Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Tear gas fired at protesters
Rally against China extradition escalates into street battles
Crackdowns and defiance in Hong Kong’s widening crisis over bill that would allow extraditions to China.
HONG KONG — Hong Hong descended into scenes of crackdowns and defiance Wednesday as demonstrators occupied main boulevards and faced down tear gas and rubber bullets in a widening crisis over a bill that would allow extraditions to China.
The unfolding images across the global financial hub — violent street battles, car drivers abandoning vehicles and blocking roads in a show of solidarity — suggested both sides were digging in at another potentially pivotal moment for the former British colony.
For the protesters, the extradition plan amounts to the latest erosion of Hong Kong’s freedoms and special status more than two decades after returning to Chinese control. Critics fear that it would effectively bring China’s justice system — and its harsh rules against dissent — to the semiautonomous enclave.
Hong Kong’s administration, meanwhile, is packed with pro-Beijing officials who appear intent on pushing through the measure. Amid the chaos, however, the legislature postponed a scheduled second reading of the bill. A final vote is expected by June 20.
Some demonstrators had come prepared with umbrellas, harking back to the 2014 Umbrella Movement pro-democracy protests in which young demonstrators had to shield themselves against police pepper spray.
Those protesters five years ago occupied the streets for 79 days, calling for a greater voice in selecting Hong Kong’s leadership — demands that were not met. The extradition bill has re-energized residents and galvanized a wide crosssection of Hong Kong.
“We are trying to tell the government that the more they suppress us, the more we will fight back,” said Justin Tang, 25, an airline employee who was sitting on a road that would normally be filled with Hong Kong’s red-and-white taxis and transit buses.
“Being the last city in China that is able to do that, we are going to hold on to that right,” he said.
And though the protests apparently delayed a reading of the bill, Beijingbacked leader Carrie Lam on Wednesday insisted that the law would be pushed through. That left tense questions as to the next steps on both sides.
The Hong Kong Police Force said as of Wednesday night it did not yet have a figure on the number of arrests. An unconfirmed number also suffered injuries from police-fired rubber bullets, bean bag rounds and tear gas.
Local news reports, citing hospital figures, said 72 people suffered injuries from police-fired rubber bullets and tear gas, including a van driver from public broadcaster RTHK who was shot in the head. The reports could not be independently verified.
The unrest weighed on markets. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index ended the day down 1.7 percent. The political fallout also expanded.
Britain’s foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, urged the Hong Kong administration to “pause and reflect” on the extradition bill. In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus took a jab at Beijing. The protesters, she said, “don’t like being subjugated ... as it relates to some of their fundamental rights.”
Since Sunday — when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets — the demonstrators have grown increasingly confrontational.
Throughout the day, the protesters — some wearing goggles and yellow construction helmets — pushed against police lines to force them back. Police eventually deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and batons.
“Police reiterate that any acts endangering public order and public safety will not be tolerated,” the Hong Kong Police Force said in a statement. “Police will take resolute actions to restore social order and protect public safety.”
At one point, a group of protesters streamed onto major roads near Hong Kong’s main government offices, the Legislative Council complex.
Demonstrators removed metal barricades, commandeering them to block key intersections and expressway ramps.
Other barricades were used as makeshift ladders to assist people climbing over large concrete road dividers.
Hong Kong was handed back to China in 1997 after more than a century of British colonial rule. Under the handover agreement, China promised that the territory would remain politically independent, able to enact its own laws, and would keep its judicial and immigration systems and its economic framework.
But the territory’s autonomy has been eroding at a hastening pace for years, and critics say the extradition measure could be the final nail in the coffin: the effective end of the “one country, two systems” framework, by extending mainland law into Hong Kong.