Hong Kong protesters form human chains across city
HONG KONG — Hong Kong residents Friday night formed human chains across large parts of the city in a call for direct elections, a test of the continuing strength of the monthslong protest movement and a display that recalled a major anti-Soviet demonstration from 30 years ago.
Participants fanned out across three routes, totaling 20 miles, over densely populated sections of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories.
The plans developed quickly online this week after a march Sunday drew hundreds of thousands who demonstrated in the rain, a sign protesters had not been dissuaded by a police ban or warnings from the Chinese government.
Participants on Friday sang protest songs and chanted slogans. While many joined hands, others held up their cellphones to illuminate the lines of people. Several held signs with flags of foreign nations and the phrase, “Thank you for supporting freedom and democracy!”
They lined up along Victoria Harbor and on Lion Rock, the peak that overlooks the Kowloon Peninsula. They stood amid apartment towers and on busy shopping streets, beside drinkers spilling out of bars and office workers heading home after work.
“I want to deliver a message to the world that we are peaceful,” said Lee Kin, 29, an insurance company employee who joined the chain in the Wan Chai neighborhood on Hong Kong Island. “Even though I support fighting violently against the Chinese Communist Party, if we can demonstrate peacefully, we can get more support from the rest of the world.”
The event followed a variety of protest efforts, including marches, petitions, advertisements in international publications and walkways filled with art, as well as more confrontational actions such as defacing government buildings, clashing with the police and blocking roadways and trains.
Paul Au, 62, the owner of a small record store, previously participated in several protest movements in Hong Kong, including after the deadly crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. None of those, he said, were as large as the demonstrations that have taken place this summer.
“We have shown today that we are very peaceful, so let’s see what they can do to us,” Au said. “The whole world is watching, you know. The people who are right will win. Justice wins.”
Friday was the 30th anniversary of the 1989 Baltic Way protest, when as many as 2 million residents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania formed a human chain to call for independence from the Soviet Union.
Avoiding the fate of the Soviet Union has been a preoccupation of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, and other Chinese officials. During a 2017 visit to Hong Kong, Xi gave a stern warning that challenging China’s sovereignty “crosses the red line.”
The organizers have not emphasized the pro-independence sentiment of the Baltic protest that inspired Friday’s event.