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Police Unleash Tear Gas in Hong Kong Protests Crackdown on Protests by Hong Kong Police Draws More to the Streets
(about 7 hours later)
HONG KONG — In a significant escalation of their efforts to suppress protests calling for democracy, the authorities in Hong Kong unleashed tear gas and mobilized riot police with long-barreled guns Sunday to disperse crowds that have besieged the city government for three days. But thousands of residents wielding only umbrellas and face masks defied police orders to clear the area. HONG KONG — Downtown Hong Kong turned into a battlefield of tear gas and seething crowds on Sunday after the police moved against a student democracy protest, inciting public fury that brought tens of thousands of people onto the streets of a city long known as a stable financial center.
Hours after the police sought to break up the protest, large crowds of demonstrators remained nearby, sometimes confronting lines of officers and chanting for them to lay down their truncheons and shields. Police officers were also injured in skirmishes with protesters. Streets of a city known as a safe enclave for commerce became a nighttime battleground. Hours after the riot police late Sunday sought to break up the protest, large crowds of demonstrators remained nearby, sometimes confronting lines of officers and chanting for them to lay down their truncheons and shields. Police officers were also injured in skirmishes with protesters. The heavy-handed police measures, including the city’s first use of tear gas in years and the presence of officers armed with long-barreled guns, appeared to galvanize the public, drawing more people onto the streets. On Monday morning, protesters controlled major thoroughfares in at least three different parts of the city. A few unions and the Hong Kong Federation of Students called for strikes, and the federation also urged a boycott of classes.
Steve Lee, 23, a recent university graduate who joined the protest, sobbed on the sidewalk after exposure to tear gas. “I don’t understand how the government can, in less than 30 seconds after a warning, use tear gas against peaceful student protesters,” he said. The confrontation threatened to tarnish Hong Kong’s reputation as a safe enclave for commerce, and immediately raised the political cost of Beijing’s unyielding position on electoral change here; footage and photos of unarmed students standing in clouds of tear gas facing off with riot police officers flashed around the world on Sunday. It also set the stage for a prolonged struggle that poses a test for President Xi Jinping of China, who has championed a harsh line against political threats to Communist Party rule.
“If this one gets out of control, Xi will also lose face,” Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a commentator on Chinese politics who teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in an interview. “Everyone knows he’s the one running the show.”
Thousands of pro-democracy protesters had been gathering in front of the Hong Kong government headquarters since Friday, despite official warnings to leave. But on Sunday afternoon, the police moved in, lobbing tear gas canisters into the crowd and stopping supporters of the protest from entering the area.
Thousands of people who had been prevented from entering the protest area then spilled onto the nearby streets, and protests and confrontations with the police multiplied across the city, as news and images of the crackdown spread. The police repeatedly hurled tear gas at the roaming crowds, further infuriating the protesters.
“We’ve never seen anything like this, never imagined it,” said Kevin Chan, a 48-year-old factory manager who joined many thousands of people gathered at night on the road near the government offices.
“The government must awaken that this is the Hong Kong people,” he said, gesturing to the crowd, mostly made up of people in their 20s. “These are not their enemies, these are the people.”
The escalation of the protests, and the unusually strong response by the police, pointed to the possibility of a long confrontation in Hong Kong between a city government pressured by the Chinese Communist Party’s demands for top-down control, and residents’ demands for a city leadership chosen by democratic means.
The protest at the government offices was started by students demanding such electoral changes. Beijing last month proposed that the public would be able to vote for the city’s chief executive, beginning in 2017. But a committee dominated by people loyal to the Chinese government would be able to screen out candidates who do not have Beijing’s backing.
“What is going on now, in addition to any immediate public order issues, is a battle for the hearts and minds of the Hong Kong public,” said Michael C. Davis, a professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, who has closely followed the debate over election reform. “Beijing may be indifferent to protest or at least not inclined to give in. The Hong Kong government needs public support.”
The police issued a warning Sunday evening saying that a lockdown had been imposed on several downtown areas, including the vicinity of the central government’s offices, and declared any assembly near the offices unlawful. Officials had earlier in the weekend reported 78 arrests.
But late into the night and Monday morning, many thousands of residents remained on the streets, denouncing the police crackdown and staging sit-ins in several neighborhoods outside the original protest area. In the neon-lit shopping districts of Causeway Bay and Mong Kok, which were packed with shoppers, hundreds of protesters blocked traffic. In the night life district of Wan Chai, bars stayed open, despite the throng of protesters gathered nearby.
At Admiralty, an area dominated by sleek malls, office towers and hotels, the main avenues were dense with thousands of chanting protesters, many wearing homemade masks and wet towels in case of tear gas. The police also used tear gas in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial district, known as Central, where a much smaller crowd had gathered under the HSBC Building, a feature of the city’s skyline.
Ricky Lau, 26, a business student at Chinese University of Hong Kong who was there, said the police shot tear gas without warning.
“Tear gas may have the immediate effect of dispersing the peaceful demonstrators, but if you make people cry, and the tears are from their heart, how can you govern?” Alan Leong, the leader of the Civic Party and a member of the city legislative council, said in an interview on the sideline of the protest. He recalled that in 2005, Hong Kong police used tear gas against protesters during the World Trade Organization meeting; and in 1967, when leftists loyal to Mao Zedong rioted across the city.
On Monday morning, protesters in thinning numbers continued to occupy roads and intersections, including at Admiralty, where the police urged the crowds to leave the roads, which are usually busy with commuters heading to work. Wednesday will be a public holiday in Hong Kong, which could encourage more people to again take to the streets in protest.
Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997, when China resumed sovereignty. Since then, it has operated under a policy of “one country, two systems,” which keeps its independent judiciary and many freedoms, including a robust tradition of free speech. But many democratic groups say China has chipped away at those freedoms, and that the election law proposals were the latest, most infuriating example.
The Chinese government endorsed the tough approach to the protests. The Hong Kong government blamed the unrest on Occupy Central with Love and Peace, a group that has spearheaded demands for greater democracy.
Occupy Central had planned to begin protests in the financial district on Wednesday. But the group changed course early on Sunday, declaring that the “occupation” in front of the city government would be the base of protests.
Steve Lee, 23, a recent university graduate who joined the protest, sobbed on the sidewalk after being exposed to tear gas. “I don’t understand how the government can, in less than 30 seconds after a warning, use tear gas against peaceful student protesters,” he said.
“Hong Kong has gone crazy,” he added. “It is no longer the Hong Kong I know, or the world knows.”“Hong Kong has gone crazy,” he added. “It is no longer the Hong Kong I know, or the world knows.”
Some protest leaders called on students to retreat, citing fears that the police would use rubber bullets on the crowd. The Hong Kong government said the police warned residents to “leave peacefully and in an orderly manner, otherwise officers would use a higher level of force.”
The police issued a statement Sunday evening saying that a “lockdown” had been imposed on several downtown areas, including the vicinity of the central government’s offices, and declared any assembly near the offices “unlawful.” Officials reported 78 arrests.
But late into the night, many thousands of residents remained on the streets, denouncing the police crackdown and staging sit-ins in several neighborhoods outside the original protest area. The crowd was especially dense around the Admiralty neighborhood near government headquarters, where the mayhem first broke out earlier in the day and the police ordered a subway stop closed.
Many protesters said they were incensed by how the police had abruptly broken up the sit-in outside the headquarters.
“We’ve never seen anything like this, never imagined it,” said Kevin Chan, 48, a factory manager. “The government must awaken that this is the Hong Kong people here,” he said, gesturing to the crowd, mostly made up of people in their 20s. “These are not their enemies, these are the people.”
Many of the younger protesters wore surgical masks, goggles and clear plastic wrap over their eyes. “This was the first time so many people joined civil disobedience, and the first time there was so much violence against the protesters,” said Chu Ka-wo, a salesman in his 30s. “Now the people will look at the police very, very differently than before.”
The police also fired tear gas in the city’s financial district, known as Central, where a smaller crowd had gathered under the HSBC Building, a landmark of the city’s skyline. The gas caused passers-by near the posh Mandarin Oriental hotel to flee into a subway entrance, which was subsequently closed.
Ricky Lau, 26, a business student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said the police appeared worried that the protesters would seize control of the financial district. “They shot into the air, right into the crowd, without warning,” he said. “They were just trying to stop anyone from coming into Central.”
By using heavier-handed tactics than they had, the local authorities risked provoking residents of a city that had seemed divided on the wisdom of mass protests against new election rules that would allow Beijing to screen candidates for the city’s top post. But the Chinese government endorsed the tough approach and publicly denounced the protests.
“The central government adamantly opposes the various illegal acts that have occurred in Hong Kong, damaging rule of law and social order,” said an unnamed spokesman for the government’s Hong Kong affairs office, according to Xinhua, the state-run news agency.
“We have full confidence and firmly support the special administrative region government in handling this according to the law, maintaining social stability in Hong Kong, and protecting the safety of the lives and property of Hong Kong residents.”
Hong Kong’s top official, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, told a news conference that the protesters used illegal means to threaten the government and expressed “absolute trust in the professional judgment of the police.”
The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the groups that organized the sit-in, urged students to boycott classes for a second week and called on workers to strike in protest against the police crackdown, a member of the federation, Lee Cheuk-yan, told a crowd of protesters.
“They should have let people in. We didn’t burn tires, we are peaceful,” said Tommy Tsang, 55, a driver who was trying to enter the protest area when the police lobbed tear-gas canisters. “This made me even more determined to stay here.”
The protesters have focused their anger at a plan for electoral changes introduced by Beijing last month that for the first time would let the public vote for the city’s chief executive, beginning in 2017. But critics say a committee dominated by people loyal to the Chinese government would be able to screen out candidates who do not have Beijing’s backing, making a mockery of the election.
The Hong Kong government has been grappling with how to defuse the sit-in protest that started on Friday night and swelled at times over the weekend to a crowd of tens of thousands. The protest presented a political quandary for the authorities: Move too gently, and they may give the demonstrators hope; move too forcefully, and they risk alienating public sentiment and global opinion.
“At this stage, it looks like they will have to show their fist,” Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a longtime commentator on Chinese politics who teaches at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said while visiting the sit-in. “If the police mishandle this, then government leaders will also appear ineffective.”
Although the police had practiced for months how to quell the planned protests, they failed to prevent hundreds of students from charging into a forecourt at the city government headquarters. That drew many more supporters who occupied an avenue and open areas next to the fenced-in forecourt. The students inside the court were dragged off by the police on Saturday, but the supporters outside have stayed.
“What is going on now, in addition to any immediate public order issues, is a battle for the hearts and minds of the Hong Kong public,” said Michael C. Davis, a professor of law at the University of Hong Kong.
“While protest may have a weak chance of getting Beijing to back down, indifference or heavy-handed tactics on the part of the Hong Kong government could anger the public and increase support for the protesters,” he said.
The most prominent group fighting the election proposal in Hong Kong has been Occupy Central With Love and Peace, which had planned to begin civil disobedience protests in the financial district on Wednesday, a national holiday here.
But the group abruptly changed course early on Sunday, acknowledging that the students’ actions had overtaken its plans and declaring that the “occupation” in front of the city government would be the base of protests.
Benny Tai, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong who co-founded Occupy Central, said he and other protesters were prepared to stay and peacefully resist any effort to clear the area, which many of them call “Civic Square.”
He said the Hong Kong government’s response would probably be guided by advice and signals from Beijing, which exercises sovereignty over the city.
“It’s hard for me to guess what the Chinese government thinks,” he said. “A responsible government that loves its people would be moved and touched. But I’m not sure they love their own people.”