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.
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