Image copyright Getty Images Image caption People in rural areas continue to prize boys over girls

Police in China have detained 75 people in connection with a widespread network that illegally determined the gender of unborn babies.

The illegal service - aimed at expectant parents wanting male children - smuggled fetal blood samples to Hong Kong for gender testing, officials say.

It operated across much of China and brought in $30m (£25m).

Despite decades of campaigning, Chinese families, particularly in rural areas, continue to prize boys above girls.

At least 300 people were involved in the illegal service, the authorities in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang said.

The size of the operation and the money involved reveal the desperation of the parents who wanted the service, BBC Asia Pacific regional editor Celia Hatton says.

China ended its one-child policy last year, which was seen as contributing to the gender imbalance in China.

But Chinese population officials this week warned that that imbalance, 113 boys for every 100 girls, would remain for years to come.</s>Hong Kong (CNN) China has reacted angrily to a British report voicing concerns over Beijing influence on Hong Kong's legal affairs, demanding that London stop meddling in China's internal issues.

The report "contains willful comments on Hong Kong affairs," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Thursday.

"We by no means accept the unwarranted accusations against China in some parts of the report."

"Lee's involuntary removal from Hong Kong to the mainland constituted a serious breach of the Sino-British Joint Declaration by undermining the 'one country, two systems' principle," Johnson said, referring to the system which grants Hong Kong limited autonomy and control of its own legal affairs.

The Chinese government is "confident and determined in carrying forward 'one country, two systems'," Geng said.

Britain should "stop meddling in Hong Kong affairs," Geng said, emphasizing that the city is a Chinese special administrative region.

Despite Beijing's complaints however, the UK does have a limited obligation to Hong Kong as a signatory to the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration , which transferred control of the city between the two countries.

Westminster issues regular twice yearly reports on the situation in Hong Kong, including democratic development in the city.

"A more democratic and accountable system of government ... (would) help strengthen those rights and freedoms, including academic freedom and freedom of expression, which have come under increasing pressure over the past two years," Johnson said.

This week, a new session of Hong Kong's legislative council was sworn in, amid gestures of defiance from a new crop of young lawmakers, several of which had their oaths of allegiance rejected after inserting curse words and displaying a flag with the slogan "Hong Kong is not China."</s>Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited and The Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited take no responsibility for the contents of this announcement, make no representation as to its accuracy or completeness and expressly disclaim any liability whatsoever for any loss howsoever arising from or in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this announcement.

ZHEJIANG EXPRESSWAY CO., LTD

(A joint stock limited company incorporated in the People's Republic of China with limited liability)

(Stock code: 0576)



CONNECTED TRANSACTION

IN RELATION TO

CAPITAL INCREASE IN ZHEJIANG COMMUNICATIONS

INVESTMENT GROUP FINANCE CO., LTD.

THE CAPITAL CONTRIBUTION AGREEMENT

On 14 October 2016, the Company entered into the Capital Contribution Agreement with Zhejiang Communications Finance and the Existing Shareholders, pursuant to which the Company agreed to contribute an amount of RMB350,000,000, by way of cash, into the equity capital of Zhejiang Communications Finance, an associate of the Company.

LISTING RULES IMPLICATIONS

As at the date of this announcement, Communications Group holds approximately 67% of the issued share capital of the Company. By virtue of this shareholding interest, Communications Group is a controlling shareholder of the Company. As at the date of this announcement, Communications Group also directly and indirectly, through Ningbo Expressway Co and Taizhou Expressway Co, holds 65% of the issued share capital of Zhejiang Communications Finance. Therefore, Zhejiang Communications Finance, being a subsidiary of Communications Group, is a connected person of the Company and as a result, the transaction under the Capital Contribution Agreement constitutes a connected transaction for the Company under Chapter 14A of the Listing Rules.

As the applicable percentage ratios in respect of the transactions contemplated under the Capital Contribution Agreement are more than 0.1% but less than 5%, the Capital Contribution Agreement is subject to the reporting, announcement and annual review requirements but exempt from the independent Shareholders' approval requirement under Chapter 14A of the Listing Rules.

THE CAPITAL CONTRIBUTION AGREEMENT

On 14 October 2016, the Company entered into the Capital Contribution Agreement with Zhejiang Communications Finance and the Existing Shareholders, pursuant to which the Company agreed to contribute an amount of RMB350,000,000, by way of cash, into the equity capital of Zhejiang Communications Finance, an associate of the Company.

The principal terms of the Capital Contribution Agreement are set out below:

Capital Contribution

Pursuant to the Capital Contribution Agreement, the Existing Shareholders and the Company agreed to contribute capital in cash to Zhejiang Communications Finance on a pro rata basis in proportion to their existing shareholding in Zhejiang Communications Finance in the aggregate amount of RMB1 billion, of which the Company agreed to contribute an amount of RMB350,000,000 based on its current shareholding in Zhejiang Communications Finance. The Company intends to satisfy the Capital Contribution by way of its internal resources.

Basis of determination of the Capital Contribution

The amount of capital contributions to be made by the Company and the Existing Shareholders in the aggregate sum of RMB1 billion was determined after arm's length negotiations amongst the parties with reference to the future capital need of Zhejiang Communications Finance.

Timing of the Capital Contribution

SubjecttotheCapitalContributionAgreementbecomingeffective,thecapital contribution by the Company is expected to be made on or before 20 October 2016.

Conditions precedent and effective date

Completion of the Capital Contribution Agreement is conditional upon the approval of CBRC having been obtained in connection with the Capital Contribution Agreement, and the Capital Contribution Agreement will become effective on the date on which it is approved by CBRC.

REASONS FOR AND BENEFITS OF THE CAPITAL CONTRIBUTION

The Directors expect that Zhejiang Communications Finance will play a larger role as a fund management platform for the Communications Group following the merger of the Communications Group and Zhejiang Railway Investment Group in August 2016. The operation scale of Zhejiang Communications Finance is, however, constrained by the size of its capital and the existing capital level of Zhejiang Communications Finance is no longer sufficient to support its expansion and satisfy the business needs of the Communications Group (including the Company).

As a non-bank financial institution, the operations of Zhejiang Communications Finance are subject to various capital requirements imposed by the People's Bank of China and CBRC. For instance, the amount of financial debts that Zhejiang Communications Finance may issue must not exceed its total capital, the amount of short term securities investments it may hold (including short term currency funds and fixed income products) must not exceed 40% of its total capital, the amount of long term investments it may hold must not exceed 30% of its total capital, and the amount of guarantee it may provide to Communications Group and its subsidiaries must not exceed its total capital. The Capital Contribution is therefore necessary for the progressive development of Zhejiang Communications Finance. The Capital Contribution would also enable Zhejiang Communications Finance to cope with the enhanced regulatory requirements on capital sufficiency and capital management by non-bank financial institutions imposed by regulators such as the People's Bank of China and the CBRC.

It is important for Zhejiang Communications Finance to continue expanding its business scope in order to serve the subsidiaries of the Communications Group (including the Company), and the level of capital is an important criteria to be considered by the regulators when applying for the operation of new businesses. The Capital Contribution will enable Zhejiang Communications Finance to expandits businessscope,operate new business and maintain its status in the industry.

ZhejiangCommunicationsFinancehasshownastrong growth inincomeand profitability since its establishment in December 2012, with an average return on net assets at approximately 14% in the past three years. The Directors consider that the Capital Contribution will provide a satisfactory return to the Company.

Given the above, the Directors (including the independent non-executive Directors) are of the view that the terms of the Capital Contribution Agreement are on normal commercial terms, in the ordinary and usual course of business of the Company and are fair and reasonable and in the interests of the Company and theShareholders asa whole.

INFORMATION ON ZHEJIANG COMMUNICATIONS FINANCE

Zhejiang Communications Finance is a limited liability company incorporated in the PRC on 9 November 2012 and approved by CBRC as a non-banking financial institution on 17 October 2012 with a registered capital of RMB1 billion as at the date of this announcement. As at the date of this announcement, Zhejiang Communications Finance is owned as to 40%, 35%, 15.625% and 9.375% by Communications Group, the Company, Ningbo Expressway Co and Taizhou Expressway Co, respectively, and Zhejiang Communications Finance is an associate of the Company.

Zhejiang Communications Finance is principally engaged in the business of providing financial services to the subsidiaries of Communications Group, including but not limited to advising the subsidiaries of Communications Group in relation to financing, letters of credit and other agency services; authorised insurance agency businesses; providing guarantees, accepting and discounting commercial notes, arranging for loans and financial leases, and receiving deposits of the subsidiaries of Communications Group.

According to the audited financial statements of Zhejiang Communications Finance, the total assets of Zhejiang Communications Finance as at 31 December 2015 were approximately RMB6,270,342,000. Zhejiang Communications Finance recorded an operating revenue of approximately RMB270,333,000 and a profit before tax of approximately RMB186,144,000 for the year ended 31 December 2015.

Uponcompletionof theCapitalContribution, theregistered capitalofZhejiang Communications Finance will be increased from RMB1 billion to RMB2 billion, and the shareholding percentage of the Company and the Existing Shareholders in Zhejiang Communications Finance will remain unchanged.

LISTING RULES IMPLICATIONS

As at the date of this announcement, Communications Group holds approximately 67% of the issued share capital of the Company. By virtue of this shareholding interest, Communications Group is a controlling shareholder of the Company. As at the date of this announcement, Communications Group also directly and indirectly, through Ningbo Expressway Co and Taizhou Expressway Co, holds 65% of the issued share capital of Zhejiang Communications Finance. Therefore, Zhejiang Communications Finance, being a subsidiary of Communications Group, is a connected person of the Company and as a result, the transaction under the Capital Contribution Agreement constitutes a connected transaction for the Company under Chapter 14A of the Listing Rules.

As the applicable percentage ratios in respect of the transactions contemplated under the Capital Contribution Agreement are more than 0.1% but less than 5%, the Capital Contribution Agreement is subject to the reporting, announcement and annual review requirements but exempt from the independent Shareholders' approval requirement under Chapter 14A of the Listing Rules.

EachofMr.ZhanXiaozhang,Mr. WangDongjie,Mr.Dai BenmengandMr.Zhou Jianping holds certain senior position in Communications Group, so they have abstained from voting on the board resolution with respect to the approval of the Capital Contribution Agreement. Save for Mr. Zhan Xiaozhang, Mr. Wang Dongjie, Mr. Dai Benmeng and Mr. Zhou Jianping, none of the Directors has any material interest in the Capital Contribution Agreement or is required to abstain from voting on the relevant Board resolutions to approve the same.

INFORMATION ON THE PARTIES

The Company is a joint stock company established under the laws of the PRC with limited liability on 1 March 1997, the H Shares of which are listed on the Main Board of the Stock Exchange. It is principally engaged in investing in, developing and operating high-grade roads in the PRC. The Group also carries on certain other businesses such as operation of gas stations, restaurants and shops in service areas, advertising at expressway interchanges and external road maintenance, as well as securities related business.

Communications Group is a wholly state-owned enterprise established in the PRC on 29 December 2001 and is principally engaged in a diverse range of businesses, including investment, operations, maintenance, toll collection and ancillary services of expressways, construction and building of transportation project, ocean and coastal transport, as well as real estate.

Ningbo Expressway Co. is a limited liability company incorporated in the PRC and a 75% owned subsidiary of Communications Group and is principally engaged in the operation and management of the Ningbo section of the Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou expressway.

Taizhou Expressway Co. is a limited liability company incorporated in the PRC and a 75% owned subsidiary of Communications Group and is principally engaged in the operation and management of the Taizhou section of the Ningbo-Taizhou-Wenzhou expressway.

As of the date of this announcement, the executive directors of the Company are: Mr. ZHAN Xiaozhang, Mr. CHENG Tao and Ms. LUO Jianhu; the non-executive directors of the Company are: Mr. WANG Dongjie, Mr. DAI Benmeng and Mr. ZHOU Jianping; and the independent non-executive directors of the Company are: Mr. ZHOU Jun, Mr. PEI Ker-Wei and Ms. LEE Wai Tsang Rosa.</s>The anti-graft watchdog of China’s ruling Communist Party has criticized the Beijing government department in charge of Hong Kong affairs for weak leadership and not properly following policy following a routine inspection.

The party’s graft-busting Central Commission for Discipline Inspection said late on Friday its most recent inspection of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office had found a series of problems.

“The party’s leadership is not strong or powerful enough, and the enforcement of the relevant policies of the center is not firm enough,” the watchdog commission said in a statement.

The way people are promoted is not conducted in a serious manner, personnel changes are not carried out in a timely way, and party discipline rules not taken seriously enough, it said.

The anti-graft commission’s report comes amid mounting concerns among pro-democratic politicians, activists and foreign diplomats that the Central Government’s Liaison Office, Beijing’s official representative body in the territory, was actively interfering in Hong Kong politics and affairs.

The watchdog’s inspection also found “clues” about problems with some senior officials that have been reported up and will be handled, it said, without naming anyone or giving details.

The statement quoted the head of the Hong Kong affairs office, Wang Guangya, as saying he “sincerely accepted” the report and that his agency would “sternly and conscientiously carry out rectification”.

China on Friday had also expressed “great indignation and strong condemnation” of two Hong Kong lawmakers who raised the disputed issue of independence at their official mid-week swearing-in ceremony.

The former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under the so-called “one country, two systems” formula, granting Hong Kong a high degree of freedom and autonomy.

A 79-day “umbrella revolution” in late 2014 demanding Beijing allow full democracy in Hong Kong brought chaos to the streets, and anti-mainland Chinese sentiment has simmered since.

Some fear Beijing’s growing role in the city undermines the “one country, two systems” principle.

Critics of unpopular Hong Kong leader, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, accuse him to being too close to the head of the Liaison Office, Zhang Xiaoming.</s>They swore while taking oaths of office, used an old slur for China, pledged allegiance to a “Hong Kong nation,” and tore up ballots in a vote for president of the city’s Legislative Council.

Two years ago, the Umbrella Movement brought downtown Hong Kong to a standstill with a 79-day protest. Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets, but failed to achieve any political change.

Now, the movement has arrived in the Legislative Council as a new, if small, political force that promises similar tactics to upset the city’s democratic civility. This week, six new young “localist” candidates incited legislative havoc as they mixed oaths with loud protest against China.

What happened this week “may give us a taste of what will happen in the following four years,” said Eddie Chu, dubbed “king of votes” by local media for winning more ballots than any other openly elected legislator. Hong Kong newspapers have warned of looming “war” in the city’s legislature that will create “unprecedented paralysis.”

The new era of emboldened political dissent is not confined to Hong Kong. In Taiwan, President Tsai Ing-wen this week called on Beijing “to face up to the reality that the Republic of China exists.” It was a provocative challenge to the so-called 1992 consensus that there is only one China.

The new willingness to bluntly question Beijing’s pre-eminence presents one of the most serious affronts to Chinese dominance in recent history, a blowback that has expanded amid efforts by President Xi Jinping to exert a stronger grasp over the territories China considers its own.

“The people who live in Hong Kong and Taiwan enjoy the freedom they have had, and they don’t want to lose it. And Beijing is a very clear and imminent threat to that freedom,” said Wu’er Kaixi, a student leader during 1989 Tiananmen protests in China who now lives in Taiwan, where he has run for office.

China has responded with anger and confusion. “The mainland and Taiwan belong to one and the same China whose sovereignty and territorial integrity brook no division,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said this week.

Hong Kong “is a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China,” he added. “This is crystal clear, without any doubt and subject to no change.”

Even advocates for the city’s autonomy would, for now, agree that change is not imminent.

They recognize that their numbers are too small to achieve much in policy, much less attempt to change the Basic Law, the constitution set in place by China. Instead, they intend to wield and gain influence by obstruction.

“The best we can do is to put things on hold,” said Mr. Chu, who wants to “be more pro-active in every battle of the policy struggle.” Success could be defined, he suggests, by halting approval of the city’s budget.

A journalist and an activist, Mr. Chu is personally emblematic of the disruption his election poses to the system. For a month, he and his family have lived under 24-hour police protection after he received death threats and reported cars tailing him.

“That’s saying something about the current situation in Hong Kong,” he said, faulting powerful business interests allied with Beijing.

The election of Mr. Chu and the others constitutes a “transitional period” for Hong Kong, said Chan Kin-man, an associate professor of sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

When China said in 2014 that it would continue to preselect who would be on the ballot for Hong Kong’s chief executive, the country’s top political position, it did not just spark the Umbrella street protests, Prof. Chan said.

When they failed, he himself began to feel that “if the government doesn’t fulfill its responsibility of giving people democracy, then people have no obligation to be loyal to the country.”

It has bred “new tactics of resistance,” he said. “These New Turks believe there is no use in being so gentleman-like and statesman-like. They only take as a platform to sow their resistance to Beijing.”

It’s an idea that resonates with the young people who sat for days on Hong Kong streets in 2014, surrounded by umbrellas.

“The new legislators can make it harder for the government and pro-establishment to quietly do whatever they want,” said Joey Chan, who was a law student during the protests. Devoted to the cause, young and passionate, they “can make big changes,” he said.

That is not to say their strategy is without risk. Filibuster the budget and they can raise their credibility in some quarters. They may also provoke wrath.

“The public will become very angry if some of these very basic things are not done,” said Albert Ho, a former legislator with the city’s Democratic Party.

He said it was “quite unfortunate” that the city’s young new legislators had resorted to swearing and theatrics “to express their strong dissatisfaction with the system.”

A feeling that the time has come to fight back “is the political and social reality we have to face,” Mr. Ho said.

Chinese observers see things very differently. The Communist Party-run tabloid Global Times said in an editorial this week that it hoped the ripples in Hong Kong would calm before they “become a damaging force worthy of creating worry for the country.”

The one-country two-systems formulation that governed the handover of Hong Kong to China remains in place, the paper noted. Plus, pro-Beijing forces inside the city’s legislature – only part of which is voted in by the general public – remain in the majority.

“The power of the country is very strong, and the positive power of Hong Kong society is also still very strong,” the paper wrote.

It added: “No matter how eye-catching the turmoil, it cannot prevail over the restrictions under a formula well-proven by history.”

Those who want more freedom from China must confront numerous challenges.

Many in Hong Kong have strong personal connections to China, and a heavy economic dependence on the mainland.

The new young legislators have important policy differences among themselves, too, and even greater disagreement with other, older, pro-democracy legislators. To be effective, they need to find ways to work together, which may not be easy as they clash over ideology and tactics, in hopes of growing their numbers in 2020, in the next set of elections.

“It is a very critical four years for us,” Mr. Chu acknowledged. “If we one day can get the majority, that will be the time when Beijing will finally sit down with the democracy camp and talk about their system design.”
Police in China detain 75 people in connection with a service that determined the female gender of unborn babies for the purpose of abortion. Authorities say that at least 300 people were involved in the illegal service in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. Expectant parents wanting male children smuggled fetal blood samples to Hong Kong for gender testing. China ended its one-child policy last year.