Anti-protesters rally in Hong Kong

Government backers denounce ‘rioters’

HONG KONG — Only after finding safety in numbers, joining hundreds of other pro-government protesters in Hong Kong on Saturday, did Reddy Lin drum up the courage to slip into her red T-shirt marked, “China, I love you” and glue a heart-shaped Chinese-flag sticker to her face.

But for the train ride home, the teacher said she’d be taking all her pro-China garb off again. The risk of running into supporters from the rival camp, those who oppose China’s communist rulers, was simply too great, she said.

“It’s very dangerous. They’ll beat you,” she said. “They’re brutes.”

Lin and hundreds of other protesters waving red Chinese flags packed a Hong Kong park to vociferously denounce what they say is a reign of terror being imposed on the city by months of anti-government demonstrations. The protest highlighted the widening gulf between the pro- and anti-government camps in Hong Kong, with divisions that appear irreconcilable.

Compared with the hundreds of anti-government rallies that have gripped Hong Kong since June, the pro-China demonstration was like stepping through a looking glass. The Hong Kong police were praised as saviors, not bullies. China was presented as a country to love, not fear. Hong Kong was described as a city freer than most, instead of a place losing its liberties.

Chief among the demonstrators’ complaints was that they have grown scared of the black-clad, frequently violent hard core of the anti-government movement.

Calling them “rioters,” many said hard-line protesters are destroying Hong Kong’s freedoms, rather than protecting them, by resorting to violence.

In chants, the crowd called anti-government protesters “cockroaches.” Photos displayed at the rally showed the bloodied faces of people who have been attacked during protests. They have included people who’ve been deemed by mobs to be unsympathetic to the anti-government movement, including a man who was doused with inflammable liquid and set on fire last month.

Mark Schiefelbein The Associated Press Pro-Beijing supporters wave the Chinese flags at a rally in a park in Hong Kong on Saturday. Hundreds took part in the rally.