HONG KONG — Pro-democracy demonstrators in Hong Kong clashed with the police for a second straight day on Saturday, despite a concession on Wednesday from the city’s embattled leader.
The clashes there Friday night were the first notable display of unrest since Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s top leader, announced that she would withdraw a deeply unpopular extradition bill that ignited the protests in early June.
Protesters said on Saturday that they would hang up the tools of their trade — hard hats, umbrellas and gas masks — only if Mrs. Lam’s government agreed to meet all of their demands.
Those demands have grown in recent months to encompass calls for fundamental political reforms, as well as several concerns related to the protests themselves. Demonstrators are calling for an independent inquiry into what they say is police brutality, for the retraction of the government’s label of some protesters as “rioters” and for amnesty for the hundreds of them who have been arrested this summer.
People in Hong Kong are worried that Beijing is gradually eroding the high degree of autonomy that the former British colony was promised when it was handed back to China in 1997.
“Of course we want this to end as soon as possible, but when the government doesn’t respond to us they are only going to drag this out,” said Katy Cheung, an accountant who was demonstrating in Mong Kok, a working-class neighborhood in Hong Kong, on Saturday night.
“The government and police have to do something to show us that they are actually sincere, and not just say we should stop because they have withdrawn the bill,” Ms. Cheung, 26, added.
Mrs. Lam has so far declined to engage the protesters on most of their other demands. She said on Wednesday that she would add two members to an existing police review board, but that was far short of calls for an independent investigation.
A primary locus of this weekend’s demonstrations has been Prince Edward Station in Mong Kok, where riot officers charged into a waiting train car during mass protests on Aug. 31, beating four people with batons and dousing them in pepper spray.
Protesters have been demanding to see security footage of that incident, but the authorities have so far refused to release any. When the authorities stopped train service to Prince Edward Station on Friday, some protesters broke into the station and vandalized it, along with the Mong Kok and Yau Ma Tei stations.
Saturday’s unrest began in the afternoon with sit-ins at several malls, and ended that night with the police deploying pepper spray against demonstrators in and around Mong Kok.
The protesters had initially planned to target Hong Kong’s international airport, a symbol of the city’s position as a global finance hub and the site of a key flash point in this summer’s unrest. Last month, the airport saw days of sit-ins that led to assaults on two men from mainland China and hundreds of canceled flights.
Last weekend, the protesters staged a “stress test” in an attempt to squeeze access to the airport by gathering outside near its entrances and using cars to block traffic.
But with tight security around the airport on Saturday, some protesters went instead to nearby Tung Chung Station, chanting, “Mafia!” and “Murderers!” at riot police officers who had gathered there.
Others descended on a handful of malls, where they held sit-ins, sang local pop songs and chanted pro-democracy slogans.
“If we don’t come out for one or two weeks, the movement may die down, and we can’t let that happen,” said Andy Li, 22, a college student who joined a sit-in at a mall in the Sha Tin neighborhood of northern Hong Kong.
Mr. Li said the summer-long protest movement was fueled not only by opposition to the contentious extradition bill but also by a general lack of democratic representation in the city’s political system.
Hong Kong is a former British colony that was returned to Chinese control in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” agreement that promised it a high degree of autonomy for the next half century. But its legislature is only partially elected by popular vote, and its chief executive is essentially handpicked by Beijing and its local allies.
By early evening on Saturday, the protests had mostly shifted to Mong Kok, where the police sprayed pepper spray on protesters — though not tear gas, as they often do.
The police force later said in a statement that protesters had blocked roads, set fires and attacked the Mong Kok police station, “posing a threat to the safety of police officers and members of the public.” The statement also warned the public against taking part in what it called “vandalistic and obstructive acts.”
Local television footage late Saturday also showed the police deploying pepper spray and making arrests in Sha Tin, and a group of police officers surrounding what appeared to be a young protester in the Tai Po district and beating him with batons as he covered his head with both hands.
Another photo of the protester showed him lying on the ground bleeding profusely from his head, as a riot police officer knelt over him. It was unclear as of early Sunday morning what his medical status was or what had led to the episode captured on video.
Some protesters plan to march on Sunday toward the United States Consulate in downtown Hong Kong. Their goal is to raise awareness about a draft bill that is moving through Congress that would penalize officials who suppress freedoms in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
Some organizers have called on protesters to eschew their usual black T-shirts for the march, and to dress instead in an outfit they describe as “smart casual + black mask.”
Source : Nytimes
