The Wall Street Journal - 26.11.2019

(Ann) #1

A6| Tuesday, November 26, 2019 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.


MEXICO

Economy Stagnated
In Third Quarter

Mexico’s economic activity
was flat in the third quarter fol-
lowing three quarters of negative
output, putting the economy on
track for its worst yearly perfor-
mance in a decade.
Gross domestic product, which
measures output of goods and
services, was unchanged from
the second quarter in seasonally
adjusted terms, the National Sta-
tistics Institute said Monday.
Revised numbers showed GDP
posting 0.1% contractions in each
of the previous three quarters,
meeting the conditions of a tech-
nical recession defined by many
economists as two consecutive
quarters of negative growth.
In the third quarter, industrial
production fell 0.1% from the sec-
ond quarter, while services rose
0.1% and agricultural production
increased 3.3%.
GDP was down 0.3% unad-
justed from the third quarter of
2018, and was unchanged in the
first nine months of the year, the
statistics institute reported.
The economy is widely ex-
pected to show little or no
growth in all of 2019, which will
make this its worst performance
since the recession of 2009.
The change of government in
Mexico, a global economic slow-
down and trade tensions with
the U.S. have contributed to the
lack of investment and economic
growth this year.
—Anthony Harrup

EUROPE

Rains Cause Deadly
Flooding, Destruction

At least nine people have
died after heavy rain slammed
the Riviera coasts of France and
Italy, trapping travelers in their
cars, and caused flooding in
parts of Greece.
Some roads remained closed
Monday on the French Riviera,
and rivers were still rising in It-
aly after the weekend flooding.
The administration for
France’s Var region said four
people died, including a couple in
their 70s from the perfume capi-
tal of Grasse whose car got sub-
merged. Another died after a
French rescue boat sank in the

Mediterranean and another was
found dead in a car.
In Greece, the bodies of the
two men believed to be tourists
were recovered late Sunday and
early Monday near the port of
Antirio, about 150 miles west of
Athens after a sailboat they
were using was caught in the
severe weather. Another two
women died when storms hit
the Aegean islands Monday,
state ERT TV said.
And in northern Italy, a
woman was found dead after
the Bormida River swept away
her car. Rescuers are also
searching for possible victims af-
ter a landslide caused the col-
lapse of an elevated highway
near the flooded city of Savona.
—Associated Press

CYPRUS

U.N. Chief Seeks to
Restart Peace Talks

The head of the United Na-
tions sought to inject momen-
tum into efforts to revitalize
moribund talks on reunifying
ethnically split Cyprus, saying he
will continue work on finalizing
terms for a new round of nego-
tiations.
U.N. Secretary-General
António Guterres said he is look-
ing to bring together Cyprus’ ri-
val leaders and officials from the
island’s three “guarantors”—Brit-
ain, Greece and Turkey—for an
informal meeting to reach con-
sensus on those terms.
—Associated Press

fering congratulations to the
new political representatives.
Supporters included Mi Fung, a
34-year-old educator who said
she stayed up until 4 a.m.
watching the election results
unfold.
“It was very encouraging to
win,” Ms. Fung said. “Maybe
the election will make Beijing
less inclined to take a hard-line
approach. But if Beijing really
cares about what we think, this
wouldn’t have happened.”
A record 2.9 million voters—
more than 70% of those eligi-
ble—turned out to vote on Sun-
day, with dozens of
establishment and pro-China
candidates getting swept out of
power. The city’s pro-democ-
racy camp won a large majority
of seats and now controls 17
out of 18 councils.
Although the councils are
low-level power centers con-
cerned with neighborhood is-

sues, the elections for them are
the only ones in Hong Kong to
offer universal suffrage. Activ-
ists said the huge electoral
swing will re-energize a protest

movement fighting for five de-
mands, including full universal
suffrage and an independent
inquiry into police conduct.
“The governments should

see this as a demonstration of
the maturity and responsible
way of how Hong Kong people
behave,” said Steve Tsang, di-
rector of the School of Oriental
and African Studies China In-
stitute at the University of Lon-
don. “This is a clarion call for a
political solution, and they
have nothing to fear from Hong
Kong’s democracy.”
He said Hong Kong’s leader,
Carrie Lam, should “seize this
opportunity” to work out a po-
litical solution, although he
feared both the Hong Kong and
Chinese governments would
view the results as a threat.
“Beijing is likely to redouble
the repression,” Mr. Tsang said.
Mrs. Lam said on Monday
that the elections were con-
ducted in a peaceful, safe and
orderly manner. The results re-
flect “people’s dissatisfaction
with the current situation and
the deep-seated problems in

WORLD NEWS


society,” she said, while adding
that the government “will lis-
ten to the opinions of members
of the public humbly and seri-
ously reflect.”
In some respects, the vote
might be worse for Beijing than
the recent violence that has en-
gulfed the city, including last
week’s scene at PolyU—where
police arrested, or identified
and released, over a thousand
people in the standoff, which
has stretched for more than a
week. That is because it could
put even more pressure on
Hong Kong’s leaders and China
to pursue peaceful solutions
rather than imposing their will
through violent confrontations.
In Beijing on Monday, For-
eign Ministry spokesman Geng
Shuang said stopping violence
and restoring order were of the
utmost importance after Hong
Kong’s elections. He said the
Chinese government was op-
posed to any foreign forces in-
terfering in Hong Kong politics,
a comment that came after
President Trump said last week
the Hong Kong protests were a
“complicating factor” in U.S.-
China trade talks.
“Hong Kong is China’s Hong
Kong, and Hong Kong affairs
are purely China’s internal af-
fairs,” he said. “The Chinese
government is determined to
uphold our security and sover-
eignty and development inter-
ests. We are also resolute in
upholding the one country, two
systems principle. We are de-
termined in opposing foreign
meddling in these affairs.”
For Tony, a 23-year-old ac-
tuary, the election outcome is a
way for Hong Kong people to
“achieve their goals and make
changes in society” politically.
He said he believes the results
rebut the misconceptions of
pro-government supporters
that pro-democratic supporters
only make up only a minority
of society.
“We can vote to change the
current political state,” he said.
“These elections prove we have
advantage in numbers.”

HONG KONG—A day after
residents voted in record num-
bers to back the city’s pro-de-
mocracy movement, newly
elected local leaders took to an
embattled university campus to
support protesters still trapped
inside, and stepped up calls for
a political solution to the
unrest.
In an immediate show of
their newfound clout, dozens of
elected district councilors—
who don’t assume office until
January—assembled near Hong
Kong Polytechnic University on
Monday to summon help for
the fewer than 100 demonstra-
tors still on the campus. Those
trapped inside the university
are the holdouts from last
week’s standoff, which led to
violent clashes between police
and protesters.
“We have but one goal to-
day: to rescue those brothers
and sisters,” said Ng Kin Wai, a
pro-democracy advocate who
won a seat as district councilor
in Yuen Long.
Sunday’s election outcome
raises the stakes for the Hong
Kong government to open dia-
logue with opposition groups
to reach a solution to the more
than five months of social un-
rest gripping the city. The vote
was also a rebuke to Beijing,
which has pushed the semiau-
tonomous city to take action
against the protests and now
must contend with an electoral
landslide against the city’s
political establishment. It un-
dercut the assertions of Beijing
and local leaders that
protesters don’t have vast pub-
lic support.
Hundreds of citizens gath-
ered on Monday near PolyU,
listening to speeches while of-


BYSTEVENRUSSOLILLO
ANDWENXINFAN


Councilors Challenge Hong Kong Leaders


New pro-democracy


officials press


government, Beijing


for political settlement


Gary Fan Kwok-wai, a newly elected councilor, right, walked through debris on Monday to try to meet with holdout protesters at the
Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. Below, other new pro-democracy council members gathered near the university.

FROM TOP: NG HAN GUAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS; KIN CHEUNG/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chinese Woman Cites Prejudice Against Province in Job Suit


The hopes of millions of
people are riding on an $8,
lawsuit in China.
Henan, a little-developed
province that would be the
16th-most-populous country if
it were a sovereign state, has
long suffered from a reputa-
tion as a blighted region with
a reputation for scandal. Its
residents often are treated
with suspicion and mistrust.
But when a company in the
wealthy eastern city of Hang-
zhou recently rejected the on-
line job application of one
young woman on the basis of
her Henan roots, she sued.
The woman, identified only
by her surname, Yan, applied
for two job openings at a hotel


in Hangzhou in July, only to be
disqualified the next day be-
cause she was from Henan,
said Wang Xushan, a lawyer
for the woman.
Ms. Yan’s lawsuit, which is
seeking about $8,500 in com-
pensation, was accepted in Au-
gust by a Hangzhou court spe-
cializing in online disputes
and is to be decided as soon as
Tuesday. The woman is also
asking the court to compel the
hotel to publish formal apolo-
gies in three state-run media
outlets, including the national
newspaper People’s Daily, for
15 consecutive days, Mr. Wang
said.
A woman who answered a
mobile-phone number listed as

the company’s legal represen-
tative declined to comment.
The case has brought atten-
tion to regional discrimina-
tion, a scourge in a nation of
roughly 1.4 billion people di-
vided by language and re-
gional mores despite decades
of internal migration.
Stories have circulated
widely in state media and on
social media of, for example,
Henan natives stealing man-
hole covers to resell for scrap.
Last year, a hiring manager at
Baidu Inc.’s iQiyi video-
streaming service instructed a
subordinate to filter out appli-
cants from Henan. It apolo-
gized after an online backlash.
IQiyi said it fired the employee

and said it has a channel for
complaints about discrimina-
tion in recruiting.
Victoria Wang, a 29-year-old
Henan native who works at a
Beijing law firm, said she rarely
suffers discrimination but sees
it more clearly in jobs with
lower barriers to entry.
When Ms. Wang was looking
for a babysitter recently, she
was surprised to hear the ad-
vice: Don’t hire people from
Henan. Ms. Wang said she has
hired hardworking, diligent
people from the province.
The case in Hangzhou is a
rare appeal to the legal system
to seek redress against regional
prejudices. Partly because there
is no formal antidiscrimination

legislation in China, it is diffi-
cult for citizens to sue on the
grounds of discrimination, said
Lu Jiefeng, an associate profes-
sor of law at the University of
International Business and Eco-
nomics in Beijing.
But Chinese citizens have
been speaking up in recent
years, filing workplace law-
suits alleging discrimination
on the basis of gender and
sexual orientation. The cases
often receive help from public-
interest lawyers and nonprofit
organizations, said Mr. Lu,
who said the plaintiffs aren’t
fighting for personal gain.
Mr. Wang, the lawyer in the
Hangzhou case, said when peo-
ple win such lawsuits, compen-

sation is typically small.
The Hangzhou lawsuit has
attracted attention, igniting
some heated discussions online.
“Bad-mannered, unrefined,
low, swindling,” one user com-
mented on Weibo, a Twitter-like
platform, referring to the suit.
Others are standing up for
the litigant. “Those who don’t
know about Henan have no
right to blacken our grand
Henan,” a user wrote.
Kevin Wu, who works at a
chemical company in Hangzhou,
laughs at himself to show how
absurd the discrimination is.
“I’m from Henan,” Mr. Wu
said. “We are all cheats.”
—Lekai Liu in Beijing
and Zhou Wei in Shanghai

WORLDWATCH


CONGO PROTEST: Residents of the eastern city of Beni stormed the United Nations peacekeeping
mission Monday, angered by the U.N.’s and the army’s failure to prevent a rebel attack Sunday
night that left eight people dead and nine kidnapped. The residents also set fire to Beni’s town hall.

USHINDI MWENDAPEKE ELIEZAIRE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

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