Hong Kong police yesterday arrested pro-democracy activists and cleared most of the main protest site, marking an end to more than two months of street demonstrations in the territory, but many chanted: “We will be back.”
Most the activists chose to leave the Admiralty site, next to the Central business area, peacefully, despite their demands for a free vote not being met, but the overall mood remained defiant.
Groups of up to four police arrested holdout protesters one by one, hours after workers used wire cutters to remove barricades and dismantle bamboo scaffolding.
Photo: Reuters
Martin Lee (李柱銘), one of the founders of the main opposition Democratic Party, student leader Nathan Law (羅冠聰), media mogul Jimmy Lai (黎智英) and legislators were among those arrested.
Lai said 75 days of protests would never have been enough to see the demands met.
“We are not so naive,” he told CNN before he was arrested. “We know there will be many battles before we win the war.”
Photo: Reuters
Hong Kong Federation of Students (HKFS) secretary-general Alex Chow Yong Kang (周永康) said: “You might have the clearance today but people will come back on to the streets another day.”
The mainly peaceful protests have represented one of the most serious challenges to China’s authority since the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrations and bloody crackdown in and around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.
Going forward, protest leaders have said they will consider other forms of civil disobedience, given Beijing’s continued refusal to grant any concessions.
Photo: AFP
At the protest site, authorities used about 20 large trucks with cranes to remove mountains of rubbish. A government spokesman said roads would be reopened to traffic as soon as possible.
Hundreds of police swept through other parts of Admiralty, checking tents before dragging them away along with metal barriers, plastic sheets and umbrellas, which activists had used during clashes to guard against pepper spray and baton blows.
A decapitated cardboard cutout of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) stood in front of a police line.
Photo: AFP
“The movement has been surreal. No one knew it could last more than two months ... in a place where time and money are most important,” protester Javis Luk, 27, said.
There was little resistance as protesters packed up pillows, blankets and other belongings from inside their tents.
Photo: Bloomberg
Photo: Reuters
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