When Anson Lau first joined Hong Kong’s pro-democracy rallies he carried little more than a raincoat and a bottle of water. But as police began wielding pepper spray and batons, the 20-year-old insurance agent has donned a hard hat and home-made body armor — symbols of a new and dangerous phase.
“When police began beating up people we had to put on defensive gear,” he told AFP standing at a makeshift barricade in the city’s densely packed Mongkok district, where the worst violence has broken out.
“We didn’t have helmets before. We had umbrellas. If the opposite side had left us alone, we wouldn’t have needed any of this,” he said, gesturing to his equipment.
Photo: AFP / Philippe Lopez
Lau’s experience is echoed by thousands of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters who began their campaign for greater democracy in the former British colony with peaceful mass rallies, filled with optimism and praised for their civility.
But with the city’s Beijing-backed authorities showing no signs of budging on protesters’ core demands — and the embattled police, who had been noticeably restrained in the first two weeks of the protests, launching a series of recent dawn raids to try and clear barricades — a grim realism has set in.
Faces that once brimmed with enthusiasm have hardened, replaced by ranks of tired protesters steeling themselves for the next attempt by officers to push them off the streets.
Nowhere is this atmosphere more palpable than in the working class district of Mongkok. While the city’s two other protest sites across Victoria Harbor retain their carnival mood, Mongkok, in Kowloon, remains on edge.
Those manning the barricades there have borne the brunt of attacks by pro-government thugs and more recently police after they tried but ultimately failed to clear a camp that had dominated a busy intersection.
Au Yiu-kai was volunteering at a first aid station in Mongkok during the weekend clashes, and says he treated at least a dozen demonstrators, many of whom had angry wounds from police batons. “This is definitely not a low level of force,” he fumed. “That kind of force can be fatal.”
NEW AND DANGEROUS PHASE
Police, who also suffered injuries in the clashes, say the protesters in Mongkok form the spear tip of an increasingly radical and violent core, forcing them to respond in kind. During confrontations, the presence of volatile masked men taunting the police has become commonplace and officers accuse demonstrators of frequently charging their lines.
But protesters insist they have to suit up with whatever they can to defend themselves against new violent tactics from police.
Sociologist Chung Kim-wah, from Hong Kong Polytechnic University, says the protests have now entered a new and dangerous phase where both police and protesters are polarized, angry and more prone to violence.
“If it goes on, a more serious clash cannot be ruled out. If someone dies or gets seriously hurt, the damage would be huge for Hong Kong. The hatred would be difficult to extinguish,” he said.
The demonstrators say those in their ranks spoiling for the fight still do not represent a movement that has consistently pushed a non-violent message.
“We can only try our best to stay disciplined,” says Lau, talking about the hotheads who have goaded the police. “Most people are peaceful and restrained. And if someone gets emotional we will try to ask them to stop.”
Early Monday, for the first time in three nights, Mongkok was calm — largely thanks to two pro-democracy lawmakers who stood between police and protester lines until both sides took off their helmets.
Claudia Mo, one of those lawmakers, said many believed agitators were deliberately doing the government’s work.
“One can’t help having that suspicion,” she told AFP. “These provocateurs are very out of tune with the rest of crowd.”
“The more chaotic Hong Kong becomes the better for CY’s government and the more reason he has to clamp down,” she added, referring to the city’s China-backed leader Leung Chun-ying (梁振英).
Analysts say those dangers are made all the more acute by exhaustion and flagging morale among a stretched police service battling to maintain order with little concrete political resolution in sight.
Crunch talks between students and city leaders are expected Tuesday evening. But few of those on the barricades expect any results. “I’m seriously worried about tonight,” lawmaker Mo told AFP Tuesday.
“If this is just going to be a political show — where political animals form a political circus — people will think: ‘Well let’s just take to the streets again.’”
If talks do break down, people like Lau believe they will need to get their armour back out.
“Everyone of us needs to know how to protect ourselves and others,” he said, resignation etched on his tired face. “We have to adapt.”
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not
This Qing Dynasty trail takes hikers from renowned hot springs in the East Rift Valley, up to the top of the Coastal Mountain Range, and down to the Pacific Short vacations to eastern Taiwan often require choosing between the Rift Valley with its pineapple fields, rice paddies and broader range of amenities, or the less populated coastal route for its ocean scenery. For those who can’t decide, why not try both? The Antong Traversing Trail (安通越嶺道) provides just such an opportunity. Built 149 years ago, the trail linked up these two formerly isolated parts of the island by crossing over the Coastal Mountain Range. After decades of serving as a convenient path for local Amis, Han settlers, missionaries and smugglers, the trail fell into disuse once modern roadways were built