Riot police swoop on Hong Kong protests

Mother’s Day rallies suggest fresh campaign against leader

RIOT police chased protesters through Hong Kong’s shopping malls and streets on Sunday as democracy activists launched Mother’s Day flash mob rallies calling for independence and for the city’s unpopular leader to resign.

The semi-autonomous Chinese city was convulsed by seven straight months of often violent pro-democracy protests last year, with millions hitting the streets.

Mass arrests and the coronavirus pandemic ushered in a period of enforced calm.

But with the finance hub successfully tackling its COVID-19 outbreak, small protests have bubbled up once more during the past fortnight.

Small flash mob demonstrations broke out in at least eight malls throughout Sunday afternoon, prompting riot police to rush in and disperse heckling crowds of activists and shoppers.

At least three arrests were made while groups of officers conducted multiple stop and searches.

Police

$HK2000 also ($A400) issued on-thespot fines to those allegedly breaching emergency anti coronavirus measures banning more than eight people gathering in public.

Protester chat groups had pushed the occasion of Mother’s Day to focus on chief executive Carrie Lam, a Beijing loyalist appointee.

At the start of last year’s protests, Lam likened herself to an exasperated mother – and protesting Hong Kongers to demanding children – in comments that only poured oil on the fire of public anger at the time.

Authorities banned an application for a Mother’s Day march, so small groups of masked protesters instead played cat and mouse with police in different shopping centres, a tactic used frequently last year.

“This is just a warm-up, our protest movement needs to start again,” a university student who gave his name as “B” told AFP.

In the evening, clashes spilt out onto the streets, with police using batons and pepper spray in the busy commercial neighbourhood of Mong

Kok and making more arrests, including of a pro-democracy politician.

Lam, who has been staunchly backed by Beijing, has record-low approval ratings at present.

She has resisted calls for universal suffrage or an independent inquiry into the police’s handling of the protests.

In the new year, she vowed to heal the divisions coursing through Hong Kong, but her administration has offered little in the way of reconciliation or a political solution.