Tireless protest movement keeps pressure on cops
HONG KONG — Police fired tear gas Sunday inside a train station and in other Hong Kong neighborhoods where protesters occupied roads in another weekend of antigovernment demonstrations.
Protesters hurled bricks at officers and ignored warnings to leave before tear gas was deployed in the Sham Shui Po area, police said, calling a march there an “unauthorized assembly.” Nearby, protesters wearing gas masks gathered outside a police station in Cheung Sha Wan and faced off with officers wearing their own protective gear.
Tear gas was also deployed in central Hong Kong on both sides of Victoria Harbor, in the Tsim Sha Tsui area on the Kowloon side and in Wan Chai on Hong Kong Island. At one point protesters blocked the entrance to a plaza to prevent police from entering. At Tsim Sha Tsui police station, authorities said, one officer was taken to the hospital after he sustained burns on his legs from a gasoline bomb thrown by a protester.
A train station in Kwai Fong filled with smoke after about a dozen police officers fired tear gas inside. It has been rare for officers to fire tear gas indoors.
“We hope the world knows that Hong Kong is not the Hong Kong it used to be,” said one protester, Louisa Ho. “China is doing more and more to pressure Hong Kong, its people and its organizations.”
Hong Kong has seen nine weeks of protests, with no end in sight. The movement’s demands include the resignation of the Chinese territory’s leader, democratic elections, the release of those arrested in earlier protests and an investigation into police use of force against the protesters.
A former British colony, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 under the principle of “one country, two systems,” which promises the city certain democratic rights not afforded to people on the mainland. But in recent years, some have accused the Communist Partyruled central government of steadily chipping away at their freedoms.