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Hong Kong: sit-in staged at school of teenager shot by 'trigger-happy' police Hong Kong: thousands protest over shooting of teenager by police
(about 11 hours later)
Hundreds of students, alumni and staff have held a sit-in denouncing police violence outside the school of a Hong Kong teenager who was shot in the chest by police on Tuesday. Driven by anger and grief, thousands of people came out across Hong Kong to denounce the shooting of a teenage student by police, an escalation of force that appears to have deepened the gulf between protesters and authorities.
Tsang Chi-kin, 18, was taken to hospital in a critical condition after the shooting , the first time live ammunition was used on protesters in the city, representing a major escalation of force by authorities. They marched through the city centre, organised sit-ins at schools and gathered at a courtroom where other protesters faced rioting charges.
Signs at Wednesday’s protest included one saying “Students without violence” and others accusing Hong Kong police of “pre-meditated murder”. Most of those gathered wore face masks to shield their identity because of concerns about official retaliation. Secondary schools in Hong Kong were also planning a mass class boycott in response to the shooting. Many who joined Wednesday’s demonstrations held their hands over their chests in tribute to 18-year-old Tsang Chi-kin, who was shot at point-blank range on Tuesday, with the bullet narrowly missing his heart. Tsang is in hospital in stable but critical condition after surgery to remove the bullet.
Other protesters gathered on Wednesday at a courtroom West Kowloon, where 96 people arrested at the weekend were expected to be charged with rioting. It will be the largest mass hearing in the city since the handover from British colonial rule, according to writer and activist Kong Tsung-gan. The shooting shocked much of the city; despite copious use of teargas, water cannon, beanbags and other less-lethal forms of violence over nearly four months of protests, officers had previously only fired their guns in warning.
A previous court hearing in July for 44 people arrested during protests that month sparked fresh stand-offs with police outside the courtroom. After more than 20 years of civil war, Mao Zedong leads the communists to victory over the nationalists, and proclaims the founding of the People's Republic of China on 1 October.
The lobby of the courtroom was crammed with relatives and supporters lining up for tickets, many also wearing face masks to shield their identity. The courtroom has only 100 spaces, far too few for the gathering crowds. China launches a five-year economic plan, the "Great Leap Forward",  collectivising farming and investing in heavy industry. The plan is abandoned after two years after poor harvests lead to starvation and millions of deaths.
A mother of one young detainee said she had only seen him at a distance in hospital since he was arrested, because he was receiving treatment for shoulder and arm injuries. She added that she believed all the defendants were facing the same charge of rioting. The 10-year "Cultural Revolution" causes economic and political upheaval, as Mao attempts to purge communist China of remaining capitalist and traditional elements of society, and enforce Maoism as the dominant and permanent ideology.
Chairman Mao dies.
China's "one-child policy" is introduced to curb population growth.
Troops fire on protesters in Tianaman Square who had been campaigning for greater freedom and democracy. The uprising is crushed.
The opening of the Shanghai and  Shenzhen stock exchanges symbolise the increasing economic liberalisation of China.
Control of Hong Kong is handed back to China from the UK. Two years later Portugal transfers the sovereignty of Macau back to the Chinese.
China joins the World Trade Organization.
Yang Liwei becomes the first Chinese astronaut. Within 10 years the country will successfully deploy a robot rover on the moon.
After years of tension, including riots over how Japanese schoolbooks are accused of portraying the events of the second world war, and tensions over territorial claims in the South China Sea, Wen Jiabao becomes the first Chinese prime minister to address Japan's parliament.
Beijing hosts the Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games.
China overtakes Germany as the world's biggest exporter of goods. The following year it becomes the world's second-largest economy, over-taking Japan.
The Chinese economic "miracle" falters, as growth falls to its lowest level for 25 years.
China becomes increasingly embroiled in a trade war with the US.
A series of major pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong challenge Chinese rule there. The country's human rights record also comes under scrutiny for its treatment of the Uighurs, with claims that more than 1 million of them have been detained in camps the Chinese have euphemistically called “vocational education centres”.
Tsang’s injury and the wider chaos of Tuesday’s protests, called to mark the 70th anniversary of communist rule in China as a “day of grief”, appeared to have further radicalised both demonstrators and their opponents.
The city’s largest police group called for a curfew, or for the government to bring in harsh colonial-era emergency powers, claiming its officers were working in “war-zone-like” conditions, the South China Morning Post reported.
Their demands were backed by pro-Beijing politicians, who defended the policeman who opened fire, the Hong Kong Free Press reported. “It was a reasonable and legal action in line with regulations,” said legislator Gary Chan. “The government should consider enacting an emergency law to stop the riots as soon as possible.”
A new Hong Kong extradition law is proposed, which would allow people to be transferred to mainland China for a variety of crimes. Residents fear it could lead to politically-motivated extraditions into China's much harsher judicial system.
Large public demonstrations start as thousands march in the streets to protest the extradition bill.
Hong Kong lawmakers scuffle in parliament during a row over the law.
Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam introduces concessions to the extradition bill, including limiting the scope of extraditable offences, but critics say they are not enough.
The scale of protests continues to increase as more than half a million take to the streets. Police use rubber bullets and tear gas against the biggest protests Hong Kong has seen for decades.
Lam says that the proposed extradition law has been postponed indefinitely.
The protests continue as demonstrators storm the Legislative Council, destroying pictures, daubing graffiti on the walls and flying the old flag of Hong Kong emblazoned with the British Union flag. The protests coincide with the 22nd anniversary of the handover of Hong Kong from the UK back to China.
Armed men in white t-shirts thought to be supporting the Chinese government attack passengers and passers-by in Yuen Long metro station, while nearby police take no action.
44 protestors are charged with rioting, which further antagonises the anti-extradition bill movement.
By now the protest movement has coalesced around five key demands: complete withdrawal of the proposed extradition bill, withdrawal of the use of the word 'riot' in relation to the protests, unconditional release of arrested protesters and charges against them dropped, an independent inquiry into police behaviour and the implementation of genuine universal suffrage.
The mass protests enter their fifteenth week, with police resorting to tear gas and water cannon against the demonstrators, and a wave of 'doxxing' using digital techniques to unmask police and protestors as a new front in the battle.
Police are reported to have shot a protestor with live ammunition for the first time, as demonstrations continue on the day marking the 70th anniversary of the declaration of the People's Republic of China.
Protesters in turn warned Hong Kong authorities that they would not back down. One declared: “This is war” at a press conference outside Tsang’s school in the working-class Tsuen Wan district that brought together activist groups, protesters and the injured student’s classmates.
“On a day of celebration in Beijing, the people of Hong Kong were weeping from the teargas and bleeding from the bullets fired,” said the protester, his face hidden behind a bandana and sunglasses. He asked to be described only as a “Hong Kong citizen”.
“The people of Hong Kong are sick and tired of having mere words of condemnation as their only shield against lethal bullets and rifles. Because by now it is beyond clear that this government does not even take its own people seriously.”
Others paid tribute to Tsang, who used the English name Tony, called for international support and promised to forge a stronger resistance movement.
The protests were sparked by anger at a now-withdrawn extradition bill, but have since expanded into a broader pro-democracy movement with five core demands including an inquiry into police violence.
“Tony has always been a role model to junior classmates. He is also one of the best people I know,” said a friend who gave his last name, Wong. “The anti-extradition movement gave him renewed purpose. Despite his tender age he never hesitated to stand up for the future of Hong Kong.”
Behind the speakers, school students in uniform gathered to chant protest slogans, including “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times”, and hold banners attacking police brutality. Earlier hundreds of students, alumni and staff gathered for a morning sit-in to support Tsang.
Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has said her government will formally withdraw the bill that ignited months of protests. Hong Kong residents had feared it could be used by China to extradite people for political reasons. They want guarantees that it cannot be reintroduced at a later date.
Protesters want the government to officially recognise that their movement has been a series of legitimate protests, rather than a riot, as has been stated in official communications.
Hundreds of people have been arrested in recent weeks, and the protesters are demanding that all of them be freed, and that no convictions should stand against any of them.
Police use of force has escalated since the demonstrations began, while protesters have also resorted to increasingly violent measures. Demonstrators say an inquiry into police brutality is the number-one priority.
Hong Kong's chief executive is currently selected by a 1,200-member committee, and nearly half of the 70 legislative council seats are filled by limited electorates representing different sectors of the economy. The protesters want to be able to vote for their leaders in free and open democratic elections. 
He has been arrested for assault, but the school principal said he would be welcome to return to classes once he is released from hospital, defying calls from some pro-Beijing figures for him to be punished for his role in protests.
Pictures from across Hong Kong showed students from other schools gathering in forecourts and on sports grounds, often with their hands over their hearts.
In the city centre protesters filed out of their offices around midday, and shut down a main road as they marched peacefully through the centre of the city, singing the anthem Glory to Hong Kong.
Some carried signs saying: “You can kill the dreamer but you can’t kill the dream”; others held up their hands with fingers spread wide, a reference to the “five demands” that have become the heart of the protest movement.
Hundreds more gathered at a court in West Kowloon, where 96 people arrested at the weekend were expected to be charged with rioting. It will be the largest mass hearing in the city since the handover from British colonial rule, according to the writer and activist Kong Tsung-gan.
The lobby was crammed with relatives and supporters lining up for tickets, but the court has only 100 spaces.
Hong Kong protesters rain on China’s anniversary paradeHong Kong protesters rain on China’s anniversary parade
On Wednesday the city was still reeling from the worst political violence it has seen since a controversial extradition bill first sparked protests in early June. A mother of one young detainee said she had only seen him at a distance in hospital since he was arrested on Sunday, because he was receiving treatment for shoulder and arm injuries.
Police had refused a permit to organisers of “day of grief” protests, called to mark the 70th anniversary of communist rule in China, but people defied the official ban to turn out in their thousands for gatherings across the city. The unrest that day proved only a warning of Tuesday’s chaos, the worst violence in the city since the protest movement began. Police had refused organisers a permit to march, but people defied the ruling to turn out in tens of thousands.
Marches that began peacefully had slipped by mid-afternoon into raging battles between protestors and police who deployed tear gas, water cannons and ultimately six rounds of live ammunition. Gatherings across the city began peacefully but by mid-afternoon into raging battles between protesters and police who fired teargas, water cannon and ultimately live ammunition. At least 104 people were injured, four of them seriously, and 269 people arrested, the youngest of them only 12.
At least 66 people were injured, four of them seriously, and over 180 people arrested, police said. The demonstrations also paralysed much of the city, forcing the shut down of nearly half its metro stations as authorities tried to prevent larger crowds reaching protest sites.
The chaotic scenes over-shadowed a carefully-choreographed military parade and evening gala meant to celebrate China’s rise to global super-power status, and showcase the rule of strongman president Xi Jinping.
The shooting of Tsang caused particular outrage in Hong Kong and around the world, with the UK calling the use of live ammunition “disproportionate” and Amnesty International calling for an urgent independent investigation.
Police said the officer feared for his life on a day that saw his colleagues fire five warning shots from their pistols throughout the city.
But protest groups hit back, saying the officer charged into the melee with his firearm drawn, and condemned the increasing use of live rounds.
“HK (has) fallen into a de facto police state,” prominent democracy activist Joshua Wong tweeted. “The paramilitary security forces completely took over this city.”
“The Hong Kong police have gone trigger-happy and nuts,” pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo said.
A friend and classmate among the crowds demonstrating at his school, who gave his first name Marco, said the 18-year-old victim was a keen basketballer who was infuriated by sliding freedoms in Hong Kong and the police response to the protests.
Students protest outside school of 18-year-old protester shot in chest by police in Hong Kong. https://t.co/LuMREgMvOG pic.twitter.com/qdoc4o37NsStudents protest outside school of 18-year-old protester shot in chest by police in Hong Kong. https://t.co/LuMREgMvOG pic.twitter.com/qdoc4o37Ns
“If he sees any problems or anything unjust, he would face it bravely, speak up against it, instead of bearing it silently,” Marco told AFP. The protests also paralysed much of the city, forcing nearly half its metro stations to close as authorities tried to prevent larger crowds reaching protest sites.
On Wednesday morning Tsang was in a critical but stable condition after surgery to remove the bullet, the South China Morning Post reported. The chaotic scenes overshadowed a carefully choreographed military parade and evening gala meant to celebrate China’s rise to global superpower status, and celebrate its strongman president, Xi Jinping.
Leaked scans showed it had “barely missed the heart” but Tsang now had relatively good hopes of recovery, medical sources told the paper. “Given his age and good general condition, there is a good chance that he will survive.”
Police have arrested Tsang for assaulting a police officer, and said the use of a fire arm was “lawful and reasonable”, with the officer who fired trying to protect another policeman who was being attacked by protestors.
Twenty four opposition lawmakers strongly condemned police for “unnecessarily escalating the use of force”, in a joint statement. “The policeman’s close-range shooting seems to be an attack rather than self-defence.” it said.
Video footage of the incident showed the officer run towards the group with his pistol drawn, even though he was also armed with pepper spray and a gun that fires non-lethal beanbag rounds.
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