WTO Conference, 2005, by Wing Chan

From MemoryArchive

Who: Wing Chan
What: WTO Conference 2005
When: December 13-18, 2005
Where: Hong Kong

WTO concluded its 2005 conference successfully late on the night of December 18, 2005. Hong Kong should be very proud of being the first host city in the WTO conference history that could provide a peaceful environment to ministers from all over the world to discuss major trade issues and arrived to some concrete agreements and solutions. What the Conference had achieved could be read from newspapers. The fact that the ministers could enjoy this rare opportunity of a peaceful environment to conduct their business was due to a large extent the highly efficient and professional work of the Hong Kong Police.

There were over 1,000 hardcore militant Korean farmers arrived in Hong Kong on the day before the Conference started on Monday, December 13, 2005. In addition, there were protestors from all parts of the world that amounted to about 10,000. Knowing what some of these professional protestors had done to disrupt previous WTO conferences, the HKP (Hong Kong Police) had chosen a tactic in what the Chinese called “To subdue strength with gentleness”. They absorbed repeated charges from the militants with utmost restraint. These forceful charges by the militant farmers included the use of, as weapons, wooden blocks, bamboo sticks, iron rods, dismantled iron gates, metal ladders, even batons and protecting shields taken from the police. To protect themselves from these charges, HKP used mustard spray, batons, one water cannon, mustard gas, and as a final resort, tear gas. At no time guns with loaded bullets were used. As a result, apart from some minor injuries, damages and small traffic inconveniences, it was a week of peaceful protests and successful conference.

In reflection, this meeting could be conducted peacefully was due to the following factors:

1.Police’s restraint. Though some may perceive this tactic as weakness, but it had avoided riot and bloodshed that happened in the past conferences.

2.Militant Korean farmers’ restraint. The Korean farmers and foreign protesters were less violence than they had been in the past. Perhaps their action was in responded to the “gentleman like” behavior exhibited by HKP.

3.No local militant protestor’s participation. There were many Hong Kong people sympathized with the farmers participated in their march, but the locals are mostly peace-loving people who detest violence and respect law and order.

The Hong Kong model could serve as an example for future WTO conferences.