Police arrest leaders of Hong Kong street protests
Pro-democracy activists detained while mainland police text warnings to Chinese students in city
AT LEAST six prominent pro-democracy activists have been arrested in Hong Kong in a crackdown that prompted fears of violent clashes ahead of a weekend of mass protests.
Joshua Wong, 22, the student leader of pro-democracy demonstrations in 2014, was bundled into an unmarked car near an underground station early yesterday, according to Demosisto, the political group he co-founded.
Agnes Chow, 22, another leader of Demosisto, was arrested at her home soon afterwards. Both were taken to Hong Kong police headquarters. Police said Mr Wong and Ms Chow were arrested for inciting, organising and participating in unlawful assembly. Andy Chan, 28, founder of the banned proindependence Hong Kong National Party, was held at Hong Kong International Airport on Thursday and told by police he would be arrested for a case related to organised crime, according to a Facebook post on his profile.
Also reportedly detained were a district councillor, a former student union president and the chairman of Civic Passion, a radical political party.
And in a new development, students from mainland China who are studying in Hong Kong were sent texts from Chinese police warning them to keep away from the street protests.
The arrests came as Hong Kong leaders struggled to manage months of protests that have brought millions on to the streets, closed the airport and covered the financial hub in clouds of tear gas.
Demonstrators first reacted to a proposed law to permit extraditions to mainland China but their demands grew to include police accountability and universal suffrage. Yesterday, it was revealed China had rejected a request by Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, to drop the extradition bill. The rebuff, sources told Reuters, was evidence that China was controlling the Hong Kong government’s response to the unrest.
There were signs of a tense weekend as police banned a mass march today to mark the fifth anniversary of Beijing’s decision to impose restrictions on leadership elections, a move that kicked off the Umbrella Movement and 79 days of protests led by Mr Wong.
Civil Human Rights Front, the march organiser, said it was calling off the demonstration to ensure its events remained peaceful and legal but some protesters, largely young students, were still expected to demonstrate, enraged by the arrests and the government’s refusals to make concessions.
Earlier this week, some key protest organisers said they had received anonymous letters threatening them and their families. Two activists, including Jimmy Sham, a member of CHRF, said they were attacked and beaten on Thursday by men wielding baseball bats, cleavers and metal rods.
China has responded to the recent unrest with campaigns of intimidation, releasing ominous images and video of military movements in Hong Kong and the neighbouring city of Shenzhen. Man-kei Tam, director of Amnesty International Hong Kong, condemned the ploys as “scare tactics straight out of Beijing’s playbook”.
He added: “The authorities must end this concerted attack on the freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly.”
There have been more than 900 arrests since June. Kelly, a student protester who would only give her first name, said the arrests would not cow the movement: “The police think there are leaders behind the protests and that this will stop us. We are our own leaders and we will keep coming out. The government doesn’t understand this.” Chinese police also warned mainland students on courses in Hong Kong to stay away from “illegal mass protests and street violence” in text alerts that read: “Please stand firm on the position, love the country, love Hong Kong, and by no means should you participate in any form of illegal assemblies, marches or resistance movements.”
Analysts interpreted the messages as an implicit threat.
Frances Eve, a researcher for the Network of Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a coalition of human rights groups, said: “The true purpose is to warn mainlanders that the police know that they are in Hong Kong.”