Protests lock up central Hong Kong
HONG KONG — Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators paralyzed parts of Hong Kong this morning, blocking roads in the central business district and threatening to bring chaos to the morning rush hour after police fired tear gas and pepper spray in failed attempts to disperse the crowds.
As dawn broke, crowds continued to block roads leading to the heart of the financial center and besiege the government headquarters’ one subway stop to the east. New protests sprang up overnight in the shopping districts of Causeway Bay and Mongkok, with hundreds sitting in the road and erecting barricades.
Crowds mushroomed yesterday in support of a student-led protest that began on Friday to oppose China’s plans to control the city’s 2017 leadership election. Swelling numbers prompted leaders of the protest group Occupy Central with Love and Peace to bring forward its long-planned mass sit-in of central Hong Kong from Wednesday.
“This is a sad day for Hong Kong,” Anson Chan, the city’s former No. 2 official, said in a statement. “Pictures of our police force firing pepper spray and tear gas into the faces of unarmed protesters will shame our government in front of the whole world.”
In the biggest clashes to rock the city for decades, anti-riot police wearing gas masks and carrying batons and guns skirmished repeatedly overnight with demonstrators, who used face masks, goggles, plastic wrap and umbrellas to protect themselves.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying urged protesters to disperse for the stability of the city, dismissing rumors that police had opened fire or that the government planned to call in the People’s Liberation Army, which the Chinese government used to crush student-led pro-democracy demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. The army has garrisons in Hong Kong but is rarely seen on the streets.
“Hong Kong’s stable development for so long has depended on everyone’s abiding by peace and respecting the law,” Leung said in a televised speech at 1 a.m today. “We don’t want Hong Kong to be chaotic or for people’s daily lives to be affected.”
The protests threaten to disrupt one of the world’s most vibrant financial centers and a gateway to investment in China. Hong Kong investors prepared for a stock-market retreat and made arrangements to work outside the financial district. More than half of the companies on Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index are from the mainland, driving the city’s $3.7 trillion stock market, the fifthlargest worldwide.
Many protesters ignored calls by organizers to pull back about 10:30 last night, with thousands remaining at 6 a.m. today. Some moved metal barriers to create barricades across major roads into the central business district, while others rested before daybreak.
“I was about to go to sleep, but then saw on TV that tear gas was being used and policemen were pointing guns at students and citizens,” said Bernard Li, a Hong Kong native who lives in Shanghai and returned to the scene soon after midnight after attending the protest with his family earlier. “This gathering is very worthwhile. I just had a feeling I needed to come back out.”
Forty-one people had been injured as of 5:45 a.m. today, the city’s hospital authority said. Police said they arrested 78 people for offenses including forcible entry of government premises, unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct and obstructing police officers.
A handful of policemen trying to drive a vehicle out of the protest site in Admiralty at 6 a.m. today were stopped by demonstrators and forced to leave the vehicle behind after gathering their belongings. The crowd applauded the policemen when they departed.
“Heavy-handed approaches to the students will surely backfire,” said Michael Davis, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong. “Hong Kong people have proven time and time again that if the government handles public concerns badly, the public will mobilize against them.”
Police officers have tried to minimize injuries during operations and show self-restraint, the Hong Kong Police Force said a statement. It urged protesters to stop clashing with police.
Student federations and the activist group Occupy Central With Love and Peace said yesterday that the best way to defuse the protests would be for Leung to resign. They say that China is reneging on its promise to maintain the city’s autonomy under its “one country, two systems” plan agreed to when British colonial rule ended 17 years ago.