Michael Bond, Brought Paddington Bear to Life, 91

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28 June 2017, 21:00

British author Michael Bond sits with a Paddington Bear toy on June 5, 2008, during an interview with The Associated Press in London. Photo: Sang Tan / Associated Press

LONDON — Michael Bond, creator of marmalade-loving children’s favorite Paddington bear, has died aged 91, his publisher said Wednesday.

HarperCollins said Bond died at his home the previous day after a short illness.

Ann-Janine Murtagh, executive publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, said the duffel-coated, Wellington boot-wearing bear “touched my own heart as a child and will live on in the hearts of future generations.”

The furry adventurer first appeared in “A Bear Called Paddington” in 1958 — a stowaway from “Darkest Peru” who arrived at London’s Paddington train station wearing a sign saying “Please look after this bear. Thank you.”

Adopted by the Brown family, the misadventure-prone bear went on to star in some 20 books, a television series and a feature film.

The books have sold some 35 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 40 languages, including Latin (“Ursus Nomine Paddington”).

Bond said he based the character on a teddy bear that he bought for his wife as a stocking filler, and named him after the station he used for daily commutes.

Today, countless stuffed Paddingtons are for sale in toy stores and souvenir stands around Britain, and a statue of the iconic bear stands at the station.

Explaining the character’s enduring appeal in 2008, Bond said “there’s something about bears which sets them apart from the other toys.”

“I think dolls are always wondering what they’re going to wear next,” he told The Associated Press. “Bears have this quality that children in particular feel they can tell their secrets to and they won’t pass them on.”

Phuket Vows to Become Thailand’s 1st Corruption-Free Province

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Kaewta Ketbungkan, Staff Reporter

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28 June 2017, 19:11

Tourists are fined for riding a motorbike without wearing helmets in 2008 in Phuket. Photo: William Cho/ Flickr.

PHUKET — The governor of a popular island in the Andaman Sea promised to make it Thailand’s first province to end corruption after he signed an agreement with anti-corruption officials Tuesday.

Phuket Gov. Norraphat Plodthong signed a memorandum of understanding with the Office of Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission – which operates under the Ministry of Justice – by which he agreed to implement policies to tackle corrupt practices in the island.

Prayong Preeyachitt, secretary-general of the commission, said Phuket aims to take action to lower the risk of bribery and corruption.

In February, the Anti-Corruption Organization published an article about corruption on Phuket which its secretary-general, Mana Nimitmongkol, discussed bribery on the island and said some foreign businessmen faced problems obtaining licenses. Mana said the businessmen resorted to bribing authorities due to the sluggishness of the process and incompetence of the officials.

Govt Ditches Open Bidding to Gift Megaproject to Developer

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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28 June 2017, 18:09

A concept design for Bangkok Observation Tower. Image: Bangkok Observation Tower Foundation

BANGKOK — The government on Tuesday exempted construction of a multi-billion baht tourist attraction from mandatory competitive bidding, saying such a hassle might cause delay.

Rather than open bidding, which is required for firms that invest in government projects, construction of the upcoming 459-meter high Bangkok Observation Tower was directly handed over to a private entity linked to a luxury high-rise complex being built right next door.

“If we open it for bidding to find a private developer, I don’t know if anyone would be interested, because the project value is quite high,” Finance Minister Apisak Tantivorawong told reporters Wednesday. “And they wouldn’t know if it would be worth their investment.”

Private companies that invest with the state are typically required to compete with other firms in open bidding to ensure transparency and discourage graft.

Under the agreement approved by the cabinet, a plot of land owned by the treasury department will be leased to a private entity called Bangkok Observation Tower Foundation over the next 30 years at the fee of 198 million baht – about 6.6 million baht per year. The landmark is located in the Khlong San district on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River.

The Bangkok Observation Tower Foundation has no website or listed phone number.

Media reports named its chairman as Panas Simasathien, a veteran businessman who’s serving as a board director of Siam Piwat group, a land developer behind Siam Paragon and Siam Center shopping malls.

The same developer is also building a residence and shopping mall complex called Icon Siam next to the the site where the observation tower will be constructed, though one official maintained they are owned by different entities.

“It doesn’t belong to Icon Siam,” Pachara Anuntasilpa, director of the Treasury Department, which owned the land earmarked for the observation tower construction.

It was the second time the military government has subverted the procurement process this month. On June 15, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha used his absolute power to skirt 10 laws and regulations, including those related to bidding, to expedite construction of a stalled Sino-Thai railway project.

The tower project is part of a plan by the government to construct the so-called observation towers in 10 provinces with the stated aim of promoting tourism with their panoramic view of the cities. While towers in other provinces are operated and built by regional authorities, the one in the capital city will be overseen by the private foundation.

Construction of the tower is estimated to cost 4.5 billion baht, 198 million baht of which will be paid to the Treasury Department as rent. The Cabinet minute says the cost will be entirely covered by the foundation and the private firm selected for the project. Apisak, the finance minister, said it won’t cost the state a single baht.

Any entry fees collected would also be used to maintain the observation tower and not distributed among investors, the minister added.

Apart from the observation deck, the tower will feature an exhibition hall dedicated to the life and work of the late King Bhumibol, he said.

Junta to Sidestep 5 Laws to Move Stalled Railway Project

New Anti-Torture Committee Greeted with Skepticism, Criticism

By

Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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28 June 2017, 15:20

Activists mark the 11th anniversary of the abduction of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit in 2015 in Bangkok.

BANGKOK — As Thailand has delayed passage of legislation to criminalize torture and enforced disappearances, a committee created by the junta leader to investigate the matter met for the first time Monday.

The committee, chaired by Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, was set up under Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha’s capacity as prime minister on May 23. At its first meeting, the 15-member committee resolved to create three subcommittees tasked with examining allegations of torture and enforced disappearance, means of prevention, and the rehabilitation and compensation of victims.

“I don’t think the Thai government can shirk [on its international obligations]. Because it’s a commitment made to the international community,” said Pitikarn Sitthidej, director general of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department and a default member of the committee.

But Critics are largely skeptical as to what the new body can accomplish, particularly under military rule, where secret detentions remain in routine practice and no legal definition of torture exists.

“This initiative can’t be taken seriously. Without a law recognizing these crimes, the new committee can do little beyond providing compensation for victims and their families. Abusive officials will remain untouchable and could carry on the brutal practices without fear of punishment,” said Human Right’s Watch senior researcher Sunai Phasuk on Tuesday in reaction to the new committee. “Gen. Prayuth is talking with both sides of his mouth. While giving pledges to end torture and enforced disappearance, his regime has routinely put people in secret incommunicado detention and interrogated them without safeguards against abuse.”

But Pitikarn, who will head the subcommittee on rehabilitation and compensation, was upbeat when interviewed Monday.

“Although there’s no law criminalizing torture as of yet, there exist laws stating that severely causing injuries to someone is illegal. It’s just that there has been no definition on what constitutes as torture,” Pitikarn said.

A subcommittee, she said, will pursue and examine complaints as if the yet-unpassed law was already in effect.

10 Years of Waiting

On Monday, just as the new committee met for the first time, two international rights groups issued a statement urging the Thai government not to further delay the enactment of laws against torture and enforced disappearances.

Marking the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists urged the Thai government on Monday “to ensure no further delay in implementing these undertakings.” It noted that October 2017 will mark the passage of 10 years since Thailand pledged to respect and protect the rights of all people to be free from torture and other ill-treatment by ratifying the convention against torture.

“Torture is impermissible in all circumstances, including during public emergencies or in the context of threats to public security,” the joint statement said. The two organizations also urged Thailand to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture which would establish a national preventive mechanism, including “an independent expert body authorised to visit places of detention, including by carrying out unannounced visits – as well as to allow such visits by an international expert body.”

Both organizations argued that such independent scrutiny is critical in the prevention of torture and other ill-treatment. What’s more, they urged Thailand to allow the inspection of detention centers in line with the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, also known as the Nelson Mandela Rules.

“The Thai government has yet to ensure in law, policy and practice that individuals are not held in conditions that increase the risk of torture,” the joint statement read. “In particularly, laws and executive orders allowing individuals to be held by the military personnel in unofficial places of detention, without judicial authorization or access to lawyers, family members or medical personnel for up to a week, create conditions that facilitate torture and other ill-treatment.”

The organizations said this would require the National Council for Peace and Order, as the junta calls itself, to repeal Order No. 3/2015 which was enacted by the junta leader along with existing emergency laws. It also called for a credible report on torture to be written and made public.

Pitikarn said there’s no telling when the anti-torture bill – currently back at the Justice Ministry for revision – would be considered by the junta-appointed National Legislative Assembly, or if it would be enacted prior to the promised elections vaguely slated for 2018. She said the revision is required under Article 77 of the new constitution enacted in April.

Pitikarn added that while the law may not exist as yet, but that “the intent” of the government was reflected in the creation of the committee.

“There is no existing idea that supports torture because it’s a crime against humanity. It’s bad for the image [of Thailand],” she stressed.

Rights Groups Unimpressed

To, Pornpen Khongkachonkiet chairwoman of Amnesty International Thailand and director of Cross Cultural Foundation – a rights group working on rights issues in the deep south – the setting up of the committee cannot make up for the lack of anti-torture laws. She said setting up the committee is a mere tactic to buy time.

“It’s just there to buy time. The prime minister must have been briefed that the international community is keen [on the issue], so he set up the committee, which is only created under his order. Whether it works or not, there’s only half a political will present.”

Pornpenh said there exist 150 alleged torture cases compiled since 2012 in the three southern-most provinces alone waiting to be resolved. However, the committee used different stats. The committee’s chair and Justice Minister Suphawan on Monday cited UN figures which stated that 82 people have been tortured or forcibly made to disappear in Thailand.

On Tuesday, Kingsley Abbott, a Bangkok-based senior international legal advisor for the commission of jurists, tried to drop a compliment before piling the skepticism.

“While Thailand should be commended for any steps it takes, in good faith, to address torture and enforced disappearance, it is concerning that the committee was established shortly after the National Legislative Assembly returned the draft Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act to the Cabinet for more consultation, effectively prolonging the passage indefinitely,” Abbott said, adding that the establishment of the committee could not be used to supplant a law complying with the country’s international human rights obligations.

He said the criminalization of torture and other forms of ill-treatment were among such obligations along with the “provision of other safeguards against these acts, conducting independent, impartial and effective investigations to bring perpetrators to justice and providing remedies and reparations to victims.”

The list of critics seems endless. Ekapan Pinthavanit, director of Mahidol University’s Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies, questioned the authority, legitimacy and longevity of the committee. He said that if there exists a law, criminalization of torture would be legally binding to all state organs while this could not be possible with a committee but without a legislation.

Even the wife of a famous Muslim rights lawyer who went missing – whose case the new committee vowed to tackle, wasn’t convinced.

“You may set up a committee, but without the law [criminalizing torture] you can’t do anything. There’s no legal definition in the Penal Code,” explained Angkhana Neelapajit, a National Human Rights Commissioner in charge of civil and political rights and whose husband – rights lawyer Somchai Neelapajit – went missing in 2004 during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration.

Somchai represented some Muslim defendants in cases of terrorism. He was last seen 13 years ago on March 2 in Ramkhamhaeng area in Bangkok, close to a police station, where eyewitnesses saw four men drag him from his car.

Angkhana said without the law criminalizing torture and enforced disappearance, she – as Somchai’s wife – could not even take legal action. The Department of Special Investigation declared the case closed after a decade last year in 2016. The new committee vowed to investigate it.

Angkhana said she doubts the committee’s authority, adding that the best it can do is to provide monetary compensation to victims and some rehabilitation.

Committee There to Fill the Legal Gap

Narong Jaiharn, a law professor at Thammasat University who specializes in criminal law and who is also a member of the committee and chair of its subcommittee on prevention, insisted the organ was there to fill the gap while it waited for the law to be enacted.

Narong said alleged victims of torture or relatives of those suspected to have forcibly disappeared, can petition the committee, who will coordinate with related agencies. Narong added the committee would meet once every two months and that it was considering setting up a system to accept complaints upcountry so that affected people were not required to travel to Bangkok.

“We may also inspect prisons and places of temporary detention,” he said.

Narong stressed that the committee would also examine detention facilities and determine the attitude of security officials – both commanders and subordinates – when it came to torture and enforced disappearances.

“Enforced disappearance is something that shouldn’t occur or should be forbidden… Fostering such consciousness will be the next step,” he said.

Asked if the committee would inspect Bangkok’s infamous 11th Army Circle – used since the coup to detain opponents of the military regime for up to seven-day without charge – Narong said it wasn’t sure yet.

Citing Trump and Prayuth, Student Activist Rejects American Invite

By

Pravit Rojanaphruk, Senior Staff Writer

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28 June 2017, 15:02

U.S. Ambassador Glyn Davies meets with junta chairman Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha in 2015 at Government House.

BANGKOK — It may be an invitation coveted by many Thais, but pro-democracy student leader Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal publicly turned down an invitation by US Ambassador Glyn Davies to attend this year’s Fourth of July reception.

Netiwit, a 20-year-old Chulalongkorn University sophomore and arguably the most famous anti-junta student activist of his generation, said Wednesday that he wanted to send a message to the United States about the Trump administration’s cozy relationship with “dictator” Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who staged the 2014 coup and installed himself as prime minister.

“I must speak out so they will understand how the democratic side [in Thailand] feels,” Netiwit said.

Netiwit, who’s president of his university’s student council and a second-year political science major, said he had informed a US embassy staff member that he was rejecting the invitation through a Line message. Netiwit then posted on Tuesday evening a dressing-down in Thai on his Facebook page, along with a photo of the invitation. The reception to which he was invited – the first Netiwit had be invited to attend by the embassy – is slated for Thursday evening.

In his Facebook post, Netiwit criticized Trump’s decision to invite Prayuth to the White House as contradictory to the American stance on democracy.

“Is this not contradictory if the US truly cares for human rights and democracy?” Netiwit wrote, adding that Prayuth is responsible for various human rights violations, including the detention of people who disagree with his regime. He also said Prayuth has destroyed the rule of law, and curbed freedom of expression.

“Why did the United States, under the current president, take no stance in criticizing these things and not warn the junta, which is trampling upon the Thai people? The people of the United States should very well know how important rights and liberties are to them, and that it’s crucial for the development of its nation and citizens as expressed in the slogan of ‘Give me liberty or death,’” Netiwit wrote.

The post on his Facebook account “Netiwit Ntw,” which is followed by more than 92,000 people, was shared more than 1,100 times and attracted more than 500 comments and 7,200 likes as of Wednesday morning.

“Very well written,” Facebook user Thanongsak Rataanasukon wrote in reply. “The declination was reasonable and smooth. The logic is solid.”

“Diplomacy is diplomacy. America is America. They are hypocrites,” Facebook user Kritsanapol Sriburapa wrote.

The move comes at a time when deputy junta leader Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan – instructed the military chief on Monday to draw a list of arms for possible purchase from the United States while Prayuth visits Washington, a trip originally scheduled for next month.

Prayuth last visited the states in February 2016 by invitation of the Obama administration for an ASEAN-U.S. Special Leaders’ Summit in Rancho Mirage, California.

Netiwit nonetheless thanked the US ambassador for having expressed pro-democracy sentiments in the past and for the invitation.

Messages to Davies’ Twitter account @GlynTDavies went unanswered as of Wednesday morning. Embassy spokesman Melissa Sweeney said she “hasn’t seen that” post. Sweeney later said that “the United States strongly supports freedom of expression and respects the rights of all individuals to express their opinions,” adding that Prayuth’s visit to the states was “an important opportunity” for him and Trump to “discuss the broad scope [their] partnership.”

Asked how the embassy staff member reacted to his message, Netiwit said “the male staffer said it was okay, that these kinds of things happen every year when both sides [of the political divide] are invited.”

Emporium TCDC Reborn as AIS Design Centre

By

Kaewta Ketbungkan, Staff Reporter

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28 June 2017, 14:28

An image of AIS D.C. posted June 19. Photo: AIS D.C. / Facebook.

BANGKOK — A new design center opened June 21 at Emporium in the space formerly used by the Thailand Creative and Design Center, or TCDC, which moved its base to the Grand Postal Building in Charoenkrung last month.

The AIS Design Centre, or AIS D.C., has partially opened on the fifth floor of Emporium shopping mall to welcome new startups and those who interested in design and creative endeavors.

As its name suggests, the new place is a collaboration between mobile operator Advance Info Service, or AIS, and TCDC.

Read: Virtual Thailand: Tour TCDC’s New Riverside Home (VR)

The space is separated into various sections such as a library with more than 10,000 design and technology magazines, a playground area where creators can try new technologies on their products with consultation from experts, meeting rooms and a rental production studio.

There will also be many intensive courses for startups to attend, from technology and design to business.

Making use of the space requires an annual membership which costs 1,200 baht for adults and 600 baht for students. Entry is free for now until its official opening on July 18.

More information is available online.

AIS D.C. open daily from 10:30am to 9pm and is located on the fifth floor of Emporium, which can be reached from exit No. 2 of BTS Phrom Phong.

19221620 1869177470000377 6520273033255006114 o — An image of AIS D.C. posted June 19. Photo: AIS D.C. / Facebook.

19388516 1869177473333710 2985591576854173976 o — An image of AIS D.C. posted June 19. Photo: AIS D.C. / Facebook.

Visa Violators Threaten Thai Lives, Property: Labor Ministry

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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28 June 2017, 14:01

Police question three Russian men arrested March 21 on suspicion of overstaying their visas and extorting Thai businesses in Pattaya .

BANGKOK — A new set of harsher punishments for foreigners who work illegally is necessary in the name of protecting the “lives and property of Thai people,” a Labor Ministry spokesman said Wednesday

The revised labor law, which came into effect Friday, prescribes tougher jail terms and fines for both foreign employees and their Thai employers who violate visa and work permit regulations. The same law also added more severe punishment for those engaged in human trafficking.

“This new law will be applied to foreigners of all nationalities, not just the three neighboring countries,” spokesman Ananchai Uthaipatanacheep said by phone. “Whether you are from Vietnam or Russia, if you do something wrong, you will get the tougher punishment.”

Foreigners caught working in Thailand without a work permit face a maximum jail terms of five years and fines up to 100,000 baht. Foreigners who are employed in occupations other than what’s registered on their work permit risk fines up to 100,000 baht, five times as much as previously.

Meanwhile, employers convicted of hiring foreigners without proper registration face a maximum fine of 800,000 baht per worker, or eight times the previous fine of 100,000 baht.

Ananchai said the harsher penalties will weed out foreigners who live or work in Thailand without registering with the authorities, which can threaten the “safety and lives and property of Thai people.”

The spokesman said expats who have valid visas and work permits need not worry.

“If you enter the kingdom legally, and if you possess the proper passports, visas and work permits, I can guarantee you that this new law won’t affect you,” he said.

Free Tourist Visas Extended Through August

Cops Deployed to Protect Isaan Community From Hungry Ghost

By

Teeranai Charuvastra, News Chief

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28 June 2017, 13:02

A woman possessed by Phi Pob terrorizes villagers in a scene from “Baan Phi Pob 2008,” the 13th installment of the Baan Phi Pob movies franchise.

AMNAT CHAROEN — “There’s nothing under the sky that Thai police cannot do,” goes the unofficial slogan of the Royal Thai Police – and that apparently includes busting ghosts.

Police were dispatched Wednesday to a rural community in Amnat Charoen province to protect it from a female ghost, or phi pob, said to have been terrorizing its populace in recent months. The operation followed a written request from its leaders, according to a local police chief.

“The residents are frightened,” Adul Chaiprasithikul, head of Pathum Ratchawongsa Police Station, said by phone. “The letter requests police to conduct regular patrols … they want some reassurance. The people who believe in the rumor are genuinely scared.”

The letter, penned by the district chief, said four cows there had died this year alone; and that four officers at a nearby border patrol police academy had fallen ill. Local residents attributed these calamities to a phi pob, it said.

According to folklore, phi pob is a ghost with the ability to possess humans and wreak havoc on an entire village. Every year, many rural communities report sightings or hauntings by phi pob.

“To strengthen civilian morale, prevent panic and boost their confidence in living their daily lives, I hereby request Pathum Ratchawongsa Police Station to organize patrols in the subdistrict to monitor safety for the civilians,” part of the letter said.

Col. Adul said he received the request yesterday and that police would make their first patrol today.

He added that a Buddhist ceremony was also held at the village two weeks ago in hope of stopping the ghost’s menace.

“There are more people who believe in it than those who don’t,” the colonel said.

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New Migrant Law Levies Heavy Fines On Employers

By

Asaree Thaitrakulpanich, Staff Reporter

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28 June 2017, 12:26

Police arrest 38 illegal Burmese migrant workers in Ranong Saturday.

BANGKOK — Under a new migrant worker law, employers involved in human trafficking face jail time and fines of up to 1 million baht.

The 2017 Decree on Migrant Worker Management went into effect four days before the US Department of State released its annual Trafficking in Persons Report on Tuesday. Thailand remained on the Tier 2 Watch List in the report, in the same cohort as Rwanda and Serbia.

“The purpose of this decree was to modernize the law and make it more applicable internationally,” Director-General Woranon Pitiwun of the Labor Ministry said Saturday. “Let me emphasize that the law is not meant to only punish, because we publicized the law to employers two months before it went into effect.”

Read: Thailand Should Prosecute Officials, US Says in Trafficking Report

The law addresses those involved on the supply side of trafficking. The first recommendation in the American trafficking report released Tuesday was for Thailand to bring to justice those officials who enable or profit from trafficking.

Unlike previous labor laws, the new law punishes employers for every illegal migrant worker hired instead of a flat fine. For every illegal worker hired, employers may be fined 400,000 baht to 800,000 baht.

Making a migrant worker perform work different from what is authorized by their work permit is punishable by up to 400,000 baht.

Some fines target human trafficking specifically. For example, if an employer or individual confiscates a migrant worker’s permit or important personal documents, the employer faces a six months jail term and a 100,000 baht fine. Agents who provide trafficked migrant workers to employers face a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to 1 million baht per worker. Middlemen who run trafficking operations can be punished by up to three years in prison and a fine of 600,000 baht.

Fines for the workers themselves also increased. Migrant workers who work without a permit, perform work off-limits to foreigners, fail to register or do work other than they are permitted face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a 100,000 baht fine.

Correction: An earlier version of the article referenced the US Department of State’s 2016 Trafficking Persons report. This has since been corrected to reflect the finding of the 2017 report.

1 Hong Kong, 2 Sentiments After 20 Years of Chinese Rule

By

Associated Press

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28 June 2017, 11:08

A man carrying a child walks past a British flag in March in Hong Kong. Photo: Kin Cheung / Associated Press

HONG KONG — Hong Kong is planning a big party as it marks 20 years under Chinese rule. But many people in the former British colony are not in the mood to celebrate.

Fireworks, a gala variety show and Chinese military displays are among the official events planned to coincide with a visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping starting Thursday for the occasion.

Ahead of the anniversary, state broadcaster China Central Television has been running daily news features extolling what it calls the inextricable ties between China and Hong Kong in fields ranging from sports to the military and the arts.

Underneath the surface, however, tensions are simmering as Hong Kongers, especially the young, chafe at life under the tightening grip of China’s Communist leaders.

“People are not celebrating but worrying about Hong Kong’s future and its current situation,” said Nathan Law, who at age 23 was elected the city’s youngest-ever lawmaker last year and was a student leader of 2014’s massive “Umbrella Movement” pro-democracy demonstrations.

Members of the Demosisto political party including young activist Joshua Wong on Monday draped a giant flower statue bequeathed by Beijing in 1997 in black cloth, which they said symbolized “the hard-line rule of the authoritarian regime.” Other protests in the works include a rally by a pro-independence group on Friday evening and a pro-democracy march on Saturday, the latter an annual event that has drawn big crowds in the past.

Law said there’s growing concern that Beijing is steadily eroding the “one country, two systems” principle put in place after it took control of the Asian financial hub. Under that principle, Hong Kong largely runs its own affairs and enjoys civil liberties unseen on the mainland, but now, he said, “there are lots of people describing the current system as ‘one country, 1.5 systems.'”

He and others tick off a list of incidents that stoke fears about China tightening control. At the top is the case of five Hong Kong booksellers secretly detained on the mainland starting in late 2015 for selling gossipy titles about elite Chinese politics to mainland readers. One of the men, Gui Minhai, is still being held.

In a similar case, a Chinese-born tycoon with a Canadian passport went missing earlier this year from his hotel suite. News reports indicated mainland Chinese security agents operating in Hong Kong abducted him – a violation of the city’s constitution.

Myriad other government plans have raised hackles, including stationing Chinese immigration officers in a downtown high-speed rail terminus under construction; setting up a local branch of Beijing’s Palace Museum without public consultation; introducing so-called patriotic national education in schools that many parents fear is a cover for pro-Communist brainwashing; and introducing anti-subversion national security legislation.

Another worry, said veteran pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo, is the flood of so-called “red capital” as mainland investors buy up property and expand businesses in Hong Kong, elbowing aside indigenous tycoons. The wave of buying has been blamed for further inflating housing prices that make Hong Kong one of the world’s most unequal places.

“We’re supposed to be capitalists – fine. Except when it comes to public auctions of land, when all the big mainland concerns will always win,” Mo said.

Xi’s three-day visit includes an inspection of People’s Liberation Army troops based in the city and culminates in the swearing-in of Hong Kong’s new leader Carrie Lam. Police are ratcheting up security, with media reports indicating officers will crack down on political banners and images.

China’s Communist leaders are eager to tout the success of “one country, two systems,” which was envisioned as a way to entice back Taiwan, which Beijing sees as renegade province.

The recent tensions have drawn “serious attention” from Beijing, which can’t afford to see pro-independence sentiment in Taiwan and Hong Kong at the same time, said Liu Shanying, political researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

“Therefore, it must be put under control,” whether by force or gentler methods, he said. “There must be room for reflection on how to handle the Hong Kong issue properly because people in both Hong Kong and the mainland are Chinese after all.”

For many in Hong Kong, the fundamental problem is the legitimacy of the city’s Beijing-backed leaders. Lam was chosen by a coterie of pro-Beijing elites over a far more popular rival in what pro-democracy activists slammed as a fake election. The system was at the root of the 2014 pro-democracy protests.

“Many people believe Hong Kong is under the strict supervision of the Chinese government. And it has led to lots of conflicts,” said university student Emily Chung, who was born July 1, 1997, the same day Britain relinquished control to China.

She identifies as both a Hong Konger and Chinese. She added, however, that “if conflicts between Hong Kong and China hadn’t existed, I would identify myself as Chinese,” underscoring the wider trend of young people torn over their allegiances despite spending most or all of their life under Chinese rule.

Hong Kong University pollsters who have conducted polls on ethnic identity since 1997 found that the level of young people identifying as Chinese fell to 3.1 percent this month, the lowest ever level, according to a phone survey of 1,000 people. The margin of error was 4 percentage points.

Many young people lost hope after the 2014 protests, with the government refusing to give in to their demands for wider electoral freedom. The unresolved conclusion fueled the rise of a pro-independence movement, alarming Beijing. Authorities have moved to clamp down on separatist sentiment, disqualifying two pro-independence candidates from office last year for making improper oaths.

It underscores widening divisions in Hong Kong society, between young and old, rich and poor.

“They’re just wasting their time. They should make good use of their time to study,” said Choi Wah-bing, a 67-year-old retiree. He said he didn’t understand young people protesting and agitating for more autonomy or independence. Hong Kong is like Beijing’s “naughty child,” he said.

Deepening divisions pose a risk of further instability, said David Zweig, a political scientist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Beijing “can’t figure out why 20 years after the transition, people in Hong Kong don’t love the mainland more,” said Zweig, adding that Hong Kongers don’t have a problem identifying as Chinese until their freedoms are restricted. Or, as many residents put it, they don’t want their home to become just another Chinese city.

“People like living in a free society,” he said, “and they want their kids to live in a free society.”

Story: Kelvin Chan

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