At first, the students sat outside Hong Kong’s government complex. Then the broader Occupy Central civil disobedience movement joined them to call for the right for the people in the territory to elect their leader. The protest spread and the police’s use of tear gas at the weekend shocked more citizens out onto the streets.
Overnight into yesterday, police were hardly visible and the tens of thousands of people roamed freely. Here are some snapshots showing the atmosphere on Hong Kong’s streets:
STREET TALK
Photo: AFP
By early evening on Tuesday, student Gordon Lam, 20, had been in a standoff with police for 20 hours.
Much of his time outside the police headquarters had been spent having discussions about democracy with other protesters sitting on the road leading to the barricade. At one point the night before, a protester with a megaphone had calmed some in the crowd who had been teasing the police on the other side of it.
“We just want to stay on the street and state our view,” Lam said.
Photo: EPA
As people drift home for a rest and a shower, a call for reinforcements goes out on Facebook: “People are going, can people please come.”
“I really hope that there will be a true democracy in Hong Kong,” Lam said. “Of course the chief executive should step down, but that’s not the main issue; he’s just a puppet of the central government. If he steps down there will be another puppet to take his place.”
THE COBBLESTONES
Photo: AFP
Among the crowds sitting on the ground fanning themselves in the evening heat were two language students, Mathias Chan and Andy Cheng, who want the world to know what is happening in the territory in hopes of pressuring Beijing.
They made signs out of the sides of cardboard boxes in English: “Peace” on one side and “Democracy is our request” on the other; in German: “Enough is enough. We fight for democracy”; and French: “Sous les paves la plage” (“Under the cobblestones, the beach”), used by French students in protests in May 1968.
They post photographs on Facebook and Instagram and hope their friends who they met when studying abroad will “like” their posts and so more people in turn will see them.
Photo: Reuters
“We don’t want this movement to be something that happened, and nothing,” said Chan, 23, who is studying European Studies and German. “We’re Chinese, yes, but we’re a bit different from mainlanders and we still have a chance to fight for democracy. We may not have Facebook tomorrow. We never know what the Chinese government may impose on us. We have a saying in Chinese that when we are in a safe situation we have to be alert for a dangerous future.”
They e-mailed their professors for permission to miss their classes.
In one reply, the teacher said: “You have to take care of yourselves. No violence.”
Photo: EPA
Another tutor simply wrote: “Sous les paves la plage.”
RAIN AND LIGHT
A brief respite from the night heat came with the thunderous downpour that had protesters jumping to their feet on Tuesday night, opening the ubiquitous umbrellas and quickly sharing around rain jackets. The rain energized what had become a largely lethargic crowd and, as it thundered down, the cheers got louder and determination reappeared.
Photo: EPA
Ink ran from handwritten notes taped to the concrete slope of a highway that inches down toward the government offices — a “democracy wall” that had sprouted up a couple of hours earlier when students started handing out paper.
When the rain stopped shortly afterward, people switched on their mobile phone lights and stretched out their arms in the air, and the sea of protesters lit up with white lights and chants of “come on, come on, come on.”
One wet piece of paper, directed at Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), still read: “This is not your city to rule.”
SOAP BOX
To the west toward the Central district, a megaphone was being passed around for people to share their thoughts and stories about the past few days. Dozens stood and listened as Baldur Woo described his shock at being teargassed while manning a first aid station on Sunday evening near the government offices.
He and other volunteers had to run away while making sure no one fell over in the panic, he said.
“I felt like I was choking. My throat had a burning sensation. My eyes couldn’t stop tearing. After two days my throat is still losing sound and I can’t speak too much,” Woo said.
Next up, standing beside a banner on the ground that read: “Age of Resistance: Sharing Session,” was a Chinese trader from Shanghai, who spoke up in support of the protests.
“Hong Kong serves as a beacon,” he said. “If Hong Kong can see democracy, the Chinese people can see a bit of light.”
“The real reason why China won’t let Hong Kong have democracy is they are afraid other places in China will follow Hong Kong’s example,” he said, only agreeing to be identified by his surname, Liu. “If Hong Kong has the right to choose the chief executive, why can China not choose their leader?”
THE GRASS
People streamed along the roads of the Central, sitting on sidewalks, sitting and standing on the edge of traffic barriers and on the roads. However, none disobeyed the “Keep off the grass” sign at the Cenotaph, the war memorial.
“It’s respectful,” one person said.
A few meters away, another protester was using a megaphone to remind people not to leave any trash behind. Across from him, a schoolteacher had climbed on top of a bus stop and was painting over red graffiti that had read: “Dismiss the government.”
Alex Ho, 34, who teaches ethics and biology, said he had seen a man spraying it on the side of City Hall the night before. On Tuesday night Ho returned with a bucket of white paint.
“This is our responsibility, to try and be a good citizen, not to damage Hong Kong, but to try and show peace and love,” he said.
The cover-up finished, he received applause and a “good job, man!”
Below him, helpers had stretched out black sacks and newspapers to protect the ground from paint splashes.
While the student and Occupy demonstrations have been overwhelmed by a spontaneous protest movement with no leaders, the uncoordinated actions have a regimented feel to them.
WATER AND BISCUITS
The crowds make way for and cheer a line of motorbikes that frequently zooms in with supplies that are then carried to numerous stations handing out water, biscuits, bread, towels and cooling gel patches.
A group of 16-year-old schoolboys turned up after school on Tuesday and went straight to one supply station to volunteer to give out food and drink.
Groups of protesters take it upon themselves to pick up litter and carry trash bags through the crowds. Recycling stations separate waste, including one with banana skins stuffed into six empty large water bottles.
“The protest is not supposed to be organized, but it is very organized,” said advertising director Noel Yuen, 35, on her way home from taking part in the overnight civil disobedience.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of