Christmas arrests, protest simmers on

HONG Kong police arrested 336 people over the Christmas holiday as the city’s protest movement continued to simmer, an official said yesterday.

Chief police spokesman Kwok Ka-chuen said those detained between Monday and Thursday included 92 women and minors as young as 12.

The arrests bring the number of people detained over the course of the protests to nearly 7 000, with a large proportion of student age.

Protesters, some wearing Father Christmas hats, battled police over the holiday as the more than sixmonth-long demonstrations look set to continue into the new year.

Kwok condemned what he called attacks on ordinary citizens at shopping centres and restaurants and vandalism of public infrastructure including subway stations, banks and the electrical grid.

“Their scheme is to silence those who hold dissenting views and to terrorise the public. Whoever disagrees with their violence will be met with violence,” Kwok said.

Black-clad protesters smashed shop windows in shopping areas, while police responded with teargas and arrests. They demanding greater democratic rights show no sign of dissipating following an overwhelming victory by anti-establishment candidates in elections for district representatives earlier this month.

The Christmas disruptions also raise concerns for the New Year holidays to follow and the longer Lunar New Year vacation in late January, a time that has led to violence and unrest in Hong Kong in the past.

Last Thursday, the Civil Human Rights Front, one of the main organisers of Hong Kong’s protest rallies, announced that it will hold a mass demonstration to mark the first day of January.

The planned protest, under the banner “Remember Our Promises, We Stand As One”, includes a march along the city centre route from Victoria Park.

Protests first erupted six months ago in response to Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam’s extradition bill (now dropped) which would have allowed for suspects to be tried in mainland China.