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Bitter exchanges highlight Hong Kong, China divide
by Staff Writers
Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 5, 2012

'Oldest marathon runner' competes in Hong Kong
Hong Kong (AFP) Feb 5, 2012 - A 100-year-old British Indian man who claims to be the world's oldest marathoner was all smiles after completing a 10-kilometre run at the Hong Kong marathon on Sunday.

Born in 1911 and affectionately nicknamed the "Turbaned Torpedo", Fauja Singh finished the race in just over one hour and 34 minutes, organisers told AFP, raising HK$200,000 ($25,800) for the charity Seeing Is Believing.

"The weather was very pleasant, I enjoyed the race very much," he was quoted by local media as saying, as he crossed the finishing line, arms in the air.

The centenarian attributed his physical fitness to his healthy lifestyle, including abstaining from smoking and alcohol and to following a vegetarian diet, according to local reports.

The Guinness World Records has reportedly refused to accept him as the world's oldest marathon runner because he could not provide them with a birth certificate.

Singh claimed to be the first centenarian to complete a marathon after finishing the Toronto Waterfront event last October.

A record number of 70,000 runners took part in this year's Hong Kong marathon, which includes the full 42-kilometre marathon race, a half marathon and a 10 kilometre race.

A 26-year-old male runner collapsed after crossing the finishing line of the half-marathon race, and was certified dead after being sent to hospital.


A bitter family feud between Hong Kongers and their northern neighbours sparked by mainland China's increasing financial and political clout has led to an awkward debate about the former British colony's identity.

The glittering southern financial centre has been governed according to the "one country, two systems" formula since its return to Chinese rule in 1997, but recent incidents have made it look more like "one country, two cultures".

As both sides enter a year of leadership change and economic uncertainty, some are questioning whether the jangling nerves are evidence of a deeper unease among freedom-loving Hong Kongers about their status under Chinese rule.

"This is a period of difficult adjustment and confusion," said political analyst Joseph Cheng of Hong Kong's City University.

"About 20 or 30 years ago, Hong Kong people tended to look down on their Chinese cousins. Now there's a sense of inferiority due to the economic boom in China."

It took an incident as apparently small as a mainland girl flouting rules against eating on Hong Kong trains to set off the haters on each side of the Shenzhen River.

A video of Hong Kongers angrily berating the girl went viral online last month, drawing a blistering response from Peking University professor Kong Qingdong.

"What type of people are those who deliberately don't speak Mandarin? Bastards!" the outspoken academic, who says he is a descendent of Confucius, said in interview with a Chinese website.

"As far as I know, many Hong Kong people don't regard themselves as Chinese. Those kinds of people are used to being the dogs of British colonialists -- they are dogs, not humans."

A Hong Kong online forum hit back with insults of their own in the form of a newspaper ad, published last week in the widely-read Apple Daily, depicting mainlanders as "locusts" set to devour Hong Kong's resources.

Millions of mainland tourists and investors pour into Hong Kong every year, adding billions of dollars to the local economy.

But they also fuel property prices and take up limited hospital spaces, particularly in maternity wards which struggle to care for tens of thousands of mainland women every year.

As China's economy has boomed, some Hong Kong natives have come to resent flashy displays of wealth by people they used to look down on as country bumpkins. Terms like "mainland phobia" have entered everyday speech.

Hong Kongers still regard themselves as more civilised and sophisticated than mainlanders, who are often reviled for their poor manners, refusal to stand in queues and penchant for spitting in public.

"I think this tension between Hong Kong people and mainlanders is worsening. This is a ticking time bomb," Hong Kong politician Lee Cheuk-yan said.

The latest incidents have led to some soul searching among Hong Kong natives. Lawmaker Paul Tse raised the issue in the legislature, asking what the government was doing to "minimise as far as possible the conflicts arising from members of the public alienating mainland tourists".

Asked about the locust insults, Chinese tourist Ding Hui said it was "ironic".

"The central government has been supportive of Hong Kong's 'one country, two systems' model, so why do Hong Kong people want to discriminate against us?" she asked.

Under the terms of the handover, Hong Kong's seven million people are guaranteed a high degree of autonomy and civil liberties not seen on the mainland. Fears of a communist takeover have proven unfounded.

But the system is facing renewed scrutiny ahead of March 25 elections for a new chief executive, who will be chosen by a pro-Beijing electoral committee rather than a public vote. Allegations of fraud and vote-rigging marred district polls late last year, in which pro-Beijing parties made strong gains.

In the years immediately after the handover there was a sense that Hong Kongers were patriotically embracing their Chinese cultural heritage, but the honeymoon now appears to be over.

A recent survey found that more than 79 percent of Hong Kong people identified themselves as Hong Kongers instead of Chinese. The number identifying themselves as Chinese was the lowest in a decade.

"There is a realisation that integration is inevitable but there is a backlash at the same time as Hong Kong people would like to retain their autonomy and characteristics," said Hong Kong academic Cheng.

Officials from both governments have had to step in to publicly reaffirm the special bond between Hong Kong and China, amid fears of a downturn in Chinese tourism to the southern city, popular with shoppers.

"Irrespective of our origins, we all expect ourselves to be treated fairly, and that our dignity is respected," Hong Kong Equal Opportunities Commission chief Lam Woon-kwong said.

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China hit by more Tibetan self-immolations: reports
Beijing (AFP) Feb 5, 2012 - A Tibetan died and two others were seriously hurt when they set themselves on fire in a remote Chinese village in the latest protests against Beijing's rule, an exile group and US-based broadcaster said.

This brings to at least 19 the number of Tibetans to have set themselves on fire in the past year in protest against what they see as repressive policies in Tibetan-inhabited areas, which were hit by deadly unrest last month.

The London-based group Free Tibet and US-backed Radio Free Asia (RFA) said the three set themselves alight Friday in remote Phuhu village in the southwestern province of Sichuan, which has big populations of ethnic Tibetans.

AFP was unable to independently confirm the information, as phone lines to the area of western Sichuan were the incident reportedly happened appear to have been disabled, with calls being met with a rapid beeping tone.

RFA on Saturday quoted an unnamed source as saying the protesters "had called for freedom for Tibet and the return of the Dalai Lama," the predominantly Buddhist region's exiled spiritual leader.

Both RFA and Free Tibet named the two Tibetans who were seriously injured, adding they were aged around 60 and 30, but the identity of the Tibetan who died was unclear.

Phuhu is part of Seda county and around 145 kilometres (90 miles) away from Seda town -- where rights groups say police fired on Tibetan protesters on January 24, killing at least one person.

The shooting was one of at least three deadly protests in Sichuan over the course of a few days, in which rights groups say at least three were killed and scores of others injured.

China has only acknowledged two of the incidents, and says that in one case, police were forced to fire on violent demonstrators. It has accused "trained separatists" of fometing the unrest.

Calls to local government and police offices and hotels in Seda would not go through on Sunday, and were met with a rapid beeping tone. AFP reporters who tried to get to Seda last month were turned around by police.

One driver who makes regular trips from the provincial capital of Chengdu to Seda said security was still very tight after the unrest.

"Tourists are allowed to go, so long as they carry their ID cards, and armed police check the registrations of every car and drivers' licences," she said Sunday over the phone.

Tibetans have long chafed at China's rule over the vast Tibetan plateau, accusing Beijing of curbing religious freedoms and eroding their culture and language, and these tensions have intensified over the past year.

Beijing, however, insists that Tibetans enjoy religious freedom and have benefited from improved living standards brought on by China's economic expansion.

It blames the Dalai Lama -- a Nobel Peace Prize laureate who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule -- for fomenting much of the unrest.



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SINO DAILY
South African court throws out Dalai Lama visa challenge
Cape Town (AFP) Feb 3, 2012
A South African court on Friday dismissed a case brought by two opposition parties challenging the government's failure to grant the Dalai Lama a visa last year. The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader had sought a visa to attend fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday celebrations in Cape Town in October. But influenced by trade worries with China - which frowns on the ... read more


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