Shangkun faces protest on first HK visit

Some 20 activists from the radical April Fifth movement led by Leung Kwok-hung, staged a sit-in outside Government House, the former residence of British governors, where a luncheon will be hosted by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.

More than 60 police officers dragged protesters off the gates amid yells that Yang take responsibility for the 1989 crack-down on pro-democracy student protests on the mainland, witnesses said. No arrests were made.

Yang was greeted upon his arrival by two members of the Free China Democratic group, who staged an overnight sit-in outside the official residence of the state-run Xinhua news agency, where Yang was reported to be staying. They decried Yang’s visit to Hong Kong and asked him to return home. Their protest turned into a melee, when a European man tried to stop them because of the noise they were making, the local press said.

Meanwhile, activists of the Alliance in Support of the Patriotic Democratic Movement in China, set up to support the 1989 student-led protests in China, also planned to stage a march to the Government House later. The alliance will demand the release of political prisoners in China and legal action against those responsible for the Tiananmen massacre. They blame Yang for the June 4, 1989 massacre when soldiers fired on unarmed protesters in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Yang’s visit is considered by the Hong Kong government as "private" and no details of his activities have been released. Yang, who stepped down from his post in 1992, had backed late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping’s clamp-down on pro-democracy protests in China in 1989. Deng, who devised the "one country, two systems" formula under which HK is ruled, died last February, before the July 1 hand-over.