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Hong Kong protests: pressure builds on Carrie Lam as public rejects apology Hong Kong: pressure builds on Carrie Lam as public rejects apology
(about 11 hours later)
Hong Kong’s political crisis has entered its second week, after protesters who had filled the city’s streets in record numbers on Sunday rejected an apology from leader Carrie Lam, and vowed to continue their fight against a controversial law she championed. Protesters have kept up pressure on Hong Kong’s leader by blocking streets outside the shuttered legislature building and welcoming the city’s most prominent political activist, Joshua Wong, on his release from jail.
After the sweeping protest – which organisers say attracted 2 million people, the largest in the semi-autonomous city’s history – Lam apologised in a statement for the way the government had handled the draft extradition law. As the political crisis entered its second week, Hong Kong’s police chief admitted that his officers had sought to arrest wounded demonstrators in hospitals after a previous protest, but claimed criminal screening was routine for anyone arriving at A&E.
But she did not meet any of demonstrators’ key demands. They are calling for her to withdraw the extradition bill, end a crackdown on activists and hold police accountable for brutal tactics at previous protests. They also want her to resign. He said 32 people had been arrested for their role in protests last week, and five charged with rioting offences, which carry heavy sentences.
On Monday Lu Kang, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry, said Beijing would continue to support her. The city was electrified by a record march on Sunday, the third major demonstration in a week. Organisers claimed that nearly 2 million people turned out to oppose an extradition law pushed by the territory’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, called for her resignation, condemned police brutality against protesters and demanded they drop any rioting charges.
For most of Monday morning a small group of protesters still blocked a key road outside government headquarters, but by midday they had retreated to a nearby park. Authorities said government offices would be closed for the day. The police commissioner, Stephen Lo Wai-Chung, refused to apologise for police use of teargas, rubber bullets and truncheons, saying their hand was forced when “a minority” turned to violence on Wednesday. He claimed police had been misunderstood.
“We’re not saying that the public gathering on that day was a riot,” Lo told a press conference. “Some protesters used violence, that’s why the situation was a riot. As for other peaceful protesters … they need not worry about the riot crime.”
Asked about reports that police used medical records to search hospitals for protesters, he said every hospital had a police post, and officers had followed routine procedures.
“Whenever there are people delivered to the emergency ward, there is a responsibility for police to check whether it is an accident, natural sickness, or [if they were] involved in certain crimes,” he said.
“The allegation that we are going to hospitals, chasing people to disturb their treatment, I disagree. It is only that our police stations discover [this], like normal crimes, like the triad wounding case or a murder case.”The response was unlikely to satisfy protesters who marched under slogans including “they are kids, not rioters” and have been emboldened by the government’s unexpected climbdown over the extradition bill.
The crowds on Monday were tiny by comparison to Sunday, but participants remained committed. “This is Hong Kong’s future at stake, it’s really important,” said one 29-year-old protester, who had skipped work to attend. He said his boss knew where he was, but asked not to be named because he feared arrest after roundups including hospital detentions.
'They're kids, not rioters': new generation of protesters bring Hong Kong to standstill'They're kids, not rioters': new generation of protesters bring Hong Kong to standstill
Strikes of students and workers also had been called by protest organisers for Monday, and although most of the city was working as usual, the opposition movement got fresh impetus with the release of prominent activist Joshua Wong, who had been jailed over his role leading pro-democracy movements in 2014. The timing of Wong’s release on Monday after serving half of a two-month sentence on a contempt charge was coincidental. He rose to prominence during the 2014 pro-democracy “umbrella movement”, and had been finishing a sentence for his role in those protests when Hong Kongers took to the streets again.
He called on Lam to resign, soon after he walked free. “She is no longer qualified to be Hong Kong’s leader,” Wong told reporters. “She must take the blame and resign, be held accountable and step down.” He wasted no time adding his name to the cause. When he arrived at the protest site in the early afternoon, he told reporters he was in the same clothes he wore when he was jailed, not even taking time to return home and wash or change.
The crisis was sparked by Lam’s efforts to ram a much-criticised extradition bill through parliament. It would allow both residents and visitors to be sent to China for trial in opaque, communist controlled courts, which many in Hong Kong fear would prove a devastating blow to their economy and society. “[The protests] showed the spirit and dignity of the Hong Kong people,” Wong said. He urged her to withdraw the controversial law and step down.
The city functions as a regional business and trade hub, protected from China by its judicial “firewall”. Without that protection everyone from dissidents to business tycoons could be at risk; some of the city’s wealthy have reportedly already started moving assets abroad over fears about the new law’s impact. Sunday was the largest demonstration in Hong Kong’s history and the potent display of public anger pushed Lam to apologise for her handling of the crisis in a statement, but she did not respond to demonstrators’ key demands.
Lam championed the bill and led efforts to rush it into law, but her authority has been badly damaged by the fallout. Many have sworn they will not rest until she goes. “I know this is going to be a serious fight, but I think it is somehow necessary,” said a 22-year-old student who gave his name as Draven.
“Her government cannot be an effective government, and will have much, much, much difficulties to carry on,” veteran Democratic Party legislator James To told government-funded broadcaster RTHK. “I believe the central people’s government [in China] will accept her resignation.” “We all know that just one protest is not going to have any long-term impact; we have to go further to let the government know what we need.” That includes bringing an end to Lam’s leadership, he said.
Hong Kong’s most dramatic political crisis in years was set in motion a week ago, when about a million people turned out to protest against the law. Lam shrugged off the first demonstration, even though it was one of the largest the city has ever seen.
But on Wednesday, demonstrations spiralled into the worst political violence since the handover from British to Chinese rule in 1997, with police firing teargas and rubber bullets and attacking protesters. Later, there were arrests of activists, including in hospital.
With Sunday’s march already scheduled, and public anger heightened by police brutality and the detentions, Lam was eventually pushed into a dramatic reversal, suspending the controversial bill, reportedly after meeting top Chinese officials.
But the climbdownonly inflamed public anger. Many Hong Kongers said they were infuriated by Lam’s air of confident determination as she insisted the law was fundamentally sound, defended police violence and insisted her only mistakes were in communication.
“Suspending the law but not cancelling it is like holding a knife over someone’s head and saying, ‘I’m not going to kill you now’, but you could do it any time,” said Betty, an 18-year-old protester who just finished school. “We’re fighting for our freedom.”
Police, who historically give far lower estimates for political protests, said 338,000 people turned out at the demonstration’s “peak” on Sunday.
Hong Kong is not China yet, but that feared day is coming ever nearer | Louisa LimHong Kong is not China yet, but that feared day is coming ever nearer | Louisa Lim
The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said Donald Trump would raise the issue of Hong Kong human rights at a potential meeting with president Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Japan this month. China, which handpicked Lam for the job, has stood by her publicly. The foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday she had the government’s support. But analysts and opposition politicians said her campaign to force through a much-criticised bill, and her repeated misreading of the public mood as Hong Kong’s people rose up against it, had fatally undermined her authority.
Chinese censors have been working hard to erase or block news of the latest series of protests – the largest since crowds demonstrated against the bloody suppression of pro-democracy activists in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in June 1989. “Her government cannot be an effective government, and will have much, much, much difficulties to carry on,” the Democratic party legislator James To told the government-funded broadcaster RTHK.
There has been little coverage of the demonstration in state owned media, with any reports focused on accusations of “foreign meddling”. The extradition law at the heart of the crisis would allow both residents and visitors to be sent to China for trial in opaque, communist-controlled courts, which many in Hong Kong fear would prove a devastating blow to their economy and society.
State-run tabloid Global Times tabloid in an editorial warned the United States against using Hong Kong as a “bargaining chip” in trade talks. “The riots in Hong Kong will only consolidate Beijing’s tough stance against Washington,” it said. The city functions as a regional business and trade hub, protected from China by its judicial “firewall”. Without that protection everyone from dissidents to business tycoons could be at risk; some of the city’s wealthy have reportedly already started moving assets abroad over fears about the new law’s impact.
Additional reporting by Verna Yu
Hong KongHong Kong
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