Police yesterday fired tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at pro-democracy protesters who defied authorities to hold a rally on Hong Kong’s scenic harborfront, the latest flashpoint in months of political unrest gripping the territory.
Clouds of acrid smoke wafted across streets usually packed with tourists, including outside the landmark British colonial-era Peninsula Hotel, as protesters and police clashed in what has become a weekly ritual.
Many of the protesters wore masks, defying an emergency law banning face coverings.
Photo: AFP
However, few of those involved in the early clashes had protective helmets and respirators used by some frontliners.
Tensions built early in the afternoon as riot police flooded the harborside park in Tsim Sha Tsui District, where the unsanctioned rally was due to take place.
Officers stopped and searched numerous people, sparking confrontations as the crowds got bigger, many of them shouting “black cops” and “triads” at the police.
Tear gas, pepper spray and some rubber bullets were fired in at least three different locations as clashes broke out and crowds scattered.
Small groups of protesters then built barricades and blocked roads in a familiar game of cat and mouse with police.
Some used metal fencing from nearby luxury malls to block the “Avenue of Stars,” a famous waterfront promenade.
Police said some of their officers were attacked with “hard objects and umbrellas.”
Later in the evening police used water cannons against protesters in Tsim Sha Tsui as they faced crowds yelling insults at them.
In a blog post published yesterday, Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan (陳茂波) said that the territory might post negative growth this year because of the protests.
“It seems that it is extremely difficult to achieve the forecast of zero to one percent,” he wrote.
In the past few days, protests have not been as large as earlier this month, when some of the most sustained clashes took place.
However, smaller “flashmob” protests have remained a near daily phenomenon.
“It may look like less people are coming out, but it’s just that everyone is using different methods to support the movement,” said a 23-year-old protester, who gave her surname as Chan.
A teenaged protester, who declined to give his name, said many felt they had to keep hitting the streets, because few of their demands had been met.
“Without genuine universal suffrage and democracy, this will happen again and we will have to fight again in the future,” he added.
“I do worry about being arrested, but I have prepared my last words and have left them at home,” he said.
Among the demands from protesters are an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the more than 2,500 arrested and fully free elections — all of which have been refused by Beijing and Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥).
The one concession made so far has been to scrap a widely loathed plan to allow extraditions to China — an issue that sparked record-breaking protests earlier in the year.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS