HONG KONG—The photograph of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying smiling cheerfully at Philippines President Aquino has enraged Hong Kong. The two were photographed together at the recent Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
Hong Kong citizens became furious with President Aquino in 2010 when 25 people, mostly Hong Kong tourists, were held hostage in Manila. Eight were killed.
The people of Hong Kong were disgusted with the way Aquino handled the situation. Demands he take responsibility have never been answered.
An incident during the APEC meeting only added to the Hong Kong people’s outrage. Reporters from three Hong Kong media outlets raised questions about the hostage incident. Nine members of the Hong Kong press were then stripped of their reporting permits and ordered to leave for displaying “inappropriate manners” and causing “embarrassment to guests.”
When the reporters first arrived to wait for Aquino, nobody intervened, Radio Hong Kong reporter Yip Yiu Kwun recalled during a talk show. However, after the Hong Kong reporters raised questions, APEC staff told them they were not in an interviewing zone.
Yip pointed out that in the media guidebook, there was no mention of a restricted area for interviewing.
When Leung started acting friendly toward Aquino, this showed Hong Kong citizens that he did not care about the Manila hostage crisis or the mistreated reporters.
Hong Kong reporters and legislators sought help with the APEC incident from the Foreign Ministry of China, only to be brushed off.
“For the time being we have only learned about the incident through the media,” Deputy Minister Liu Zhenmin told them. “We have no detailed information. It is difficult for us [the People’s Republic of China] to speak on this. We encourage the Hong Kong media to actively communicate with the host and the Indonesian government to solve the problem.”
The Chinese officials did not contact the reporters or express their position. They failed to carry out their exclusive role of taking care of defense and diplomacy for Hong Kong, which is specified under “one-country-two-systems” in the Basic Law.
They did nothing for the Hong Kong reporters except encourage them to negotiate with their victimizer, which is basically impossible and a joke.
Hong Kong reporters have been repeatedly ill-treated in Mainland China and overseas, because the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) government is a treacherous ruling power—harsh domestically, weak diplomatically. The Hong Kong SAR government is side-stepping the issue, claiming that they “will follow up” and “will investigate.”
We still remember the incident this summer in which a primary school teacher publicly scolded Hong Kong’s police. The police had failed to protect harassed Falun Gong practitioners, instead siding with the Chinese Communist Party front group who were harassing them.
Chief Executive Leung was quick to step forward and demand that the head of the Education Bureau submit a report on the teacher. So why didn’t he step forward to protect the freedom of the Hong Kong press during the APEC incident?
Instead, he chose to enjoy himself and share jokes with President Aquino. This attitude is considered hurtful to the families of the Hong Kong hostage victims.
Hong Kong people think that a Hong Kong SAR passport is inexpensive and great for convenient travel. They forget that this SAR passport is actually only one of the passports of the People’s Republic of China.
When no incidents happen, this passport brings convenience, but when something happens, the Chinese regime and their Foreign Ministry do not care for the people of Hong Kong. These officials are not held responsible for the government or for its people, especially not the people of Hong Kong.
The Hong Kong Chief Executive who was supposed to represent Hong Kong people was joking happily with their victimizer. This behavior is unbearable to every dignified Hong Kong person.
Translated by Y.K. Lu. Written in English by Sally Appert.
Copyright © 1998-2013, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia.
Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
