Clashes after peaceful crowd takes Hong Kong message to US consulate

HONG KONG, China — Pro-democracy activists jammed Hong Kong streets in a march to the United States consulate on Sunday in a bid to ramp up international pressure on Beijing, but hardcore protesters later clashed with riot police across the city's core.

Millions have demonstrated over the last 14 weeks in the biggest challenge to China's rule since the city's handover from Britain in 1997.

The protests were lit by a now-scrapped plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland, seen by opponents as the latest move by China to chip away at the international finance hub's unique freedoms.

But after Beijing and city leaders took a hard line the movement snowballed into a broader campaign calling for greater democracy, police accountability and an amnesty for those arrested.

Sunday's protest featured another massive turnout for a movement that has gripped the semi-autonomous territory and plunged it into a political crisis.

Dense crowds of protesters spent hours slowly filing past Washington's consulate in the thick tropical heat. Many waved US flags, some sang the Star Spangled Banner, and others held signs calling on President Donald Trump to "liberate" Hong Kong.

In chants and speeches they called on the US to pressure Beijing to meet their demands and for Congress to pass a recently proposed bill that expresses support for the protest.

"More than 1,000 protesters have been arrested. We can't do anything but come out onto the streets. I feel hopeless," 30-year-old protester Jenny Chan, told AFP.

"I think aside from foreign countries, no one can really help us," she added.

In what has become a now familiar pattern, the main daytime rally passed off peacefully.

But as evening set in, riot police chased groups of hardcore protesters who blocked roads, vandalised nearby subway stations and set makeshift barricades on fire.

One fire burned at an entrance to the subway in the corporate district of Central, where a protester also smashed the station's exterior glass.

In the shopping area of Causeway Bay, officers fired tear gas outside another subway station.

Paramedics took away on a stretcher a man who collapsed after inhaling the gas, and police detained suspected protesters inside that station.

Beijing riled by criticism

Hong Kong is a major international business hub thanks to freedoms unheard of on the mainland under a 50-year deal signed between China and Britain.

But Beijing balks at any criticism from foreign governments over its handling of the city, which it insists is a purely internal issue.

Authorities and state media have portrayed the protests as a separatist movement backed by foreign "black hands", primarily aiming their ire at the US and Britain.

While some American politicians on both sides of the aisle have expressed support for the democratic goals of the protesters, the Trump administration has maintained a more hands-off approach while it fights a trade war with China.

Trump has called for a peaceful resolution to the political crisis and urged China against escalating with a violent crackdown.

But he has also said it is up to Beijing to handle the protests.

Washington has rejected China's allegations that it is backing the demonstrators and Beijing has shown little evidence to back its claims beyond supportive statements from some politicians.

The protests show no signs of abating, and the city's unelected pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam has struck an uncompromising tone for much of the last three months.

On Wednesday, she made a surprise concession, announcing the full withdrawal of the proposed extradition bill which sparked the demonstrations.

Protesters across the spectrum dismissed the gesture as too little, too late, saying their movement would only end once the remainder of their core demands were met.

"Our government continuously takes away our freedoms and that's why people are coming out," a 30-year-old protester in a wheelchair who gave his surname as Ho told AFP on Sunday.

Analysts say it is difficult to predict what Beijing's next move might be.

Under president Xi Jinping, China has become increasingly authoritarian and dissent is being stamped out with renewed ferocity.

source: philstar.com

'Tiananmen Square' crackdown in Hong Kong would harm trade deal — Trump

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump on Sunday warned China that carrying out a Tiananmen Square-style crackdown on Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters would harm trade talks between the two countries.

"I think it'd be very hard to deal if they do violence, I mean, if it's another Tiananmen Square," Trump told reporters in New Jersey. "I think it's a very hard thing to do if there's violence."

The months-long trade dispute between the US and China has been blamed for setting world financial markets on edge amid signs of a possible global economic slowdown.

Trump's comments came as Washington and Beijing look to revive pivotal talks aimed at ending their trade war.

Phone calls between both countries' deputies are planned for the next 10 days, and if those are successful, negotiations could resume, Trump's chief economic advisor Larry Kudlow said on Sunday.

Hong Kong has meanwhile been dealing with more than two months of protests and on Sunday saw a crowd that organizers said numbered some 1.7 million people march peacefully in the city despite rising unrest and stark warnings from Beijing.

Chinese state media has run images of military personnel and armored personnel carriers in Shenzhen, across the border from the semi-autonomous city.

In the bloody 1989 crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, China deployed tanks to end student-led protests, resulting in an estimated death toll of hundreds if not thousands.


If such a situation was repeated in Hong Kong, "I think there'd be... tremendous political sentiment not to do something," Trump said, referring to the trade negotiations with China.

Creeping authoritarianism

Under a deal signed with Britain, China agreed to allow Hong Kong to keep its unique freedoms when the former crown colony was handed back in 1997.

But many Hong Kongers feel those freedoms are being chipped away, especially since China's hardline president Xi Jinping came to power.

Trump stopped short of endorsing the protesters, saying, "I'd love to see it worked out in a humane fashion," and calling on Xi to negotiate with the dissidents.

Last week, China's state-run daily The Global Times said there "won't be a repeat" of Tiananmen Square in a rare reference to the crackdown.

Analysts say any intervention in Hong Kong by Chinese security forces would be a disaster for China's reputation and economy.

The weeks of demonstrations have plunged the financial hub into crisis, with images of masked, black-clad protesters engulfed by tear gas during street battles against riot police stunning a city once renowned for its stability.

The unrest was sparked by widespread opposition to a plan for allowing extraditions to the Chinese mainland, but has since morphed into a broader call for democratic rights in the semi-autonomous city.

Sunday's march, billed as a return to the peaceful origins of the leaderless protest movement, was one of the largest rallies since the protests began about three months ago, according to organizers the Civil Human Rights Front.

source: philstar.com

Young, educated and furious: A survey of Hong Kong's protesters

HONG KONG, China — The vast majority of Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters are university-educated, almost half are in their twenties and nearly everyone loathes the police, according to an academic survey that sheds new light on the movement.

Ten weeks of demonstrations in the financial hub have seen millions of people take to the streets, increasingly violent clashes breakout between hardcore protesters and police and, more recently, flights grounded at the airport.

The rallies that began in opposition to a bill allowing extraditions to mainland China have morphed into a broader bid to reverse a slide in democratic freedoms.

Researchers from four of the city's universities surveyed participants across 12 protests—including mass rallies and "fluid" and "static" demonstrations—between June 9 and August 4 and found 54 percent were male and 46 percent were female.

Overall, 77 percent of the 6,688 respondents said they had a tertiary (higher) education, with 21 percent saying they had a secondary (high school) education.


The 20-29 age bracket was the most represented with 49 percent, compared to 11 percent under 20 and 19 percent aged between 30 and 39. Sixteen percent were 40 and above.

Exactly half (50 percent) considered themselves to be middle class, while 41 percent said they were "grassroots".

When asked why they were demonstrating, 87 percent said they wanted the extradition bill to be withdrawn, 95 percent expressed dissatisfaction with police's handling of the protests and 92 percent called for the establishment of an independent commission of inquiry.

The survey, called 'Onsite Survey Findings in Hong Kong's Anti-Extradition Bill Protests' was published on August 12 and led by researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Lingnan University, the Hang Seng University of HongKong and Hong Kong Baptist University.

source: philstar.com

Hong Kong leader Lam says China extradition bill 'dead'

HONG KONG — Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Carrie Lam on Tuesday said a widely loathed proposal to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland "is dead" -- but again stopped short of protester demands to withdraw the bill.

The finance hub has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history following a month of huge marches as well as separate violent confrontations with police involving a minority of hardcore protesters. 

"There are still lingering doubts about the government's sincerity or worries (about) whether the government will restart the process with the Legislative Council," she said in a press conference.

"So I reiterate here, there is no such plan. The bill is dead."

The rallies were sparked by a now-suspended law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.

But they have since morphed into a wider movement calling for democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms in the semi-autonomous territory.

Public anger has soared against the city's pro-Beijing leaders and its police force after officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters outside parliament last month. 

Lam has made very few public appearances in recent weeks.

But on Tuesday she resurfaced to hold a press conference in which she made her most conciliatory comments to date. 

She described her administration's attempt to introduce the extradition bill as "a complete failure", agreed to meet students in public without preconditions and said she recognised that the city was facing an unprecedented array of challenges. 

"I come to the conclusion that there are some fundamental and deep-seated problems in Hong Kong society," she said. 

"It could be economic problems, it could be livelihood issues, it could be political divisions in society," she said.

"So the first thing we should do is identify those fundamental issues and hopefully to find some solutions to move forward."

But she shied away from other key protester demands, including calls for an independent judge to head up a commission of inquiry into police tactics, saying the city's current police complaints mechanism was conducting its own investigation.

Lam had previously suspended debate on the extradition bill and said her administration had no plans to reintroduce it into the city's Legislative Council (LegCo).

But protesters remain distrustful and have demanded she unequivocally withdraw the proposed law from the parliamentary agenda. 

Lam said she did not think protesters would believe her if she used the word "withdraw"

"To some extent, if it was withdrawn today, it could be brought back to LegCo three months later," she said.

"But maybe the residents want to hear a very resolute and decisive saying. So 'the bill is dead' is a relatively resolute saying," she added.

source: philstar.com