Hong Kong: thousands protest over police shooting of teenager
Driven by anger and grief, thousands of people came on to the streets of Hong Kong on Wednesday to denounce the shooting of a teenage student by police, an escalation of forcethat has intensified the standoff between protesters and authorities.
In the daytime the protesters marched through the city centre, organised sit-ins at schools and gathered at a courtroom where other demonstrators faced rioting charges.In the evening thousands more joined largely peaceful rallies across Hong Kong, denouncing police brutality. Some called for the police force to be disbanded.
Many at the demonstrations held their hands over the left side of their chests in tribute to 18-year-old Tsang Chi-kin, who was shot at point-blank range on Tuesday, with the bullet narrowly missing his heart. Tsang was in hospital in stable but critical condition after surgery to remove the bullet.
The shooting shocked many in the city; despite copious use of teargas, water cannon, beanbags and other less lethal forms of violence over nearly four months of protests, officers had previously only fired their guns in warning.
Tsang’s injury and the wider chaos of Tuesday’s protests, called to mark the 70th anniversary of communist rule in China as a “day of grief”, appeared to have further radicalised both demonstrators and their opponents.
The city’s largest police group called for a curfew, or for the government to bring in harsh colonial-era emergency powers, claiming its officers were working in “war-zone-like” conditions, the South China Morning Post reported.
Pro-Beijing politicians backed its demands and defended the police officer who opened fire, the Hong Kong Free Press reported. “It was a reasonable and legal action,” said legislator Gary Chan. “The government should consider enacting an emergency law to stop the riots as soon as possible.”
Protesters in turn warned Hong Kong authorities that they would not back down. One declared: “This is war,” at a press conference outside Tsang’s school in the working-class Tsuen Wan district that brought together activist groups, protesters and the injured student’s classmates.
“On a day of celebration in Beijing, the people of Hong Kong were weeping from the teargas and bleeding from the bullets fired,” said the protester, his face hidden behind a bandana and sunglasses. He asked to be described only as a “Hong Kong citizen”.
“The people of Hong Kong are sick and tired of having mere words of condemnation as their only shield against lethal bullets and rifles. Because by now it is beyond clear that this government does not even take its own people seriously.”
Others paid tribute to Tsang, who used the English name Tony, and called for international support while promising to forge a stronger resistance movement.
The protests were originally sparked by anger at a now-withdrawn extradition bill, but have since expanded into a broader pro-democracy movement with five core demands including an inquiry into police violence.
“Tony has always been a role model to junior classmates. He is also one of the best people I know,” said a friend who gave his last name, Wong. “The anti-extradition movement gave him renewed purpose. Despite his tender age he never hesitated to stand up for the future of Hong Kong.”
Behind the speakers, school students in uniform gathered to chant protest slogans, including: “Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times.” They held banners attacking police brutality.
Earlier, hundreds of students, alumni and staff gathered for a morning sit-in to support Tsang. He has been arrested for assault, but the school principal said he would be welcome to return to classes once he was released from hospital, defying calls from some pro-Beijing figures for him to be punished for his role in protests.
Pictures from across Hong Kong showed students from other schools gathering in forecourts and on sports grounds, often with their hands over their hearts.
In the city centre, protesters filed out of their offices around midday, and shut down a main road as they marched peacefully, singing the anthem Glory to
Hong Kong.
Some carried signs saying: “You can kill the dreamer but you can’t kill the dream”; while others held up their hands with fingers spread wide, a reference to the “five demands” that have become the heart of the protest movement.
Hundreds more gathered at a court in West Kowloon, where 96 people arrested at the weekend were expected to be charged with rioting. It was to be the largest mass hearing in the city since the handover from British colonial rule, according to the writer and activist Kong Tsung-gan.
The lobby was crammed with relatives and supporters lining up for tickets, but the court had only 100 spaces.
A mother of one young detainee said she had only seen him at a distance in hospital since he was arrested on Sunday, because he was receiving treatment for shoulder and arm injuries. Later, more than 2,000 people filled an open-air sports stadium in Tsuen Wan, many holding posters saying: “Don’t shoot our kids,” and waving flashlights on their phones and singing a protest anthem.
That gathering was peaceful, but on a march through nearby streets, protesters attacked businesses considered pro-China and barricaded roads. In other parts of the city, protesters threw molotov cocktails and flooded a metro station.
In the shopping area of central Causeway Bay, protesters calling for the Hong Kong police to be disbanded began blocking roads, but dispersed before violence broke out. Video from the scene appeared to show people calling on others to go home.
Tuesday’s chaos was the worst violence in the city since the protest movement began. Police had refused organisers a permit to march, but tens of thousands of people defied the ruling.
At least 104 people were injured, four of them seriously, and 269 people arrested, the youngest of them only 12.
The chaotic scenes overshadowed a carefully choreographed military parade and evening gala meant to celebrate China’s rise to global superpower status, and celebrate its strongman president, Xi Jinping.