Protesters, police play cat-and-mouse across Hong Kong
People gather at Belcher Bay Park as they take part in an anti-extradition bill protest in Western district in Hong Kong on Sunday. Protesters held two more rallies Sunday after Hong Kong police announced more than 20 people were arrested following clashes at an earlier demonstration, adding to increasingly tense confrontations with the Chinese territory’s government. The banner reads “Against institutional violence, we want real elections.”
The distinctive clang of metal hitting pavement echoed across Hong Kong.
Over several hours, in successive waves on Sunday, different districts filled with the sound of protesters erecting and just as hastily taking down their improvised barricades.
While past nights of protest have ended in protracted standoffs between demonstrators and riot police, rally participants this time took a different tack. Since their prodemocracy movement began two months earlier, they have repeated to one another: “Be Water” — an attitude of adaptability that was on full display as they occupied and vacated with equal swiftness five different neighborhoods.
“We can’t defend it!” was the cry that signaled to protesters it was time to move out. It meant that police
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had appeared and were firing tear gas. A person holding a large purple banner that said “Move Back Slowly” led demonstrators to the nearest public transit and toward another target.
Hong Kong’s summer of protest began as a call to withdraw an extradition bill that would have allowed residents in the city to be sent to mainland China to stand trial. Many feared the legislation would destroy the judicial independence essential to the “one country, two systems” framework, which promised Hong Kong certain freedoms not afforded to the mainland when the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.
The agreement was made for 50 years, but some Hong Kong residents feel that the Communist Party-ruled central government in Beijing has already started chipping away at their democratic rights. While the city government has suspended the extradition bill, mass demonstrations have continued with broader calls for direct elections and greater government accountability.
“We are not just another Chinese city, and this is not yet 2047,” said rally participant Cara Lee. “I feel ashamed because for a long time we didn’t do anything. But now we are awake. I have to speak for the next generation.”
Protesters’ five major demands include the release of arrested demonstrators, an independent investigation into alleged police abuse and the dissolution of the current legislature, which is only partially composed of lawmakers who were directly elected.
Sunday’s rallies kicked off at public parks in different parts of the city. One quickly devolved after protesters used what appeared to be a long, homemade slingshot to hurl rocks and bricks at a police station.