Hong Kong police clashed with pro-democracy demonstrators yesterday after a small group attempted to break into the territory’s legislature, as splits emerged within the movement ahead of the expected clearance of protest camps.
About 100 police used pepper spray and batons as they battled hundreds of protesters, some in helmets and waving umbrellas — a symbol of their movement — in a confrontation in the early hours. Officers made six arrests.
“Police strongly condemn such acts by the protesters, which disrupted public order,” the police force said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
The clashes were sparked when a group of about a dozen masked protesters smashed their way through a side entrance to the Legislative Council (LegCo) using metal barricades as battering rams.
At least one demonstrator made their way into the building, the Apple Daily newspaper reported.
A regular session of the chamber was canceled and visitor tours of the complex were suspended, the government said in a statement.
“Those who conducted the charge did not discuss the aims and strategy of their action with the occupiers on-site beforehand,” Occupy Central with Love and Peace, one of the protest groups, said in a statement posted on its Facebook page.
The group “strongly condemns the forceful charging action.”
The break-in was the clearest indication yet that a small faction of protesters want to ramp up rather than scale down action after the court-backed bailiffs’ action at Admiralty.
“I think we should all move to occupy inside government headquarters and LegCo,” a 23-year-old protester who gave his surname as Wong said in Mongkok. “In Taiwan, activists occupied the parliament on the first day. Now we have been sleeping out here for 50-odd days before we actually do it.”
“We don’t understand the point of the action,” Hong Kong Federation of Students chairman Alex Chow Yong Kang (周永康) told reporters yesterday, referring to the break-in.
Still, “the government in some way is pushing citizens into action as they have no options,” he said.
Hong Kong police are to help clear pro-democracy protest sites in the Mong Kok district as soon as preparations are complete.
The clearance may start as early as today, the South China Morning Post said yesterday.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique