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Chinese Troops Clean Hong Kong Streets, Prompting Fears Hong Kong Protests: Police and Demonstrators Clash at Occupied Campus
(about 3 hours later)
HONG KONG — Hong Kong was bracing for further unrest on Sunday, a day after some Chinese troops left their barracks and staged a rare, tightly choreographed cleanup of streets that antigovernment protesters had filled with bricks during the week. HONG KONG — The Hong Kong police on Sunday clashed in broad daylight with antigovernment protesters who were continuing a siege-like occupation of a university campus and blocking a vital cross-harbor tunnel.
The brief photo op by China’s People’s Liberation Army — coupled with a continuing police operation on Sunday against students occupying a university campus — threatened to upend a fragile calm that had returned to the Chinese territory after a workweek marred by protests, transit disruptions and street violence. The escalating police operation began late on Saturday, hours after unarmed troops from China’s People’s Liberation Army left their barracks and staged a rare cleanup of streets that protesters had filled with bricks during the week.
The Chinese soldiers jogged out of their barracks on Saturday in Kowloon Tong, an upscale neighborhood, and cleared bricks from streets outside a university that had been swarmed by young demonstrators earlier in the week. The soldiers wore T-shirts and basketball jerseys, rather than military uniforms, and carried brooms instead of weapons. The campus standoff, coupled with the military’s tightly choreographed propaganda stunt, upended a fragile calm that had returned to the Chinese territory after a workweek marred by severe transit disruptions and street violence. Schools were canceled for Monday, and it was unclear whether the blocked tunnel would open ahead of the weekday commute.
The P.L.A.’s propaganda stunt appeared designed to tap into a desire among many Hong Kong residents for a semblance of order after a particularly intense week of unrest. But it threatened to inflame tensions in a semiautonomous Chinese territory where many are deeply sensitive about what they see as Beijing’s growing influence over their lives. The Hong Kong protests began in June over legislation, since scrapped, that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, and have expanded to include a broad range of demands for police accountability and greater democracy.
The stunt unfolded during a weekend when police officers were attempting to clear protesters who had occupied Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which is south of Kowloon Tong, and blockaded a nearby harbor tunnel. Demonstrations were also planned on Sunday in the city’s financial district. Here’s the latest.
The Hong Kong protests started in June over legislation, now withdrawn, that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, where the courts are controlled by the ruling Communist Party. They have since expanded to include a broad range of demands for police accountability and greater democracy. Police on Sunday fired gas and sprayed water cannons at young demonstrators who were continuing a multiday occupation of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and blockading an adjacent tunnel that connects Hong Kong Island with the Kowloon Peninsula.
The Hong Kong garrison of the People’s Liberation Army is based in 19 sites once occupied by the British military before the former colony returned to Chinese control in 1997. Estimates of the number of Chinese troops stationed in the city vary from about 6,000 to 10,000. The protesters, ensconced above the Kowloon streets in fort-like enclosures, threw gasoline bombs, some from improvised catapults. Others stood guard, armed with catapults and bows and arrows.
British soldiers were frequently on the streets of Hong Kong before the 1997 handover, but it is highly unusual for Chinese troops to leave their Hong Kong barracks. One exception came last year, when hundreds of uniformed soldiers helped with cleanup efforts after a typhoon battered the city. Early on Sunday afternoon, the police drove an armored vehicle through roads near the PolyU campus where the protesters had dumped bricks and other debris to impede police vehicles. The authorities warned the public to avoid the area, and the police said that one officer had been hit in the calf with an arrow.
The soldiers who cleaned up the streets on Saturday are based at a barracks near Hong Kong Baptist University, one of the campuses that young demonstrators, armed with homemade weapons, swarmed earlier in the week. The PolyU campus, which sits beside a Chinese military barracks, is one of several that young protesters had occupied days earlier, effectively turning them into citadels. Most of the other sieges gradually tapered off.
The H.K.B.U. protesters had spent days barricading roads, making gasoline bombs and engaging in standoffs with the police — steps from the garrison’s barbed wire fences. The university is one of several in Hong Kong that have canceled on-campus classes for the remainder of the fall semester. The Sunday clash comes on the heels of a particularly intense week of transit delays, street scuffles and flash mob-style demonstrations across the city. The unrest was prompted in part by the police shooting of a young demonstrator at point-blank range. (He survived.)
The cleanup on Saturday lasted less than an hour and seemed designed to play to a mainland China audience. The Global Times, a nationalist tabloid, said in an English-language tweet that the soldiers had “perfectly cleaned” up the streets and “cleared the mess left by rioters.” On Saturday, Chinese soldiers jogged out of their barracks near Hong Kong Baptist University and cleared bricks from streets that had been swarmed days earlier by young demonstrators.
The mini-constitution that has governed Hong Kong since 1997 says that P.L.A. forces “shall not interfere” in local affairs, and that the local government may ask for the army’s assistance for disaster relief and maintaining public order. The Hong Kong government said in a statement on Saturday that the soldiers’ cleanup in Kowloon Tong was a self-initiated “community activity.” The soldiers wore T-shirts and basketball jerseys, rather than military uniforms, and carried brooms instead of weapons. Their propaganda stunt threatened to inflame tensions in a semiautonomous Chinese territory where many are deeply sensitive about what they see as Beijing’s growing influence over their lives.
But the move prompted a torrent of criticism from Hong Kong residents. On Saturday, 24 lawmakers in the city’s pro-democracy legislative minority issued a joint statement saying that the government and the P.L.A. had ignored restrictions imposed on the troops by local laws. The Hong Kong garrison of the People’s Liberation Army is based in 19 sites once occupied by the British military before the former colony returned to Chinese control in 1997. But even though Chinese troops have been stationed in Hong Kong for years, it is highly unusual for them to venture out into the city.
“They want the Hong Kong people to get used to the P.L.A.’s public activities in Hong Kong and gradually rationalize the P.L.A.’s operations in Hong Kong,” the lawmakers wrote. Hong Kong’s mini-constitution says P.L.A. forces “shall not interfere” in local affairs, and that the local government may ask for the army’s assistance for disaster relief and maintaining public order. The Hong Kong government said in a statement on Saturday that the soldiers’ cleanup was a self-initiated “community activity.”
Ezra Cheung, Katherine Li and Keith Bradsher contributed reporting. The cleanup, which was lauded in China’s state-run media, prompted a torrent of criticism from local residents. On Saturday, 24 lawmakers from Hong Kong’s pro-democracy legislative minority issued a joint statement saying that the local government and the P.L.A. had ignored restrictions imposed on the troops by local laws.
Ezra Cheung and Keith Bradsher contributed reporting.