This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/01/world/asia/hong-kong-protest.html

The article has changed 12 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 8 Version 9
Hong Kong Protest: Tens of Thousands March on New Year’s Day Hong Kong Protesters Return to Streets as New Year Begins
(32 minutes later)
HONG KONG — Tens of thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets on Wednesday for the city’s largest antigovernment protest in weeks, hoping to inject new momentum into a monthslong movement that has seen violent clashes and many arrests. HONG KONG — Hong Kong protesters began the new year the way they’d spent much of the old one: in the streets.
Wednesday’s protest is only the second large-scale demonstration to be authorized by the police since voters in November overwhelmingly elected pro-democracy politicians to neighborhood offices. That vote, a stinging rebuke to Communist Party officials in China, ushered in the longest period of relative calm since the city was first convulsed by protests in June. Nearly a month of relative quiet abruptly ended on Wednesday with the sounds of protesters’ chants and police officers’ tear-gas rifles.
More than 6,000 people have been arrested since the demonstrations began over legislation, since scrapped, that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China. The protests have since expanded to include a broad range of demands for police accountability and greater democracy. A peaceful New Year’s Day march descended within a few hours into violent clashes. Riot officers deployed water cannons and pepper spray. Protesters built barricades out of umbrellas and paving stones, and vandalized at least two branches of a leading bank in the city, HSBC.
Here’s the latest. The trappings of the previous six months were there — the all-black dress code, the face masks and the odd Molotov cocktail. But the context of the march on Wednesday was decidedly different. When the protests began in June, the tone was one of righteous anger; now, it was more like doubt.
A New Year’s Day march is organized annually by Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp. In light of the crisis currently facing the city, and a population that is the most politically engaged in a generation, many expect this year’s event to be bigger than usual. “The government is not willing to back down at this moment,” said Grace Ng, 30, a public relations professional who has attended half a dozen marches since the protests began. “I want the government to compromise, but I think there isn’t enough international attention at the moment to make them bow down to the people.”
The march began just before 3 p.m. along a two-mile route approved by the police. The protest route passed some of the city’s most iconic landmarks and buildings, stretching from Victoria Park to the Central business district. As the movement enters the new year, its momentum is in question. It remains to be seen if the protesters have the stamina, public support or inclination to continue to battle the government, which has repeatedly said it will not concede to their demands for greater democracy.
“We must walk shoulder to shoulder and not forget our original intentions,” Jimmy Sham, leader of the Civil Human Rights Front, which organized the march, said at a rally. “We won’t forget all of those who have been suppressed, and we won’t give up on them. It is also unclear how long the city itself can endure a movement that has already resulted in 6,000 arrests and an economic recession.
The protesters, many of them wearing masks and clad in black, poured into the park and surrounding streets. Some said they were unsure how the movement would continue in the face of a government that was unwilling to compromise. “I believe a lot of us have no idea what to do next,” said Jessica Man, 19, a university student. “I don’t know what we could do to keep ourselves going.”
“Nobody knows what this movement will eventually achieve, but most people are just doing what they can. If nobody comes out, then it would be the end of Hong Kong and all the beautiful things we are familiar with,” said Grace Ng, 30, who works in public relations. At the heart of the protests is concern about the erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former colony that was promised a unique set of freedoms when Britain handed it back to China in 1997. Those fears have been compounded by economic issues, including soaring housing prices, income inequality and a dearth of high-paying jobs.
The themes of Wednesday’s march include opposing salary increases for police officers — many believe the police have responded brutally to the protests — and ending a perceived government crackdown on activists, especially educators. In November, Hong Kong expressed its support for the protests at the polls, overwhelmingly electing pro-democracy politicians to neighborhood offices. It was a stinging rebuke to Communist Party officials in China, and it ushered in the longest period of relative calm since the protests began.
“We appeal to the organizer and participants to remain calm and rational,” Kwok Ka-chuen, a police spokesman, said ahead of the march. “Let us kick-start 2020 with peace and get Hong Kong back on the right track.” Wednesday’s march was the second large-scale demonstration that the police had authorized since the election, and tens of thousands took to the streets, if not more. But hours after it began, the police rescinded their permission, citing an outbreak of violence and vandalism. Large numbers of people were still waiting to march at the event’s staging area when the police made the announcement.
The police are expected to deploy 6,000 officers to patrol the march, The South China Morning Post reported. The Civil Human Rights Front, which organized the march, called the police’s decision “absurd” and accused them of escalating tensions by firing tear gas at a crowd. It said in a statement that unless protesters’ demands were met, “Hong Kongers shall not back down, and peace shall not resume with ongoing police brutality.”
Protesters clashed with the police in Mong Kok, one of the city’s busiest neighborhoods, just as the clock was to strike midnight on New Year’s Eve. The police used water cannons and tear gas against a small group of demonstrators. By nightfall, familiar scenes were playing out on the streets, as protesters built barricades, lit fires and squared off against the riot police. Several dozen people were rounded up by the police in the Causeway Bay area; witnesses said some of them had been bystanders.  A pro-democracy lawmaker, Ted Hui, was pepper-sprayed directly in the face by a police officer, after the officer tore off Mr. Hui’s protective goggles.
On New Year’s Eve, Carrie Lam, the city’s embattled chief executive, addressed the territory and called for calm ahead of the protest. Ng Lok-Chun, a senior police superintendent, later said that about 400 people had been arrested, and that charges included taking part in an illegal assembly and possessing weapons. He said the police had revoked the march’s permission because some participants had “hijacked the procession” and “threw a petrol bomb at an officer.”
“Let’s start 2020 with a new resolution, to restore order and harmony in society. So we can begin again, together,” Mrs. Lam said in a three-minute video message that included other officials. “The police were reluctant to terminate the march,” he said.
The protests began in June over legislation, long since scrapped, that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, where the courts are opaque and subordinate to the Communist Party. The protesters have since expanded their demands to include a broad range of grievances, including greater democracy and an investigation of alleged police brutality.
The march on Wednesday stretched the movement’s scope further, calling on people to join labor unions with an eye toward future strikes, and to resist a feared crackdown on Hong Kong educators who have links to the movement.
Many marchers gave money at a booth set up by Spark Alliance, a fund that has raised millions of dollars to provide legal support and other kinds of aid to protesters. The donations were in defiance of a police operation last month, in which four people were arrested on suspicion of money laundering and $9 million of the fund’s assets were frozen.
On Wednesday, at least five people were detained for vandalizing a glass door and ATMs at a branch of HSBC, which had shut down Spark Alliance’s account. Banks and businesses that are perceived to have links to mainland China or the Hong Kong government have been targeted for vandalism or boycotts by some protesters.
One witness, Kan Cheng, said she saw as many as nine undercover police officers beating two young people near the bank’s broken door.
“I saw a protester being beaten and she hadn’t done anything at all,” said Ms. Cheng, 60. “She hadn’t vandalized at all.”
For the city’s leadership, the protests are the biggest political crisis since the handover from Britain. Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, has struggled to deal with the unrest while also satisfying her superiors in Beijing.
On New Year’s Eve, Mrs. Lam addressed the territory and called for calm ahead of the protest. “Let’s start 2020 with a new resolution, to restore order and harmony in society. So we can begin again, together,” she said in a video message.
“We must handle the problems at hand and acknowledge the shortcomings in our systems as well as the deep-rooted problems and conflicts that have been accumulating for many years in our society,” she said.“We must handle the problems at hand and acknowledge the shortcomings in our systems as well as the deep-rooted problems and conflicts that have been accumulating for many years in our society,” she said.
Newly formed labor unions, including those for workers in the hotel, construction and insurance industries, recruited new members at the march in hopes of preparing for future strikes. Mrs. Lam, who introduced and eventually withdrew the extradition bill that set off the protests, has promised to address social and economic issues that she says underlie the unrest. But the government said in a statement on Wednesday that “the top priority now is to stop violence and restore social order as soon as possible so that the daily lives of people and various business activities can return to the normal track.”
“Join a union and resist tyranny!” protesters chanted ahead of the march. It is a message that has been echoed in Beijing. China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, who has permitted a degree of public protest in Hong Kong that is unheard-of on the mainland, mentioned the protests in his New Year’s Day address, saying that “Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability is the wish of Hong Kong compatriots and the expectation for the people of the motherland.”
Activists have also rallied around an impending, potential clampdown on schools after Hong Kong’s secretary for education, Kevin Yeung, told the mainland Chinese news media last week that the government could fire school principals if they failed to cooperate with the authorities or supported teachers believed to have links to the protests. Reporting was contributed by Ezra Cheung, Katherine Li and Jamie Tarabay from Hong Kong, and Chris Buckley from Beijing.
“This is taking away the freedom of speech of teachers and it is an impediment on their freedom to teach as they see fit,” said Fung Wai-wah, president of the Hong Kong Professional Teachers’ Union, at his group’s station along the march. “We find this absolutely unacceptable.”
Mr. Yeung said the education department had received 123 complaints about teachers over the protests, some of them accused of “provocative behavior” or using “inappropriate teaching materials.”
The police in December said nearly 40 percent of those arrested in the protests were students, calling it a “worrying” trend.
On Wednesday, the marchers also gave donations at a booth set up by Spark Alliance, a fund that has raised millions of dollars to provide legal support and other kinds of aid to protesters, defying a police operation last month in which four people were arrested on suspicion of money laundering. The police operation froze $9 million in assets.
In the Wan Chai district, protesters vandalized a branch of HSBC, which has been targeted after the bank closed Spark Alliance’s account in November. Police officers made arrests and used pepper spray to disperse the crowd.
Ezra Cheung and Jamie Tarabay contributed reporting.