taiwanese biomedical technology company EirGenix to secure a manufacturing contract for BioNTech vaccines. None of the parties have confirmed the news.

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‘Thank you, Japan Airlines’: Taiwan air traffic controller commends flight for bringing in vaccines 

China has broken its promise to guarantee freedoms to Hong Kong, said former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as Hongkongers were banned from commemorating the 32nd anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown at Victoria Park.

In a two-minute video posted on Twitter on Saturday, Pompeo described how the city was a “bastion of liberty,” and the only place of China’s sovereign domain for the past three decades where people could freely commemorate those who had died fighting for democracy on June 4, 1989.

“Yet now, the same regime that committed the massacre in Tiananmen Square has broken its promises to Hong Kong,” Pompeo said. “The fundamental freedoms and autonomy that Beijing was promised to guarantee to you, it took away from you.”The candlelight vigil was banned by police for a second straight year, citing precautions against COVID-19 despite the number of new infections having dwindled in the past months. Critics see it as a sign of Beijing’s tightening grip on the city, while authorities’ use of a sweeping national security law has sparked concerns that it is being used to silence dissent.

Being able to use the national security law to punish those who commemorate the crackdown is a “dark reminder that the regime in Beijing still refuses to respect the rights of its own people,” said Pompeo.He praised the “courageous work” of Hongkongers’ fight for freedoms, naming imprisoned Apple Daily founder Jimmy Lai and Democratic Party founding chairman Martin Lee as “heroes.”

In a separate statement, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi urged people to continue to speak out against China’s “appalling human rights record.”

“The international community must continue to speak out strongly, with one voice, in defense of all persecuted by Beijing: the Tibetans, whose religion, culture and language Beijing is brutally trying to erase; the people of Hong Kong, whose basic rights are crushed daily; the Uyghurs, subject to a campaign of genocide; and the countless innocent human rights activists languishing in prison cells on the mainland,” Pelosi said in a statement dated June 3.

She also made a repeated call for a diplomatic boycott of the Winter Olympic Games, which Beijing will host in 2022, saying that any silence “enables China’s abuses.”

“The world cannot proceed as if there is nothing wrong with holding the Olympics in a country perpetrating genocide and committing mass human rights violations,” she said.

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港蘋要聞-

China has broken its promise to Hong Kong with vigil ban: former top US diplomat

Slogans marking the anniversary of the deadly 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown outside Victoria Park in Hong Kong were covered up on Saturday, a day after police went to great lengths to stop Hongkongers from holding a candlelight vigil inside.

Black cloth was draped over the spray-painted slogan “Do not let June 4 become a banned term” and a placard with the words “Nothing ever happened on June 4,” which were on a wall outside the park, as of Saturday morning.

Police had blocked the annual gathering for the second year in a row on health grounds, and reportedly deployed 7,000 officers in view of people defying the ban last year. The barricaded park was left eerily empty at night on the 32nd anniversary of Beijing’s violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations, a stark contrast to the previous three decades when crowds would light up the dark with their candles, sing songs and chant slogans.

Hongkongers tried ways and means to avoid arrest for unauthorized assembly or national security breaches, such as by walking in black clothes around Causeway Bay, where the park was located, holding up their lit phones and shouting the occasional slogan.

As officers retreated and lifted the blockades, the only signs of commemoration were blown-out candles that lay strewn on the ground and white ribbons tied to railings near the park.

One elderly man who was at the park in the morning told Apple Daily that he believed nothing could stop people from remembering what had happened on that tragic night 32 years ago, when the military wiped out hundreds of protesters, if not more.

“Even if one day, Victoria Park becomes China’s centennial memorial park, Xi Jinping memorial park or whatever you call it, or even if it remains closed forever, I believe those who mourn and remember [June 4], as long as there are people who want to, will flourish everywhere,” said the man, who did not wish to be identified.

He then quoted the song “Flower of Freedom,” which had been sung at every June 4 vigil. “But there is a dream, it will not die, remember it! / No matter how hard the rain falls, freedom still will bloom,” he sang, momentarily faltering at the line “freedom still will bloom?” After a short pause, he said firmly: “I believe freedom will blossom.”

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Out of sight, not out of mind: June 4 slogans are covered up but ‘freedom will bloom’

Chief Executive Carrie Lam has said that elections are not the only way to participate in politics, and her government has recruited more talent from Hong Kong’s political parties than its predecessors.

She said that recent changes to the electoral system, with their emphasis on patriots governing the city, had provided a guarantee of governance, but in order to smoothly implement policies, an abundance of talent was needed.

Lam was speaking at a Saturday seminar hosted by the pro-establishment Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong. DAB party elder Tam Yiu-chung, who is also a member of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, said that he did not believe her attendance was intended to canvass for votes in a re-election bid. Lam was supporting his party’s holding of a political seminar, he said.

The incumbent chief executive has not yet indicated whether she intends to seek another term, with her current term set to expire in July 2022.

At the same seminar, the deputy director of Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong, He Jing, said that those entering politics must be brave enough to fight against actions which damage the governing principle of “one country, two systems” adopted by the city.

He gave a speech saying that the electoral changes had given Hong Kong a democratic, open and progressive system which suited the city’s actual situation.

The deputy director said that those joining politics must have a firm and unambiguous patriotic stance. They must also respect and safeguard the country’s basic system and Hong Kong’s constitutional order, He said.

Seventy people participated in the seminar, with 20 of them thought to be members of the DAB. Many political assistants were also spotted in attendance, including one who works for Hong Kong’s number two official, Chief Secretary Matthew Cheung.

Apple Daily was refused entry, with the organizers saying that only invited media outlets were allowed to cover the event.

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