Hong Kong Leader Urges Peaceful End to University Standoff

The new phase of the protests has led to chaos throughout Asia’s financial hub, with schools closed, train lines disrupted and major roads blocked by barricades.


Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said Tuesday that an estimated 100 protesters remain trapped inside the city’s Polytechnic University in the third consecutive day of the siege with police.

Police have surrounded the university in the centrd of the bustling Kowloon peninsula and are arresting anyone who leaves.

Lam said 600 protesters had left the campus, including 200 who are under 18 years old, adding that those under 18 would not be immediately arrested but could face charges later. The other 400 who have left have already been arrested.

“We will use whatever means to continue to persuade and arrange for these remaining protesters to leave the campus as soon as possible so that this whole operation could end in a peaceful manner,” Lam said after a meeting with her advisers.

She warned campus protesters must surrender if there was to be a peaceful resolution.

“This objective could only be achieved with the full cooperation of the protesters, including of course the rioters that they have to stop violence, give up the weapons and come out peacefully and take the instructions from the police,” she told a press conference in her first comments on the standoff.

The new phase of the protests has led to chaos throughout Asia’s financial hub, with schools closed, train lines disrupted and major roads blocked by barricades. Social unrest has caused havoc across the city for more than five months.

Supplies running out

With the standoff approaching its third day, demonstrators said supplies, including food, were quickly running out at the campus.

Also read: Hong Kong Police Raid University After All-Night Siege

“There have been so many people who have sacrificed for this,” said one 21-year-old university student who had escaped from the campus on Tuesday.

Dozens of mask-wearing protests were seen escaping the university on Monday night by sliding down plastic hosing from a bridge and fleeing on waiting motorbikes as police fired.

Two officials were permitted to enter the campus late on Monday in an attempt to mediate but many protesters refused to leave voluntarily.

China sole authority 

According to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua, Beijing insisted on Tuesday that only China has the sole authority to rule on constitutional matters in Hong Kong. It condemned the Hong Kong High Court decision to veto the ban on face masks during public demonstrations.

“No other institution has the right to make judgments or decisions,” said Chinese parliament spokesperson Zang Tiewei.

The Hong Kong High Court had ruled Monday that the mask ban enacted over a month ago by Lam was unconstitutional.

The article was originally published on DWYou can read it here

Hong Kong Legislative Session Adjourned Amid Protests and Heckling

Carrie Lam, who is backed by China’s government, was forced to deliver by video after pro-democracy lawmakers heckled her in the legislature.

Hong Kong: Hong Kong‘s Legislative Council meeting was adjourned on Thursday as pro-democracy lawmakers repeatedly heckled the city’s embattled leader, Carrie Lam, with several escorted from the chamber for the second day in a row.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam arrives to answer questions from lawmakers regarding her policy address, as pro-democracy lawmakers hold up placards behind her, at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, China October 17, 2019. Photo: Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon

Lam, who is backed by China’s government, was due to speak a day after announcing measures to tackle the city’s chronic housing shortage in her annual policy address, which she was forced to deliver by video after pro-democracy lawmakers heckled her in the legislature.

Hong Kong Court Dismisses Bid to Suspend Mask Ban

While the complainants failed to have the mask ban suspended, they did win a judicial review, which will resume in late October.

Pro-democracy lawmakers in Hong Kong on Sunday failed to secure an immediate injunction against a recent face mask ban for protesters and an end to a government-declared emergency that bypassed the city’s legislature.

The legal challenge before Hong Kong’s High Court was the second attempt after an initial bid failed on Friday night just hours after Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced the ban.

Hong Kong lawmaker Dennis Kwok had earlier compared the government’s emergency powers to absolute monarchies, saying: “This is a Henry VIII situation. This is basically, I say what is law … and I say when that ceases to be law. That’s not how our constitution works.”

The mask ban will need to be approved by the territory’s legislative council, which resumes session on October 16.

While the complainants failed to have the mask ban suspended, they did win a judicial review, which will resume in late October.

Also read: More Powers to Be Granted to Hong Kong Police, Masks to Be Banned

Government: Emergency justified by ‘extreme violence’

Metro stations partially reopened in parts of the city on Sunday after a day of eerie quiet in public transport hubs and shopping malls. On Friday, Chief Executive Carrie Lam invoked colonial-era emergency powers last used in the city more than 50 years ago to try and bring an end to the months of protests against her administration and the government in Beijing.

Lam said the use of emergency powers was justified by the “extreme violence” of Friday’s protests, which came after the government implemented a ban on wearing masks to the demonstrations, one of the means participants have to protect themselves from identification and surveillance.

Many have since worn masks in defiance of the ban, and some vented their anger by setting fires, throwing Molotov cocktails and burning the Chinese flag. A 14-year-old boy was shot and wounded on Friday when a police officer who was surrounded by protesters and fired his service weapon. Earlier in the week, another teenager was shot and wounded by police as he attacked an officer as China celebrated 70 years of Communist Party rule.

The protests originally began in March in opposition to an extradition bill that has since been scrapped, but they have since come to encompass wider demands. Demonstrators are calling for the democracy promised to them when the territory was handed over to China from Britain in 1997, and fear living under authoritarianism present in mainland China.

This article was first published in DW.

Hong Kong Metro Stays Shut After Night Of Violent Protests

Friday’s protests across the Chinese-ruled city erupted hours after its embattled leader, Carrie Lam, invoked colonial-era emergency powers last used more than 50 years ago to ban face masks.

Hong Kong: Hong Kong’s metro system will stay shut, on Saturday, the rail operator said, paralysing transport in the Asian financial hub after a night of chaos in which police shot a teenage boy and pro-democracy protesters torched businesses and metro stations.

Friday’s protests across the Chinese-ruled city erupted hours after its embattled leader, Carrie Lam, invoked colonial-era emergency powers last used more than 50 years ago to ban face masks, which demonstrators use to conceal their identities.

Increasingly violent demonstrations that have roiled the city for four months began in opposition to a bill introduced in April that would have allowed extradition to mainland China but have since spiralled into a broader pro-democracy movement.

MTR Corp said that its network, which carries about 5 million passengers each day, would remain suspended, while shopping malls and supermarkets also closed, in a new blow for retailers and restaurants in a city on the edge of recession.

Water from a fire hydrant spill inside MTR station after leader Carrie Lam announced emergency laws that would include banning face masks at protests, in Wong Tai Sin district, in Hong Kong, October 4, 2019. Photo: Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha

“As we are no longer in a position to provide safe and reliable service to passengers in the circumstances, the corporation had no choice but to make the decision to suspend the service of its entire network,” it said in a statement.

Protesters had set fires at stations, as well as to an empty train, and injured two staff, added MTR, which is known for operating one of the world’s most efficient rail networks.

All stations closed late on Friday, stranding passengers and forcing many to walk home, a situation set to worsen as the city goes into a holiday weekend. Further demonstrations are planned across Hong Kong through Monday, which is a public holiday, but it was not immediately clear how the transport shutdown would affect them.

More than a dozen shopping malls, supermarkets, and branches of Bank of China (Hong Kong), Bank of East Asia, and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, which have been targeted by protesters, said that they would not open on Saturday.

Lam, Hong Kong’s Beijing-backed leader, said that the ban on face masks that took effect from Saturday was ordered under emergency laws allowing authorities to “make any regulations whatsoever” in what they deem to be the public interest.

But the move enraged protesters, who took to the streets to vent their anger, many wearing masks in defiance of the ban. There were no immediate reports of arrests over the masks.

Also read: Hong Kong to Ban Face Masks as Protesters Prepare For More Demonstrations

Demonstrators set fires, hurled petrol bombs at police and burned the Chinese national flag, in a direct challenge to authorities in Beijing.

Police said that an officer in Yuen Long, a district in the outlying New Territories that saw fierce clashes in July, had fired a shot in self-defence after a protester threw a petrol bomb at him, setting him on fire.

Media said that a 14-year-old boy had been shot and the city’s Hospital Authority said that his condition was now stable, but gave no details.

About 100 demonstrators besieged a branch of the Bank of China (Hong Kong) in the high-end shopping district of Causeway Bay, while across the harbour in the district of Kowloon, protesters smashed the glass store front of a China Life branch.

Police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse protesters in flash-point districts such as Causeway Bay, Sha Tin and Wong Tai Sin, underscoring the challenges authorities face as the protests show no sign of letting up.

Hospital authorities said that 31 people were hurt in Friday’s protests, two of them seriously.

(Reuters)

Hong Kong Police Expect ‘Violent Attack’ on Sensitive Chinese Anniversary

Thousands of people had gathered in central Hong Kong on Saturday to mark the five-year anniversary of the Umbrella Movement.

Hong Kong: Police expect more violence on Hong Kong‘s streets on Tuesday, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, after a chaotic weekend in which they fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters who set fires and threw petrol bombs.

There will be a “very serious violent attack” on Tuesday, a superintendent of the police‘s public relations branch, Tse Chun-chung, told a news conference on Monday.

Police said that they arrested a total of 157 people, including 67 students, over the weekend and estimated nearly 100 petrol bombs were thrown. They said eight police officers were injured.

The Chinese territory is on edge on the eve of the anniversary, with authorities eager to avoid scenes that could embarrass the central government in Beijing.

A huge clean-up was under way on Monday after roads, shops and buildings across the financial centre were daubed in graffiti, windows in government buildings smashed and parts of pavements uprooted by protesters during the weekend’s unrest.

Some underground stations were vandalised and streets strewn with debris from roadblocks and the charred remains of fires.

An anti-government protester tries to hit back a tear gas canister at riot police with his badminton racket, during a demonstration at Admiralty district in Hong Kong, China September 29, 2019. Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

Two prominent democracy activists, actor Gregory Wong and Ventus Lau, were arrested for their involvement in protests on Monday, according to a representative for the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), the organiser of previous mass protests.

Hong Kong police did not immediately confirm the arrests.

CHRF said, on Monday, that authorities had rejected a permit for a march planned for Tuesday from Victoria Park in the bustling tourist district of Causeway Bay to Chater Road, next to government headquarters, based on security concerns.

Protesters are expected to proceed with demonstrations across Hong Kong regardless.

The city’s leader, Carrie Lam, the focus of the unrest, made a last-minute decision to mark the People’s Republic anniversary in Beijing. The embattled leader had sent out invitations “requesting the pleasure of your company” at a flag-raising ceremony and reception in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Also read: Thousands Rally in Hong Kong to Commemorate Umbrella Movement Anniversary

Tight Security

Security was tight around the Convention Centre where the ceremony is due to take place, with roads closed and riot police on guard. A series of strikes are planned on Monday and multiple demonstrations are scheduled on Tuesday.

It was not clear whether Lam was summoned to Beijing due to the escalation in the violence on the weekend. The government said Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung would stand in for her at the anniversary ceremony.

The unrest over the weekend saw some of the worst and most widespread violence in more than three months of anti-government demonstrations in the Asian financial hub.

The weekend marked the fifth anniversary of the start of the “Umbrella” protests – a series of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014 that failed to wrestle concessions from Beijing.

An anti-government protester stands behind a burning barrier during a demonstration, in Hong Kong, China September 29, 2019. Photo: Reuters/Tyrone Siu/File Photo

The latest clashes began in mid-afternoon on Sunday and continued late into the night, as thousands of masked protesters roamed the streets, facing off against riot police amid plumes of tear gas and raging fires.

Protesters are angry about what they see as creeping interference by Beijing in their city’s affairs despite a promise of autonomy when British rule ended in 1997.

The trigger for the protests was planned legislation, now withdrawn, that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial, despite Hong Kong having its own much-respected independent judiciary. The protests have since broadened into calls for universal suffrage.

Police said an officer fired a warning shot after they were “surrounded and attacked by a large group of violent protesters” on Sunday.

By early morning on Monday all MTR metro stations on the city’s main island were open, but staff could be seen repairing damage and clearing debris from in and around the stations.

Workers at a Starbucks store targeted by protesters were shovelling broken glass into garbage bags and peeling anti-China posters off the walls. Starbucks stores in Hong Kong are run by the Maxim’s Group, which has drawn the ire of protesters after Annie Wu, the daughter of the founder, criticised the protests during an appearance at the United Nations earlier this month.

An Indonesian journalist was hit in the eye by a rubber bullet on Sunday and was hospitalised. The Indonesian Consulate confirmed that one of its citizens had been injured.

(Reuters)

Hong Kong Airport Halts Check-Ins as UN Urges Restraint Over Protests

Hong Kong legal experts say Beijing might be paving the way to use anti-terror laws to try to quell the demonstrations.

Hong Kong: Flights leaving Hong Kong were disrupted for a second day on Tuesday, plunging the former British colony deeper into turmoil as its stock market fell to a seven-month low, and its leader said it had been pushed into a state of “panic and chaos”.

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights also urged Hong Kong to exercise restraint and investigate evidence of its forces firing tear gas at protesters in ways banned under international law.

Ten weeks of increasingly violent clashes between police and protesters have roiled the Asian financial hub as thousands of residents chafe at a perceived erosion of freedoms and autonomy under Chinese rule.

China this week condemned some protesters for using dangerous tools to attack police, calling the clashes “sprouts of terrorism”. They present President Xi Jinping with one of his biggest challenges since he came to power in 2012.

Hong Kong legal experts say Beijing might be paving the way to use anti-terror laws to try to quell the demonstrations.

Check-in operations were suspended at 4:30 pm on Tuesday, a day after an unprecedented airport shutdown, as thousands of black-clad protesters jammed the terminal, chanting, singing and waving banners.

Also Read: UN Urges Hong Kong to Use Restraint, Investigate Excessive Force Against Protesters

“Take a minute to look at our city, our home,” chief executive Carrie Lam said, her voice cracking, at a news conference in the government headquarters complex, which is fortified behind 6-foot (1.8-m) high water-filled barricades.

“Can we bear to push it into the abyss and see it smashed to pieces?”

The protests began as opposition to a now-suspended Bill that would have allowed suspects’ extradition to mainland China, but have swelled into wider calls for democracy.

Some anti-extradition bill protesters rest on the floor a day after the airport was closed due to a protest, at Hong Kong International Airport, China August 13, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Issei Kato

At the airport, thousands of protesters gathered in the arrivals hall, as well as some parts of departures, using luggage trolleys to blockade the doors to customs checkpoints.

Floors and walls were covered with missives penned by activists and other artwork. The scene was peaceful as knots of protesters spoke to travellers, explaining their aims.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, we are fighting for the future of our home,” read one protest banner at the airport.

“I think paralysing the airport will be effective in forcing Carrie Lam to respond to us … it can further pressure Hong Kong’s economy,” said Dorothy Cheng, 17.

Demonstrators say they are fighting the erosion of the “one country, two systems” arrangement that enshrined some autonomy for Hong Kong since China took it back from Britain in 1997.

They want Lam to resign. She says she will stay.

“My responsibility goes beyond this particular range of protest,” she said, adding that violence had pushed the territory into a state of “panic and chaos”.

As she spoke, the benchmark Hang Seng index hit a seven-month low. It shed more than 2%, dragging down markets across Asia.

Lam did not respond to questions at a press briefing to clarify if she had the power to withdraw the extradition Bill and satisfy a key demand made by the protesters, or if she needed Beijing’s approval.

Airport disrupted

Airport authorities had earlier suspended check-in operations as the fifth day of a sit-in by protesters grew increasingly heated. Crowds continued to swell in the evening.

“Terminal operations at Hong Kong International Airport have been seriously disrupted as a result of the public assembly,” the airport authority said.

Also Read: Extradition Bill May Spell the End of Hong Kong’s ‘One Country, Two Systems’ Model

Some passengers challenged protesters over the delays as tempers began to fray, while the demonstrators, using a Chinese term of encouragement, chanted, “Hong Kong people – add oil!”

Flag carrier Cathay Pacific warned: “There is potential for further flight disruptions at short notice.”

The airline, whose British heritage makes it a symbol of Hong Kong’s colonial past, is also in a political bind.

China’s civil aviation regulator demanded that the airline suspend staff who joined or backed the protests from flights in its airspace, pushing the carrier’s shares past Monday’s 10-year low.

Other Chinese airlines have offered passengers wanting to avoid Hong Kong a free switch to nearby destinations, such as Guangzhou, Macau, Shenzhen or Zhuhai, with the disruption sending shares in Shenzhen Airport Co Ltd surging.

On Monday China said the protests had reached a critical juncture, after a weekend of street clashes in which both police and protesters appeared to toughen their resolve.

Police fired tear gas at the blackshirted crowds in districts on Hong Kong island, Kowloon and the New Territories.

Thousands Rally in Hong Kong Over Beijing’s Growing Influence

Beijing’s refusal to grant full democracy to Hong Kong triggered massive street protests in 2014 and deepened resentment toward China’s perceived growing encroachment on the territory, where its influence in nearly every facet of life has increased.

Hong Kong: Thousands of Hong Kong people braved sweltering heat on Sunday to protest against Beijing’s tightening grip over the city as the former British colony marked the 21st anniversary of its return to Chinese rule.

The protestors included elderly people in wheelchairs, couples with sleeping toddlers and young residents, some of whom waved banners saying: “End one party rule; Against the fall of Hong Kong.”

“Now the government is already siding with the Communist Party. Can Hong Kong see any universal suffrage in 20 or 30 year’s time? I don’t think so,” said 13-year-old Joanna Wen, who was accompanied by her father.

Hong Kong is a former British colony that was returned to China in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” formula guaranteeing it a high degree of autonomy and the promise of eventual universal suffrage.

Pro-Hong Kong independence supporters take part in a march in Hong Kong, China, July 1, 2018, the day marking the 21st anniversary of the city’s handover to Chinese sovereignty from British rule. Credit: Reuters/Bobby Yip

Beijing’s refusal to grant full democracy to Hong Kong triggered massive street protests in 2014 and deepened resentment toward China’s perceived growing encroachment on the territory, where its influence in nearly every facet of life has increased.

Hundreds of police were deployed on Sunday as some demonstrators marched with yellow umbrellas, a symbol of democratic activism in the city.

At a ceremony early on Sunday to mark the handover anniversary, chief executive Carrie Lam asserted that the “one, country, two systems” framework remains intact under her watch.

Lam took over as governor of Hong Kong a year ago, pledging at a ceremony attended by Chinese President Xi Jinping to be accountable to both Beijing and Hong Kong.

“Without fear, we correctly deal with our relationship with the central government. And we promote a stronger understanding of the constitution, the Basic Law, and national security in all sectors,” Lam said at a Sunday morning cocktail reception.

Also present at the ceremony were the three former chief executives – Tung Chee-wah, Donald Tsang and Leung Chun-ying, as well as mainland officials.

While Hong Kong activists push for greater democracy, the city is being pulled under mainland China’s control, and some Hong Kong residents say the old border that has defined the city’s autonomy is slowly withering away.

Lam faces a test later this year with the opening of two highly symbolic infrastructure projects – a bridge and high-speed rail line linking Hong Kong with mainland China.

The projects are part of a broader Beijing plan dubbed the Greater Bay Area, overseen by Xi, to integrate the city into the Pearl River Delta and improve the flow of people and money between Hong Kong and the mainland.

Veteran pro-democracy barrister Martin Lee said the opening of the bridge and rail line will kick-start Hong Kong‘s absorption into the Greater Bay Area.

“That seems to be the plan of Beijing, to have Hong Kong absorbed into this bay area… Hong Kong will no longer be Hong Kong,” Lee said.

Lam was chosen by a largely pro-Beijing committee of some 1,200 people in the city of 7.3 million.

Her approval ratings have dipped since then. A University of Hong Kong survey of 1,000 people put her approval rating at 54.3 %, down from 61.1 % a year ago.

(Reuters)