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.
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