Hong Kong police fired repeated volleys of tear gas to disperse pro-democracy protests yesterday and baton-charged the crowd blocking a key road in the government district after issuing official warnings against illegal demonstrations.
The territory’s Admiralty district had descended into chaos as chanting protesters converged on police barricades surrounding colleagues who had earlier launched a “new era” of civil disobedience to pressure Beijing into granting full democracy to Hong Kong.
Police, in lines five-deep in places and wearing helmets and gas masks, staged repeated pepper spray attacks and shot tear gas into the air. The crowd fled several hundred meters, scattering their umbrellas and hurling abuse at police, calling them “cowards.”
Photo: REUTERS
However, demonstrators returned and by early evening, tens of thousands of protesters were thronging streets, including outside the prominent Pacific Place shopping mall that leads toward the Central financial district.
Fresh rounds of tear gas cleared some of the roads in Admiralty and pushed protesters toward Central.
Police had not used tear gas in Hong Kong since breaking up WTO protests against South Korean farmers in 2005.
Photo: AFP
Clouds of tear gas also blew back toward police lines, but it is unclear how many people on either side have needed treatment.
“We will fight until the end... We will never give up,” said Peter Poon, a protester in his 20s, adding that they may have to execute a temporary retreat as night falls.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英) pledged “resolute” action against the protest movement known as Occupy Central with Love and Peace.
“The police are determined to handle the situation appropriately in accordance with the law,” Leung said just hours before the charge.
A spokesperson for China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office added that the government in Beijing fully supported Hong Kong’s handling of the situation “in accordance with the law.”
Inside the cordon, thousands had huddled in plastic capes, masks and goggles as they waited for a fresh police charge to clear the area before Hong Kong was to open for business this morning.
However, Beijing last month rejected demands for Hong Kongers to freely choose the territory’s next leader, prompting threats from activists to shut down Central.
China is thought to want to limit elections to a handful of candidates loyal to Beijing.
While promising a fresh round of public consultation, Leung also described Beijing’s decision as “legally binding.”
Publishing tycoon Next Media Group (壹傳媒集團) chairman Jimmy Lai (黎智英), a key backer of the pro-democracy movement, said he wanted as big a crowd of protesters as possible to thwart any crackdown after a week of student demonstrations.
“The more Hong Kong citizens come, the more unlikely the police can clear up the place,” said Lai, also wearing a plastic cape and workmen’s protective glasses.
“Even if we get beaten up, we cannot fight back. We will win this war with love and peace,” he said.
Organizers said as many as 80,000 people thronged the streets in Admiralty, galvanised by the arrests of student activists on Friday. Police have so far arrested 78 people, including Joshua Wong (黃之鋒), the 17-year-old leader of student group Scholarism, who was dragged away after he called on the protesters to charge the government premises. He was still in detention yesterday.
His parents said in a statement the decision to detain him was an act of “political persecution.”
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
RSS