Hong Kong protests turn violent
Police use tear gas, masked assailants also go on attack
Masked assailants attack subway riders, apparently were targeting pro-democracy demonstrators.
HONG KONG — Hong Kong’s protest movement took a violent turn Sunday as police launched tear gas at protesters after a massive march continued late into the evening, and subway riders were attacked by masked assailants who apparently were targeting pro-democracy demonstrators.
The firing of the tear gas was the latest confrontation between police and protesters who have taken to the streets for more than a month to fight a proposed extradition bill and call for electoral reforms in the Chinese territory.
The march had been peaceful when it reached its police-designated end point in in the late afternoon, but thousands continued onward, at various points occupying key government and business districts. They then headed for the Liaison Office, which represents China’s Communist Partyled central government within the city.
Protesters threw eggs at the building and spraypainted its surrounding surveillance cameras. China’s national emblem, which adorns the front of the Liaison Office, was splattered with black ink. The Liaison Office said in comments published on Chinese state media that the acts “openly challenged the authority of the central government and touched the bottom line of the ‘one country, two systems’ principle.”
Later, police threw tear gas canisters at protesters to try to disperse them. Protesters
Stand News reporter Gwyneth Ho said on Facebook that she suffered minor injuries to her hands and shoulder, and was dizzy from a head injury. The South China Morning Post reported several people were bleeding following the attacks, and that seven people were sent to the hospital.
The Hong Kong government said in a statement that commuters were attacked at a subway station in the city’s Yuen Long neighborhood, leading to “confrontations and injuries.”
The statement also said some “radical protesters initiated a series of violent acts despite repeated warnings” by police. They said the acts included hurling
petrol bombs, setting fires and throwing bricks.
“This is absolutely unacceptable to Hong Kong as a society that observes the rule of law,” the statement said, referring to the acts of the subway attackers as well as the protesters.
Organizers said 430,000 people participated in Sunday’s march, while police said there were 138,000 during the procession’s “peak period.”
Large protests began early last month in opposition to a contentious extradition bill that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to stand trial in mainland China, where critics say their rights would be compromised.
Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, has declared the extradition bill dead, but protesters are dissatisfied with her refusal to formally withdraw the legislation. Some are also calling for her to resign amid growing concerns about the steady erosion of civil rights in the city.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, was handed back to China in 1997 and was promised certain democratic freedoms under the framework of “one country, two systems.” The current demonstrations have ballooned into calls for electoral reform and an investigation into alleged police brutality at the protests.
Walking in sweltering heat, protesters dressed in black kicked off Sunday’s march at a public park, carrying a large banner that read “Independent Inquiry for Rule of Law.”
“Free Hong Kong! Democracy now!” the protesters chanted, forming a dense procession as they were joined by others who had been waiting in side streets.
“The government has never responded to our demands,” said Karen Yu, a 52-year-old Hong Kong resident who has attended four protests since they started. “No matter how much the government can do, at least it should come out and respond to us directly.”
Protesters repeated the five points of their “manifesto,” which was first introduced when a small group of them stormed the legislature earlier this month. Their main demands include universal suffrage — direct voting rights for all Hong Kong residents — as well as dropping charges against anti-extradition protesters, withdrawing the characterization of a clash between police and protesters as a “riot” and dissolving the Legislative Council.