Police fire tear gas at mass of protesters in Hong Kong
HONG KONG — Hong Kong police fired tear gas and a water cannon at protesters in a popular shopping district Sunday, as thousands took to the streets to march against China’s move to impose national security legislation on the city.
Pro-democracy supporters have sharply criticized a proposal, set to be approved by China’s rubber-stamp parliament this week, that would ban secessionist and subversive activity, and foreign interference, in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
The pro-democracy camp says the proposal goes against the “one country, two systems” framework that promises Hong Kong freedoms not found in mainland China.
Crowds of demonstrators dressed in black gathered Sunday in the Causeway Bay district, chanting slogans such as “Stand with Hong Kong,““Liberate Hong Kong” and “Revolution of our times.”
The protest was a continuation of a monthslong pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong that began last year and has at times descended into violence between police and protesters.
Police raised blue flags, warning protesters to disperse, before firing multiple rounds of tear gas. They later fired a water cannon at the demonstrators.
At least 180 people were arrested, mostly on charges of unlawful assembly, police said.
They also said some protesters threw bricks and splashed unidentified liquid at officers, injuring at least four members of the police media liaison team. Police warned that such behavior is against the law.
Earlier, activist Tam Tak-chi was arrested during the protest for what police said was unauthorized assembly. Tam said he was giving a “health talk” and was exempt from social distancing measures that prohibit gatherings of more than eight people.
The bill that triggered Sunday’s rally was submitted at the opening of China’s national legislative session Friday. It would bypass Hong Kong’s legislature and could allow mainland agencies to be set up in the city, sparking concern that Chinese agents could arbitrarily arrest people for activities deemed to be pro-democracy.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Sunday that Hong Kong affairs were an internal matter for China, and that “no external interference will be tolerated.”
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called the proposal “a death knell for the high degree of autonomy” that Beijing promised the former British colony when it was returned to China in 1997.
President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, said it appeared that China was violating the 1984 treaty.
“And I can’t see how Hong Kong remains the Asian financial center if the Chinese Communist Party goes through and implements this national security law and takes over Hong Kong,” O’Brien said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“That would be a tragedy for the people of Hong Kong, but it will also be very bad for China,” he said.