Hong Kong’s leader vowed to pursue those who acted illegally.
After a day of protests that escalated in violence, Carrie Lam, the city’s embattled top leader, condemned the protesters who stormed the offices of the legislature and wrecked and defaced the building, vowing to pursue those who acted illegally.
“This violence and lawlessness have seriously affected the core values of Hong Kong’s legal system,” Mrs. Lam told reporters in the early hours of Tuesday morning. “I feel very indignant and saddened by this and want to strongly condemn it. I believe that the public feels the same.”
Mrs. Lam, the city’s chief executive, was accompanied by Police Commissioner Stephen Lo, who was asked why his officers made a surprise retreat as the protesters appeared close to breaching an inner door.
Mr. Lo said the officers pulled back because there was a large number of protesters surrounding the building and they were limited in the level of force they could use in respond to a violent situation indoors.
Officers decided to withdraw temporarily in order to regroup and take back the complex, Mr. Lo said. Later that night, several hours after protesters had stormed the building, riot police officers returned in large numbers and fired tear gas while advancing in tight rows to disperse the protesters.
It was an extraordinary turn of events in a day that began with an official ceremony commemorating the anniversary of the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China from Britain. In a speech at the event, Mrs. Lam pledged that she would be more responsive to public sentiment and would seek out different views. She was earlier criticized for insisting on pushing through a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China despite an intense public outcry.
In her comments on Tuesday morning, Mrs. Lam reiterated her willingness to listen. “I can say here, whether it’s pan-democratic lawmakers or groups of young people, in future days, I am very willing to communicate about the matters they care about.”
The broad public anger has already forced Mrs. Lam to suspend the proposed legislation, but demonstrators want it to be fully withdrawn and have also turned their scrutiny on the police, whom they say acted with excessive force in dispersing a June 12 protest. Many protesters are also demanding Mrs. Lam’s resignation.
The riot police fired tear gas at protesters to disperse them.
Hundreds of riot police with shields and helmets fired tear gas after midnight on Tuesday at dozens of demonstrators who had set up barricades on the roads around the city’s legislative complex, after a core group of protesters had occupied the building for three hours.
The officers banged their shields on the ground as they marched in tight rows along several main roads surrounding the compound, confronting the protesters who had gathered behind the makeshift barricades. Closely following the officers were nearly two dozen police buses with their lights flashing. The police fired several rounds of tear gas, sending most of the protesters fleeing.
“Your actions have been seriously affecting public order and public safety,” the officers announced. “Please leave immediately or police will take further action.”
After the demonstrators dispersed, the police continued to hold a cordon on several streets. They entered the legislative building and searched the premises room by room for any remaining protesters. Other officers surveyed the damage and set to work dismantling barriers that the demonstrators had set up.
Just hours before, the police had backed away from a confrontation with the protesters, clearing out of the building after hours of standoff in which demonstrators had been steadily destroying the facade and glass walls of the Legislative Council. The protesters stormed in, pumping their fists in the air.
Once inside, the protesters sprayed messages on the walls calling for protesters arrested last month to be released. “Murderous regime,” read another message. They built barricades inside using materials they had scavenged and brought, including umbrellas and metal gates and destroyed surveillance cameras. Then they filled the legislative chambers, defaced portraits of leaders and spray-painted slogans on the desks and walls.
[Photos from the standoff, clashes with the police and the storming of the Legislature.]
“We need to let out our long-repressed emotions and to let the rest of the world know about this news,” said Kris Yeh, a 20-year-old protester who said he had helped smash glass doors and spray paint walls.
Another protester who identified himself as a 17-year-old high school student, said he believed that more extreme tactics were necessary for the government to accept the protesters’ demands. “There is no one here who isn’t scared of being arrested. I only have a bottle of water and a helmet, but the police have tear gas and pepper spray,” he said.
The protest was quickly turning into a broad repudiation of Chinese rule, with demonstrators tearing up copies of the Basic Law, a mini-constitution that took effect in 1997 and governs Hong Kong’s relations with Beijing, and calling for free and direct elections. One group raised a British colonial-era flag.
“I want universal suffrage!” one protester led others in chanting.
Other protesters said they wanted to force the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, to engage in a dialogue with them.
Eddie Chu, a pro-democracy member of the legislature, told reporters that only the government and Mrs. Lam could resolve the political crisis roiling the territory. “If this is left to the police and Beijing to solve, we will face the greatest tragedy we’ve seen in 22 years” of Chinese rule.
The police and government said that they condemned the violence at the legislature and that officers were exercising restraint. “Such violent acts are unacceptable to society,” the government said in a statement.
Early in the day, hundreds of riot police officers had used batons and pepper spray to beat back protesters at a different site — near a government flag-raising ceremony attended by the city’s chief executive, Mrs. Lam.
At the handover of Hong Kong to China’s control in 1997, the Chinese government agreed that Hong Kong could retain its justice system and protections for civil liberties for 50 years, under a philosophy commonly known as “one country, two systems.” Protesters today are angry because they see Mrs. Lam’s pushing of a bill that would open the way to extradite suspects to mainland China as giving up those rights to Beijing.
[Read more about why many protesters believe Hong Kong’s freedoms are slipping away.]
The attack on the legislative complex exposed divisions among the protesters.
Protesters who joined the demonstration outside the legislature said they were frustrated that the government was not listening to their concerns. “Friends, don’t leave,” read the signs many were waving. “People of Hong Kong, don’t give up.”
This was the latest instance in which a group of predominantly younger protesters have taken measures that test the boundaries of civil disobedience in this usually orderly financial hub. In recent weeks, to protest the extradition bill and what they saw as a heavy-handed police response, the protesters have twice besieged the city’s police headquarters and sought to disrupt government services.
The protesters said they chose to descend on the Legislative Council because the police prevented them from getting close to the site of the government’s flag-raising ceremony that morning.
[We reviewed hundreds of videos and photos posted online by witnesses to assess whether the Hong Kong police used excessive force in June against protesters.]
Several protesters said that while they did not personally plan to break into the complex, they supported those on the front lines who did. Peaceful protest methods were ineffective, they said, and they increasingly felt open to a more confrontational approach if it would help to protect Hong Kong’s freedom and relative independence from Beijing.
“We have been too peaceful for the past few times, so the police think we are easily bullied,” said Natalie Fung, 28, who was outside the legislative complex supporting the protesters with food and drinks. “The younger people are risking their safety and their futures for us.”
Not all protesters supported the handful who attacked the Legislative Council. Several democratic lawmakers tried to stop the protesters by positioning themselves between the demonstrators and the building, even physically blocking the makeshift battering rams at times — but were eventually pushed aside.
Claudia Mo, who was among the pro-democracy legislators attempting to stop the protesters, said she thought the violence was an expression of how desperate the younger protesters had become in the face of a government that they thought had not done enough.
“I’m extremely worried because the young really seem like they have nothing to lose, when they have a lot to lose,” Ms. Mo said. “It’s their Hong Kong they’re fighting for. It’s their future and they need to take their future into account.”
The demonstrations are a challenge to China’s leader, Xi Jinping.
Huge crowds of demonstrators have taken to Hong Kong’s streets in the past several weeks, protesting a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China. The protests forced Mrs. Lam to suspend the bill but demonstrators want a full withdrawal and for her to resign.
The turnout of protesters on Monday was among the largest attempts to disrupt the Hong Kong government’s most important annual political event. It underscored the deepening anxiety that many in Hong Kong feel about the erosion of the civil liberties that set the city apart.
Monday’s protests, which also fell on the 98th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, were a direct challenge to President Xi Jinping and his increasingly authoritarian policies.
Analysts said the chaos risked giving Mr. Xi an opportunity to justify his tough approach.
“If it gets really violent, the risk is that Beijing has a good excuse to become even more uncompromising,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a political scientist at Hong Kong Baptist University. “Xi can put even more pressure on Carrie Lam not to make any concessions.”
‘Carrie Lam, step down,’ protesters elsewhere chanted in a peaceful march.
Separately, hundreds of thousands of other protesters, including families and children, marched through nearly 90 degree heat on Monday afternoon to fill the streets of downtown Hong Kong in a separate demonstration calling on the city’s leader to resign.
Protesters carried signs saying “Free HK Democracy Now,” and “Hong Kong Fights For Democracy.” The march began at Victoria Park, where a few people handed out yellow signs urging people to “stand firm and investigate police violence.”
“Carrie Lam, step down, get some dignity for yourself,” said Lo Woon-fun, 84, who was sitting under a small umbrella in the muddy field at the beginning of the march. “I came out today because I want to tell Carrie Lam that despite my old age, I still come out to demand she step down.”
“I have come here because of the future generation of ours. I want them to live a good life as I have,” she said.
Organizers said late Monday that 550,000 people had joined the march, setting a record for the annual event.
Members of the labor union for Postal Service workers carried a large printed banner that read: “When a million people walk against the mainstream, it’s inhumane to neglect it,” referring to a massive protest in June.
Daniel Victor, Alexandra Stevenson, Mike Ives, Tiffany May, Katherine Li, Javier Hernandez, Austin Ramzy, Gillian Wong and Ezra Cheung contributed reporting.
Source : Nytimes
