World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 2005

Representatives from 148 countries were expected to attend the event, as well as over 10,000 protesters led by the Hong Kong People’s Alliance on WTO and made up of largely South Korean farmers.

The Doha round aims to cut trade barriers across a wide range of sectors and is supposed to address the needs of developing countries, for whom agriculture is a particularly sensitive topic.

The EU says equal attention needs to be paid to manufactured goods, which far outweigh agriculture's importance in global trade.

In order to protect the interests of developing countries and recognise their needs, the term 'consider positively' may be extended to seven years as to eliminate any measures that are inconsistent with the overall goals of the WTO.

Its 1.8 billion citizens, about 30 per cent of the world's population are drawn from a broad range of faiths, races, cultures and traditions.

In the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Malta,[2] on 25–27 November 2005, the group issued its Valletta Statement on Multilateral Trade[3] calling on "all developed countries to demonstrate the political courage and will to give more than they receive."

In the unlikely event of an emergency which the police cannot handle, the Chief Executive had the power to seek help from the Hong Kong detachment of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

On 17 December, the Hong Kong Police Force used tear gas, pepper spray and fire hoses in order to suppress the demonstrators.

French windows of shops, including McDonald's in Sun Hung Kai Centre, which is close to the Wan Chai Sports Ground protest zone, were surrounded by wire nettings.

Drain covers outside Wanchai Tower were secured, and bricks on the ground in Wan Chai also glued together to prevent protesters from digging them up.

The seven commercial buildings around the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, for the first time, formed a security network, under which their closed-circuit television systems were linked together during the period of the conference.

The MTR spent HK$10 million due to the WTO meeting and fares were not be deducted as what it was suggested from a legislative councilor.

To help divert road traffic from Wan Chai, Causeway Bay and the Cross-Harbour Tunnel, the government reached an agreement with the two other tunnel operators, Western Harbour Crossing and Eastern Harbour Crossing, to offer toll discounts of 14% to 25% for private cars, taxi and goods vehicles between 13 and 18 December 2005.

All shops and firms in Wan Chai were forced to close early on the opening night due to fear of injury.

The criteria included business nature, geographical location, and international position (for instance, whether the shops belong to transnational corporations).

The Wan Chai headquarters of the SPCA (HK), Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (Hong Kong), was closed from 13 December - 18.

The items in the budget include: The Hong Kong government[8] was the major sponsor of the WTO MC6 conference, using public money to pay for TV, radio, newspaper and brochure ads.

The company is trying to move fast-copying machines, which can handle hundreds of pages per minute, from its Asia-Pacific regional offices to Hong Kong for temporary use.

This provoked confrontations[12] with security forces and a KPL member, Lee Kyung Hae,[13] stabbed himself to death in protest.

Elizabeth Tang Yin-ngor, chairwoman of the Hong Kong People's Alliance on WTO, said protesters had wanted to see and be seen from the Convention and Exhibition Centre, where trade ministers gathered even while they were sitting.

The demonstrations started with around one hundred Koreans jumping into the Victoria Harbour to try to swim to the Conference and Exhibition Centre where the talks were being held.

Police in boats prevented the Koreans from swimming to the Convention Centre, pulled them out of the water, provided them with emergency heat blankets, and brought them back to the central area.

The violence led to the closure of the MTR Wan Chai station and the diversion of traffic from the cross harbour tunnel away from Wanchai.

900 protesters, including 730 men and 180 women (the most important are the South Korean farmers and Long Hair), are still under detention on Gloucester Road.

Meanwhile, other protesters, including a number of Hong Kong citizens, stayed at the cargo handling basin of Wan Chai until the end of the conference.

(Throughout the trial, they could not afford accommodation in a hotel, and so were offered refuge in a church, the location of which remained obscure for privacy reasons.)

[citation needed] A prosecution witness said that Yun had "a protruding jaw, relatively thick eyebrows and small eyes".

[citation needed] The defence also noted that the witnesses had never mentioned Yun in the four statements they made, and questioned how they identified him 18 days after the alleged incident.

[citation needed] Elizabeth Tang, chairperson of HKPAWTO, welcomed the decision and criticized the police for abusing power and wasting money.

[34] Joseph Cardinal Zen, then bishop of Hong Kong, blasted the police for ignoring human rights and disregarding the activists' needs.