October 1, 2014

Student protesters in Hong Kong vowed today to continue their massive pro-democracy demonstrations until Hong Kong Chief Executive CY Leung resigns. They accuse Leung of being a puppet of the central Chinese government in Beijing. Demonstrators have clogged the streets of the city’s central business district for days, demanding that Beijing stop vetting candidates for Hong Kong’s next chief executive. Last weekend, Hong Kong police, under Leung’s direction, used batons and fire volleys of tear gas in an attempt to disperse the huge crowds.

In September, the Chinese government announced that although it would allow the people of Hong Kong to elect their next leader, the candidates would be restricted to those approved by a committee consisting of people appointed by the government. The last British governor of Hong Kong, Lord Patten, has accused the Chinese government of breaching commitments it made before taking over sovereignty from the United Kingdom in 1997: “They said these matters [the election of leaders] were within the autonomy of the Hong Kong government, and they are now reneging on that.”

Highly prosperous Hong Kong is one of the world’s greatest seaports. (© Gareth Brown, Corbis)

Under the 1997 agreement, Hong Kong was to be governed under a “one country, two systems” arrangement that gave it some autonomy and freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland. However the central government in Beijing has over time tightened its control over the special administrative region. Today, the president of China, Xi Jinping, stated that he would “steadfastly safeguard” Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability: “We must never waver in our faith and must never separate ourselves from the people.” China experts interpret Xi’s comments as meaning “we have no intention of giving in to the demonstrators.”

Additional World Book articles:

• China 1997 (a Back in Time article)
• Hong Kong 1997: Capitalism Comes to China (a special report)

July 2, 2013

Egypt’s army issued an ultimatum yesterday to Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood backers that they had 48 hours to respond to massive popular protests against Morsi and his government. If Morsi fails to heed “the will of the people,” the army will offer its own “road map” for peace, warned the head of the Egyptian army, General Abdel Fattah al-Sis.

On June 30, millions of Egyptians rallied nationwide, demanding Morsi’s resignation. Many Egyptians believe that Morsi is more interested in turning Egypt into an Islamist state than in dealing with its many problems. The lack of public security under Morsi has undermined the economy, which is now in a desperate state. Tourism, Egypt’s biggest industry, has all but dried up since the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011. More than 1 million people have been thrown out of work since Morsi was elected president one year ago. General al-Sis characterized the protests as an “unprecedented” expression of popular anger at Morsi and the Brotherhood. Yesterday, demonstrators attacked the Muslim Brotherhood’s Cairo headquarters, and eight people were killed as the building was ransacked.

Tahrir Square in Cairo, the site of massive demonstrations against the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in January 2011, was jammed again in June and July 2013 by angry protesters demanding the resignation of President Mohamed Morsi. (© John Moore, Getty Images)

Today, Egypt’s foreign minister, Mohamed Kamel Amr, submitted his resignation to President Morsi. Amr is the sixth minister to resign over the current political crisis.

Additional World Book articles:

• Tahrir Square
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)
• Egypt (2011) (a Back in Time article)
• Egypt (2012) (a Back in Time article)

September 17, 2012

Demonstrations continued today across the Muslim world in protest of Innocence of Muslims, an amateur, anti-Islam video thought to have been produced in the United States. Indonesians hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails at the U.S. embassy in Jakarta, capital of the world’s most populous Muslim nation. In the Philippines, thousands rallied in protest in the city of Marawi. In Lebanon, Hezbollah Sheikh Nassan Hasrallah’s call for further protests prompted thousands of people to mass in Beirut and other cities. In Afghanistan, protesters fired weapons in the air and torched police cars in Kabul. On September 15 in Afghanistan, Taliban militants, claiming to be enraged by the video, attacked a heavily fortified NATO camp, killing two U.S. Marines.

Since the first violent reaction to the film erupted in Egypt and Libya on September 11, some 40 people are believed to have been killed. On September 11, the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans died in an attack on the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Benghazi. In Cairo on September 11,  an angry mob scaled the wall of the U.S. embassy and pulled down and burned the American flag.

A group of Muslim women gather for outdoor prayers in Indonesia, where more than 85 percent of the people are Muslims. (c) Photobank

The exact origins of the film are unknown, though American authorities have uncovered some connection between it and one Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, a convicted felon living in California. A 14-minute trailer for the film was posted on the video-sharing website YouTube. American officials are still investigating whether the attacks were actually triggered by the video or whether they were pre-planned by some terrorist organization to coincide with the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

Additional World Book articles:

• Afghanistan War
• Diplomatic corp
• Foreign Service
• Iran 1979 (a Back in Time article)
• The Middle East: From Fall to Spring (a special report)