Anti-Occupy Central protests in Hong Kong draw crowds, controversy

HONG KONG - Symboliing Hong Kong divisions over the city’s coming 2017 Chief Executive election, - where Beijing may or may not grant Hong Kong “genuine” universal suffrage - pro-Mainland protestors took to the streets on Sunday to march against the recent Occupy Central movement. But while Occupy Central protestors threatened to “paralyse” Hong Kong Central if Beijing refuses their election reform proposals, the anti-Occupy protests instead proposed that both sides should “sit down and talk”.

There were conflicting reports as to the number of protestors present at Sunday’s march from Victoria Park to Chater Garden in Central. The China Daily said 193,000 were present, the South China Morning Post quoted police reports of around 111,000 protestors (still more than those present for the Occupy protests in July), before mentioning rumours of participants “being strong-armed into attending” and “people being offered a free lunch or money”.

Many of the participants were also Mainland Chinese, with eyewitness reports describing tour buses streaming into Victoria Park, reportedly bringing in people from across the border. www.webershandwick.cn (ATI).