Hong Kong police arrested hundreds of people during Sunday’s democracy protests — including a 12-year-old boy — officials said yesterday, in the first major political unrest since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The disclosure came as Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) vowed to overhaul the territory’s education system, saying its liberal studies curriculum helped fuel last year’s huge protests.
On Sunday — two days after virus restrictions on gatherings were eased, and bars and gyms allowed to reopen — riot police chased flash-mob protesters through multiple shopping malls.
Photo: AFP
They later used pepper spray and batons against protesters, bystanders and journalists in Mong Kok.
Police said that 230 people between the ages of 12 and 65 were arrested on various charges, including unlawful assembly, assaulting a police officer and failing to produce identity documents.
Others were also fined for breaching disease prevention measures banning more than eight people gathering in public.
Photo: AFP
Hospital authorities said 18 people received treatment for injuries.
In an interview with pro-government Ta Kung Pao published yesterday, Lam described the secondary school program as a “chicken coop without a roof” and said her government would soon unveil its plans.
“In terms of handling the subject of liberal studies in the future, we will definitely make things clear to the public within this year,” she told the paper.
Her comments are likely to inflame those Hong Kongers who fear Beijing is chipping away at the freedoms that make the territory a major international draw as political tensions rise once more.
Sunday’s protests invoked memories of the seven straight months of often-violent youth-led pro-democracy protests last year, when millions hit the streets.
More than 8,000 people have been arrested so far — about 17 percent of them secondary-school students.
For the past four months mass arrests and the pandemic ushered in a period of enforced calm. However, with the territory successfully tackling its COVID-19 outbreak — and social distancing measures easing — unrest is bubbling up again.
During the Lunar New Year holidays, Lam vowed to heal the divisions coursing through Hong Kong, but her administration has offered little in the way of reconciliation or a political solution.
She has resisted calls for universal suffrage or an independent inquiry into the police’s handling of the protests.
With the backing of Beijing, her government is pushing a bill that outlaws insulting China’s national anthem and leading pro-establishment figures are lobbying for an anti-sedition law.
The government says new laws are needed to curb snowballing support — especially among younger Hong Kongers — for democracy and greater autonomy from China.
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
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
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
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