HK officials invite new trouble over crowd figure

AP AND AFP , HONG KONG
Thursday, Apr 15, 2004,Page 5

The Hong Kong government stirred up a political squabble yesterday by claiming just 7,600 people had turned out to protest Beijing's assertion of control over electoral reforms -- a much lower number than demonstrators and police had used.

University of Hong Kong statistics lecturer Paul Yip (???) said releasing such a figure days after Sunday's march would play no useful role in police crowd control and he suggested the government had a hidden political agenda.

"It shows that there is a very deep distrust between the government and the public," Yip told RTHK radio.

The protesters marched to China's liaison office to demand that Beijing reverse its binding ruling, issued last week, that any political reforms in Hong Kong must get advanced approval from the central government.

Rally organizer Jackie Hung said 20,000 people had turned out, and a human rights group that said it had conducted an independent count put the figure at 17,000 or more. Police estimated the crowd at 10,000.

Hong Kong officials released their smaller figure on Tuesday night. They did not say who conducted the government survey, but said they might produce similar crowd counts at future rallies on a "case by case" basis.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2004/04/15/2003136724

Oh where Oh where is Jackie 'Whore' Chan?
Oh where Oh where can he be?
I've looked and looked all over the Commi Pimp Land
But I could only find him in Bejing taking a bribe from Hu Jintao