HONG KONG - At least 8 protesters who had been holding out at a trashed Hong Kong university surrendered on Friday, while others searched for escape routes past the riot police surrounding the campus.
The siege at the Polytechnic University on the Kowloon peninsula appeared to be nearing an end with the number of protesters dwindling to a handful, days after some of the worst violence since anti-government demonstrations escalated in June.
Police chief Chris Tang, who took up the post this week, urged those remaining inside to come out.
"I believe people inside the campus do not want their parents, friends ... to worry about them," Tang told reporters.
Those who remain say they want to avoid being arrested for rioting or on other charges, so hope to find some way to slip past the police or hide.
Sitting in the largely deserted campus, one holdout described how his girlfriend had pleaded with him to surrender to the police.
He had refused, he said, telling her she might as well find another partner because he would likely go to jail.
"A man has to abandon everything otherwise it's impossible to take part in a revolution," the protester told Reuters.
The US Congress has passed legislation to back the Hong Kong protesters and threaten China with possible sanctions for human rights violations, angering Beijing.
President Donald Trump, who is seeking a resolution to a tit-for-tat tariff trade war with Beijing, was vague on Friday when asked whether he would sign the bills.
Trump said in an interview with Fox News Channel that he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that crushing the protesters would have "a tremendous negative impact" on efforts to end the 16-month trade war.
"If it weren't for me Hong Kong would have been obliterated in 14 minutes," he said, without offering any evidence.
"He's got a million soldiers standing outside of Hong Kong that aren't going in only because I ask him please don't do it, you'll be making a big mistake, it's going to have a tremendous negative impact on the trade deal and he wants to make a trade deal."
CAMPUS QUIET
The Polytechnic campus was so quiet on Friday you could hear the chants of Chinese People's Liberation Army soldiers exercising on their nearby base.
Many levels of the buildings look like abandoned hideouts strewn with remains — rucksacks, masks, water bottles, cigarette butts, with security cameras smashed throughout. Lockers were stuffed with gas masks and black clothes, and a samurai sword lay on the ground where it was abandoned.
"We are feeling a little tired. All of us feel tired but we will not give up trying to get out," said a 23-year-old demonstrator, who gave his name as Shiba as he ate noodles in the protesters' canteen.
A Reuters reporter saw 6 black-clad protesters holding hands walk towards police lines, while a first aid worker said 2 more surrendered later.
The protests snowballed from June after years of resentment over what many residents see as Chinese meddling in freedoms promised to Hong Kong when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Protesters, who have thrown petrol bombs and rocks and fired bows and arrows at police, are calling for full democracy and an independent inquiry into perceived police brutality, among other demands.
Police have responded to the attacks with rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon and occasional live rounds but say they have acted with restraint in life-threatening situations.
On Friday, Hong Kong's High Court said it would temporarily suspend its ruling that found a controversial law banning protesters from wearing face masks is unconstitutional.
The court said it would suspend its ruling for 7 days while appeals processes proceeded.
Beijing has said it is committed to the "one country, two systems" formula under which Hong Kong is governed. It denies meddling in its affairs and accuses foreign governments of stirring up trouble.
One older protester, who estimated only about 30 demonstrators remained at the university, said some had given up looking for escape routes and were making new weapons to protect themselves in case police stormed the campus.
There have been 2 days and nights of relative calm in the city ahead of district council elections that are due to take place on Sunday.
Tang said police would adopt a "high-profile" presence on Sunday and he appealed to protesters to refrain from violence so people feel safe to vote.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
A modern city-center campus disfigured by fire and strewn with debris, its windows smashed and graffiti covering the red-brick walls -- a Hong Kong university has become the epicenter of the city's nearly six-month crisis.
Cornered and increasingly desperate, a hard core of young pro-democracy protesters found themselves holed up at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) late Monday, running out of supplies and options, with police waiting outside.
The English word "freedom" was spray-painted in cursive letters on a walkway, where a discarded piece of clothing lay after some protesters had changed their black attire and made a dash for escape.
Many were arrested by riot police who dragged those they caught along a footbridge, striking out with batons and, in incidents filmed and shared on social media, appearing to stamp on the necks of some prone protesters.
What began as an energetic, well supplied and tightly organized campus occupation -- with a stocked and staffed canteen, yoga mats and blankets to sleep on, and a defiant spirit of volunteerism -- gave way to despair as the siege wore on.
Facing arrest or a crackdown and with nowhere to go, the mood among protesters inside the campus was increasingly desolate as night fell on Monday.
Some slumped on chairs, exhausted from two days of running battles. Others cried, consoled by friends.
"There is no way we can get out of the university safely now," said one 19-year-old, without giving a name.
Supplies of bottled water and fresh food were dwindling, while warnings issued by authorities outside were turning increasingly stark.
Calls were made on phones with depleted batteries throughout the day to family, friends and lawyers. One man sitting alone in a canteen broke off from his lunch and sobbed.
Hong Kong's protests started in June in opposition to a now-shelved bill that would have allowed extraditions to China.
But the demonstrations quickly spun out into a wider pro-democracy struggle, and angry calls for police accountability.
High stakes
PolyU, which boasts a Zaha Hadid-designed tower and a reputation for advancing working-class students, has in the past two days staged the most sustained and intense clashes seen in nearly half a year of unrest.
Sporadic fires flared throughout Monday around the campus entrances, lit by protesters as defensive barriers.
The stakes for those inside are high.
Police, who have declared the scene a riot zone, on Monday reiterated their threat to charge anyone found inside without good reason with rioting -- which can carry up to 10 years in jail.
Local police commander Cheuk Hau-yip urged protesters to surrender and face the law, warning police would use live rounds if confronted with dangerous weapons.
"Don't press our bottom line," he said in a press conference on Monday.
"I did not do anything that can prove I was involved in the riot," the unnamed 19-year-old student said.
"But I am afraid they will use extreme violence against the people in here."
On Sunday police said an officer was struck in the leg by an arrow. Protesters had seized sports bows from university storerooms and fashioned homemade catapults to fire bricks at police lines from PolyU's rooftop, each successful hit greeted with cheers.
Families of besieged protesters kept up an emotional vigil on a footbridge leading to the campus, many holding placards reading "save the children" and urging the public to help stop the siege.
But for those who escaped through a gauntlet of baton-wielding riot cops on Monday, the fear is that the police are in a mood to press home their advantage.
"They want to grab this chance to catch all the radical protesters," Isaac, 18, who escaped on Monday told AFP.
"We are afraid that if we lose this battle... we lose the whole revolution."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HONG KONG -- Driven by anger at the authorities' response to massive protests - and guilt that the burden of defending democracy has fallen on the city's youth - a white collar rebellion is rippling out across Hong Kong.
Every day this week, thousands of office workers have downed tools for a few hours, responding to a call to strike in a cheekily named "Lunch With You" rally.
Faces masked, hands held aloft, many in crisp shirts -- some in suits -- they chanted pro-democracy slogans and blocked roads in business districts normally characterized by a tunnel-vision for commerce, risking arrest in a rally not sanctioned by police.
On Monday and Tuesday, they crouched under umbrellas, as police lobbed tear gas through Central, the city's financial heart, clouds drifting across the shopfronts of designer stores.
By Friday, deskbound workers deployed the tactics of street protest -- including the swift formation of two lines creating a channel for black-clad "braves" to run through carrying bricks in anticipation of a police crackdown.
"The least we can do is give up our lunchtime to come out and protest the government," said 33-year-old lawyer Jansen.
The white collar rebels share widespread anger at the now-shelved government plan to introduce a law allowing the extradition of criminal suspects to mainland China.
Many initially joined the peaceful mega-rallies sanctioned by police against the bill.
Older and employed in city jobs, they mainly identified as "moderates."
But as time has passed, attitudes have calcified.
Violence against young frontline protesters, a government deaf to demands for greater democracy and a lack of police accountability has brought white-collar workers to the streets with renewed conviction.
"We keep going to work every day like nothing is happening, no matter how many students are getting injured. But I can't bear to go on like this," said a 26-year-old office worker who gave his surname as Chan.
He was wearing heavy-duty workman's gloves and helping frontliners build a roadblock in Pedder Street -- one of the city's most exclusive shopping areas and moments from its major banks.
"I've always been in the peaceful, rational, non-violent camp. But a lot has changed," he said.
Protesters fear Hong Kong's freedoms, unique within China, are in danger.
That has thrown the city's narrative of free market success and stability into perspective -- more so as the economy has tipped into recession.
"Some values in the community cannot be only measured in terms of money," said Lawrence, a 32-year-old suited finance professional.
"What I sacrificed can never be compared with those youngsters' sacrifices," he said, adding that their "futures" are on the line.
The five-day strike, which saw the city's transport network targeted by roadblocks and vandalism and brought some of the most violent unrest yet, has stretched Hong Kong police.
It has also prodded rebellion from the greatest beneficiaries of Hong Kong's once hallowed reputation for peace and stability.
"If we're peaceful they don't listen," Ms. Lau, a 52-year-old entrepreneur said.
"If you're violent they say it won't solve any problems."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HONG KONG - A Hong Kong police officer shot at masked protesters on Monday morning -- hitting at least one in the torso -- during clashes broadcast live on Facebook, as the city's rush hour was interrupted by protests.
Footage showed a police officer drawing his sidearm in the district of Sai Wan Ho as he tried to detain a masked man at a road junction that had been blocked by protesters.
Another masked man then approached the officer and was apparently shot in the chest area, quickly falling to the ground, clutching his left side. His condition was not clear.
Seconds later, two more live rounds were fired by the officer during a scuffle and another masked man went to the ground, although the footage was less clear as to whether he was struck.
Police could later be seen detaining the two men on the ground. The first man had a pool of blood next to him, his body limp as officers moved him around and apparently tried to tie his hands.
The second man was conscious and talking.
A police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that live rounds were fired at more than one protester in Sai Wan Ho and that a statement would be issued.
Hong Kong has been upended by five months of huge and increasingly violent rallies, but Beijing has refused to give in to most of the movement's demands.
Tensions have soared in recent days following the death on Friday of a 22-year-old student who succumbed to injuries sustained from a fall in the vicinity of a police clearance operation the weekend before.
The city has seen four days of consecutive protests since the student's death as well as tens of thousands attending mass vigils.
Using online messaging forums, activists had called for a general strike on Monday morning.
Flashmob protests sprung up in multiple districts during the morning commuter period, with small groups of masked protesters targeting subway stations and building barricades on road junctions.
Even before the shooting in Sai Wan Ho, tear gas had been fired in at least two other locations.
Monday's shooting is the third time protesters have been shot with live rounds by police.
On 1 October a student was struck in the chest as he and a group of activists attacked an officer with sticks and poles. He survived his wound and is being prosecuted.
Days later a 14-year-old boy was shot in the leg when a policeman in plainclothes fired his gun after his car was attacked by a crowd. He also survived and was arrested.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HONG KONG - Just before midnight in Hong Kong's Mong Kok district, a slight man in his seventies peels away from a crowd of protesters jeering at police. Behind him, a young woman calls out, "Be safe!"
They make an improbable pair: she a smartly dressed 24-year-old; he an elderly activist who has for decades been sleeping on the streets of one of the wealthiest – and most unequal – cities on earth.
Bringing the two together is a movement that began in June with protests against a bill that would have allowed extradition to mainland China. The proposed legislation has since been withdrawn.
The demonstrations have since spiraled into a struggle over the future of the Chinese-ruled city that has drawn people from a broad cross-section of society. Some live on the breadline, but they have set aside their grievances to support a movement they hope will secure a better future for all.
"Even though we are poor, we still support the 5 demands," said the 73-year-old, Lou Tit-Man, referring to a 5-point agenda that includes calls for universal suffrage and for hundreds of arrested protesters to be pardoned.
While others organize on encrypted apps like Telegram, Lou Tit-Man follows news of the demonstrations on his shortwave radio, one of the few possessions he has managed to keep from thieves, along with a mask picked up after one scuffle.
Known locally as "Iron Man", a play on his Chinese name and reputation for resilience, he spent 4 months in jail during the 2014 "Umbrella Movement" that paralyzed the city but failed to win major concessions from Beijing.
In his shirt pocket he carries a crumpled copy of an article about him in a local newspaper, relating how he spent his government subsidies to buy food and water for the mostly young protesters.
"I want the next generation to have a better life," he said, "I put all my heart and soul into the social movement."
This year's rallies have brought thousands of people onto the streets weekend after weekend, shouting slogans like "stand with Hong Kong" and "revolution of our time" that express a growing discontent with what is seen as creeping Chinese interference in the city.
The government has called for dialogue and said it is willing to "take forward constitutional development" in accordance with the law.
Recent demonstrations have often erupted into violence, with black-clad protesters setting fires and vandalizing metro stations as police fired tear gas, pepper spray, and water cannon.
More turmoil is expected ahead of Oct 1., when Beijing plans lavish celebrations to mark 70 years of the People's Republic.
Authorities describe the participants as "rioters" controlled by external instigators. A recent police tally of the hundreds arrested showed the youngest was 13, the eldest in their eighties.
Many taking to the streets are students, but others are teachers, pilots, nurses, chefs and cleaners and workers from the poorest districts of the city. They include rough sleepers and residents of the crowded subdivided flats that stand in the shadows of skyscrapers.
ECONOMIC WOES
While much of the anger driving the protests stems from political grievances – especially over the implementation of the "one country, 2 systems" agreement under which Hong Kong was handed back to China, promising a high degree of autonomy – analysts say it also has roots in economic woes.
A survey by a local university found 84 per cent of protesters said they were angry about class inequality and 92 per cent thought the wealth gap was unreasonable.
Graffiti laments the prohibitive cost of housing – the most expensive in the world – and the issue was raised in a community dialogue with Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Thursday night.
The city of 7.4 million, built up from a fishing village by British colonizers in the pursuit of wealth, is now home to more billionaires than any other in the world barring New York, but one in 5 of its people live in poverty.
Income inequality recently reached its highest level in more than four decades, according to government data.
In Sham Shui Po, the poorest of Hong Kong's districts, parks are crowded with men sleeping on mattresses or benches. Many are elderly and in poor health, with rashes and bone-thin limbs. Nearby, women push fluffy dogs in prams.
"The affluent people just take everything from poor people," said Lou Tit-Man, who sleeps in a rough neighborhood where he said he has been beaten up by members of Chinese triads, or gangs.
"In the long-term I want Hong Kong to become an equal society," he said.
Ng Wai Tung, a social worker, said the city's "sky-rocketing rent" was fueling homelessness and a housing crisis the government was failing to tackle.
An acute housing shortage means people wait, on average, at least five years for public housing. Most young people live with their parents and more than 200,000 are packed into subdivided units, known as "coffin cubicles" and "cage homes", for which they pay the equivalent of more than $500 per month.
Authorities vowed to build 280,000 public flats by 2027 but have said they will fall short of that goal.
Lam said on Friday she would focus on solutions to the crisis in her Oct 1. policy address.
PILLAR OF OUR SOCIETY
"If the government really wanted to help me, I wouldn't have to work two jobs and live in a subdivided area," said 60-year-old Ip, a cleaner at a university, who moved to Hong Kong from mainland China in her thirties.
She pays $5,000 ($637) a month for a dark room in Sham Shui Po which barely fits the bed she shares with her husband, who is ill and cannot work. The roof leaks.
She formed tight bonds with students after taking part in the 2014 demonstrations, to the chagrin of her husband and family.
"There were some protesters that I didn't know who treated me so well. They chatted with me and were very peaceful," she said.
"These young people were beaten by the police ... They were willing to sacrifice themselves to safeguard a better future for Hong Kong."
Her parents in the mainland tell her she has been brainwashed by foreign forces. But when she visits them in Guangdong province, and sees them glued to state TV coverage of the protests, she thinks it is they who are misinformed.
"I keep arguing with people who don't support the students," she said. "They are the most important pillar of our society. I must help them."
Outside the police station in Mong Kok, the crowd watches as Lou Tit-Man scrawls slogans like, "Stop police brutality" and "Step down, Carrie Lam". He writes the messages on scraps of paper he finds on the street and puts them up near the station.
Every night, the police clear the area. "Afterwards I will make new ones," he said with a grin. (Reporting by Poppy Elena McPherson; Additional reporting by Angie Teo; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Hong Kong police on Monday warned against escalating violence in months-long anti-government protests following the arrest of 80 people in demonstrations over the weekend.
Protesters wreaked havoc in the districts of Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Sha Tin and Tseung Kwan O in the New Territories as well as Mong Kok in the Kowloon Peninsula on Saturday and Sunday.
Bricks and petrol bombs were thrown at riot police, and in Tuen Mun on Saturday a protester tried to steal a police officer's revolver.
"No excuses, no propaganda can justify or glorify such acts of violence," police spokesman Tse Chun-chung said at a news briefing. "We appeal to every member of the public to cut ties with all criminal elements and join us in condemning such violent acts."
Tse, as well as the police officers' union, condemned the attempted snatching of the officer's pistol.
"We are hereby giving our strongest warning: anyone who attempts to rob police pistol or equipment, officers will definitely use relevant force to stop it. The perpetrator will bear all responsibilities," Tse said.
The police also denied having kicked a protester after taking him into a back alley in Yuen Long on Saturday night.
"The video (purportedly showing the kicking) is very out of focus, and it could have been an object, a person a bag or a vest," Superintendent Vasco Williams said in the briefing.
The 80 arrested were accused of a range of crimes including unlawful assembly, possession of weapons, assaulting police, disorderly conduct, dangerous driving and desecrating the Chinese national flag.
Chinese flags have been targeted by protesters angered by China's perceived meddling in the territory's affairs. When the former British colony was returned to China in 1997, it was promised semi-autonomy from Beijing's rule.
Nine incidents involving the desecration of Chinese flags are being investigated, including two flags that were desecrated by protesters during the weekend. Police said at least five people have been arrested for such acts since June, when the protests began, triggered by an extradition bill that has since been withdrawn.
China's state-run Xinhua News Agency in an editorial piece Monday called those who defaced the Chinese flag "rioters" and urged Hong Kong people to "make the right choice, stridently defend the national flag."
The editorial said insulting the flag is tantamount to insulting the country and the nation, and a blasphemy to all Chinese people including Hong Kong's compatriots.
Under Hong Kong law, desecrating the Chinese flag carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison, police said.
The 80 arrested over the weekend bring the total arrests since June to 1,556 people, aged 12 to 83, with dozens of them having been charged with rioting.
The protests, triggered by the government-proposed extradition bill, have since widened from demanding the withdrawal of the bill to calling for an independent probe into alleged police brutality, pardons for arrested protesters and democratic reform.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Pro-democracy protesters react as police fire water canons outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong on Sunday. Hong Kong riot police fired tear gas and water cannons on Sept. 15 at hardcore pro-democracy protesters hurling rocks and petrol bombs, in a return to the political chaos plaguing the city.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Fights erupted in Hong Kong on Saturday with political rivals trading blows in a mall and Beijing supporters using Chinese flags to assault opponents on a street, deepening the city's polarization after months of pro-democracy protests.
The once stable international hub has been convulsed by weeks of huge, sometimes violent rallies calling for greater democratic freedoms and police accountability.
The movement is the biggest challenge to China's rule since the city was handed back by Britain in 1997 and shows no sign of ending, with city leaders and Beijing taking a hard line.
Fights have begun breaking out with increased frequency after pro-democracy supporters began holding impromptu singalongs of a popular protest anthem -- and as pro-Beijing supporters have held rival gatherings to sing China's national anthem.
In the district of Fortress Hill on Saturday a group of men, many waving Chinese flags and wearing blue t-shirts declaring "I love HK police", attacked people perceived to be pro-democracy protesters.
Multiple videos posted online showed the group of men assaulting largely younger victims with large flags on poles -- and with punches and kicks -- as terrified onlookers ran away.
Hong Kong police did not respond to a request for comment on the incident.
Fortress Hill is next to North Point, an area of the city where similar mob attacks by government supporters have occurred this summer and which has long been a bastion of pro-Beijing sentiment.
Fights later broke out between pro-China and pro-democracy supporters in Amoy Plaza, a shopping center on the other side of the harbor.
An AFP photographer on scene said some two hundred people had gathered to wave Chinese flags and sing the national anthem.
- Bloodied and bruised -
Violence erupted after pro-democracy supporters arrived on the scene with several people on both sides visibly bloodied and bruised.
Police with shields and helmets later rushed into the mall, ending the fights.
Some young pro-democracy supporters were seen being detained outside and inside the mall by police.
The South China Morning Post said fights also broke out between ideological rivals in a subway station.
Democracy protesters have accused police of taking sides, clamping down harder on their camp than violent government supporters -- accusations the force has strongly denied.
An attack by pro-government men with sticks in the town of Yuen Long in July which left more than 40 people hospitalised sent anger soaring after police were accused to taking too long to get to the incident and failing to arrest the aggressors on site.
Hong Kong has been battered by nearly 100 days of protests, sparked by a now-abandoned plan to allow extraditions to the mainland.
But with few concessions won so far the movement has snowballed into wider calls for democracy and a halt to sliding freedoms under Beijing's rule.
Millions have taken part in huge, largely peaceful demonstrations.
But smaller groups of hardline protesters have fought increasingly violent battles with riot police and vandalized subway stations in scenes that have sent shockwaves through the once-stable financial hub.
Under a deal signed with Britain ahead of the city's 1997 handover to China, Hong Kong is allowed to keep its unique freedoms for 50 years.
Democracy activists accuse Beijing of reneging on those promises by ramping up political control over the semi-autonomous territory.
Activists and analysts say the movement will only end when some other key demands are met, such as an inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the nearly 1,400 people arrested and universal suffrage.
But there is little sign of Beijing agreeing to those demands.
Plans by demonstrators to hold a large rally on Sunday have been rejected by the police.
Previous bans have simply been ignored by the masses and clashes with police have quickly followed.
Protesters have also called for rallies the next two weekends and a general strike starting in October.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HONG KONG - Hong Kong visitor arrivals plunged nearly 40 percent in August from a year earlier, deepening from July's 5 percent fall, the finance secretary said as sometimes violent anti-government protests take a rising toll on the city's tourism, retail and hotel businesses.
Hotels in some locations had seen occupancy rates drop to about half, while room rates plunged 40 to 70 percent, Paul Chan said, citing industry sources.
"The most worrying thing is that it does not seem that the road ahead is easily going to turn any better," Chan said in his blog on Sunday.
July tourist arrivals fell 4.8 percent on the year, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Board, the first annual decline since January 2018 and the biggest percentage drop since August 2016.
Retail sales in July sank by the most since February 2016 amid the anti-government protests that have gripped the Chinese-ruled city for more than three months.
Chan said the social unrest had severely damaged the image of Hong Kong as a safe international city and a hub for trade, aviation and finance.
On Monday, hundreds of uniformed school students formed human chains in districts across Hong Kong in support of anti-government protesters after another weekend of clashes in the Chinese-ruled city. Metro stations that had closed on Sunday amid confrontations reopened.
Chan said that repeated violent conflicts, the blocking of roads, underground railways and the airport had obstructed people from going to work and school and led to the cancellation or rescheduling of "many" international conferences and exhibitions.
Total export fell 5.7 percent year on year in July, while re-export value to the United States from China via Hong Kong declined 15.2 percent from a year earlier, he said.
Global credit rating agency Fitch Ratings on Friday downgraded Hong Kong's long-term foreign currency issuer default rating to "AA" from "AA+", and said it expects public discontent will likely persist.
"Fitch's view is purely speculative, lacking justification," Chan said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
