HONG KONG -- Tens of thousands of anti-government protesters began marching in Hong Kong on New Year's Day, demanding concessions from the city's embattled government as the civil unrest that convulsed the Chinese-ruled city for over half a year spills into 2020.
Gathering on a grass lawn in Victoria Park under grey skies, citizens young and old, many dressed in black and some masked, carried signs such as "Freedom is not free" before setting off.
"It's hard to utter 'Happy New Year' because Hong Kong people are not happy," said a man named Tung, who was walking with his two-year-old son, mother and niece.
"Unless the five demands are achieved, and police are held accountable for their brutality, then we can't have a real happy new year," he added, referring to the push for concessions from the government including full democracy, an amnesty for the over 6,500 people arrested so far, and a powerful, independent investigation into police actions.
The pro-democracy march is being organized by the Civil Human Rights Front, a group that arranged a number of marches last year that drew millions.
Along the route, a number of newly elected pro-democracy district politicians mingled with the crowds on their first day in office, some helping collect donations to assist the movement.
"The government has already started the oppression before the New Year began ... whoever is being oppressed, we will stand with them," said Jimmy Sham, one of the leaders of the Civil Human Rights Front.
Thousands of Hong Kong revellers had earlier welcomed in 2020 on neon-lit promenades along the iconic skyline of Victoria Harbour, chanting the movement's signature eight-word Chinese protest couplet -- "Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our Time." -- for the final eight seconds before clocks struck midnight.
A sea of protesters then surged down Nathan Road, a major boulevard, blocking all lanes in a spontaneous march breaking out within minutes of the new decade. Some held signs reading "Let’s keep fighting together in 2020."
Overnight, police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons during some brief standoffs.
China's President Xi Jinping said in a New Year's speech that Beijing will "resolutely safeguard the prosperity and stability" of Hong Kong under the so-called "one country, two systems" framework.
Many people in Hong Kong are angered by Beijing's tight grip on the city which was promised a high degree of autonomy under this framework when the former British colony returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Beijing denies interference and blames the West for fomenting the unrest.
A group of 40 parliamentarians and dignitaries from 18 countries had written an open letter to Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam on New Year's Eve, urging her to "seek genuine ways forward out of this crisis by addressing the grievances of Hong Kong people."
The protest movement is supported by 59% of the city's residents polled in a survey conducted for Reuters by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute.
Demonstrations have grown increasingly violent in recent months, at times paralyzing the Asian financial center.
Protesters have thrown petrol bombs and rocks, with police responding with tear gas, water cannon, pepper spray, rubber bullets and occasional live rounds. There have been several injuries.
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HONG KONG - Hundreds of anti-government protesters and their supporters gathered outside a tiny restaurant in Hong Kong for an unconventional Christmas dinner, sharing paper plates piled high with food under neon street signs.
"Hong Kongers are more united this Christmas (than) in previous years," said Glory, the 31-year-old owner of Kwong Wing Catering, as he dished out noodles, fried chicken, and pasta from silver trays.
"Actually there is no Christmas atmosphere (this year), but there is a strong sense of unity," he said. All of the food on offer on Wednesday was free and prepared by the restaurant or donated by several sponsors.
Outside the eatery, hundreds of customers, many of them off-duty protesters, waited in line as tourists and other shoppers crowded the popular Tsim Sha Tsui area.
Jeanette, a 22-year-old university student, slurped bubble tea and pudding with her friend Yoyo as they discussed their holiday plans.
They would normally spend Christmas with their families, but felt this year had to be different. Both women said they had been involved in peaceful protests since the summer.
"We're all family now," said Jeanette, looking around at all of the other supporters eating around her.
"We're here because we want to support this shop, which has supported so many teenagers and protesters on the front line," said Yoyo between mouthfuls of pudding.
Kwong Wing Catering is one of many businesses that are part of the so-called "yellow economy" across Hong Kong that are known for their support of the pro-democracy campaign. Colorful post-it notes with words of support from customers decorated the restaurant's windows.
One of the chefs scheduled to cook at the eatery became a sort of folk hero after cooking for besieged student protesters at Polytechnic University in November.
He was supposed to cook for his supporters on Wednesday, but was arrested by police earlier in the week, according to the restaurant's Facebook page. It was not immediately clear why the chef had been arrested.
Hong Kong has been embroiled in anti-government protests since June which show no signs of abating.
Black-clad protesters marched through Christmas-decorated shopping malls across Hong Kong on Wednesday as police fired tear gas and pepper spray to disperse crowds.
The protesters are angry about what they see as an encroachment by China on the wide ranging autonomy Hong Kong was guaranteed under a "one country, two systems" framework which governs the former British colony.
China rejects such complaints.
Ivan, a 20-year-old university student, said he waited for an hour and a half to receive his hot meal.
"I feel very comforted that someone is willing to cook a meal for us," he said, adding that Hong Kong still had a "festive" atmosphere despite the protests and clashes with police.
"I just got tear-gassed yesterday so I think it's very special."
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NEW DELHI—At least 2 people are dead after police opened fire at a demonstration, an official said Thursday, as fresh protests erupted across India against a contentious citizenship law that critics say is anti-Muslim.
The men -- Abdul Jalil, 49, and Samshir Kudroli, 23 -- "died in police firing during the protests," Qadir Shah, a spokesman for the deputy commissioner of the southern city of Mangalore, told AFP, adding that a curfew had been imposed in the city with schools, restaurants and bars shut.
Another man taken to the King George's Medical University Trauma Centetr in Lucknow in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh with a gunshot injury died soon after, a hospital source told AFP.
His death has not been confirmed by local police, but his father told the Times of India newspaper his son was shot after getting caught in a crowd of protesters while he was out to buy groceries.
Four others were being treated at a hospital in Mangalore "with bullet injuries following the clashes," a district medical officer told AFP.
Shah said police fired their weapons after some 200 demonstrators refused to stop their march.
"They marched towards the busiest area of Mangalaru. This led to lathi (big, wooden sticks) charge. Then the tear gas was fired. When the protestors still didn't stop, the police had to open fire after that," he said, using an alternate name for the city.
Security forces and protesters had clashed in Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Karnataka states, while elsewhere police bundled demonstrators onto buses, shuttered Delhi metro stations and cut cellphone access in some areas.
The protests were sparked by a new law easing citizenship rules for people fleeing persecution from 3 neighboring countries but not Muslims, stoking accusations at home and abroad that Modi wants to reshape India as a Hindu nation, which he denies.
Seven months after Modi swept to a second term, the past week has seen 6 other people killed in the northeastern state of Assam and dozens injured, while on Thursday, authorities banned gatherings across swathes of the world's biggest democracy that together are home to hundreds of millions of people.
DEMONSTRATORS DRAGGED
Fresh violence erupted in Samhbal, Uttar Pradesh, where hundreds of protesters set fire to vehicles and threw stones at security forces who responded with tear gas, local police chief Yamuna Prasad told AFP.
In Modi's home state of Gujarat, police said they baton-charged demonstrators and arrested 50 people.
As others ignored the assembly bans in Delhi and elsewhere, authorities ordered telecom firms to cut calls, text messages and data in parts of the city.
India is already the world leader in cutting the internet, activists say, and access was also restricted in parts of the northeast and in Uttar Pradesh, home to a large Muslim minority.
In Delhi, prominent rights activist Harsh Mander was detained, while in Bangalore globally renowned historian Ramachandra Guha was among those dragged onto a police bus.
Around 20,000 people took to the streets in the northeast, where the protests began last week—albeit for different reasons.
The day's biggest demonstration took place in Malegaon district of Maharashtra state with as many as 60,000 people, police said.
'SOMETHING HAS CHANGED'
In Mumbai, a crowd of thousands including tattooed students and older Muslim men wearing skullcaps brandished Indian flags, posters of Mahatma Gandhi and handed out copies of the constitution.
"Something has changed. This is the first time in a long time that people in Mumbai have come out in such large numbers to register dissent," said consultant Karishma V.
A crowd of around 40,000 people in eastern West Bengal's Kolkata city was led by the state's chief minister Mamata Banerjee, a strong Modi critic.
The protests have been fuelled by anger about alleged police brutality including at a university in Delhi on Sunday night.
Security forces in the capital have fired some 450 tear gas shells in the past 5 days, the Hindustan Times daily reported. One student reportedly lost an eye.
The demonstrations in the city have at times turned violent with vehicles set on fire and protestors hurling stones at police in heavily Muslim areas on Wednesday.
"If they show us the lathi (police baton), we will show them roses," a student in Delhi, Shivanji, told AFP as she handed flowers to police on Thursday.
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HONG KONG - Hong Kong police used pepper spray and made multiple arrests on Sunday as small groups of black-clad pro-democracy protesters targeted some of the city's malls, ending a rare lull in violence.
Flashmob protests and vandalism broke out in multiple locations, prompting riot police to use pepper spray and make arrests in at least two shopping centers as members of the public heckled the officers.
AFP reporters in a Sha Tin mall saw a secondary school girl and a 16-year-old boy arrested, the pair shouting out their details as officers led them away.
Earlier in the afternoon an elderly woman was knocked over in the same mall after a fight broke out when a shopper tried to stop protesters from spraying graffiti.
Masked activists had also trashed restaurants run by Maxim's, a catering giant owned by a tycoon that has become a frequent target because his daughter has criticized the pro-democracy movement.
The skirmishes are the first to break out in three weeks.
Hong Kong has been upended by six months of massive pro-democracy protests that have seen violent battles between police and hardcore demonstrators, as well as regular transport disruption.
The past month had seen a lull in the violence and vandalism after pro-democracy parties won a landslide in local council elections.
Last Sunday an estimated 800,000 marched peacefully through the streets.
But public anger remains as Beijing and city leader Carrie Lam show no sign of giving further concessions despite the election success.
Lam is currently in Beijing for an annual visit and is set to meet President Xi Jinping on Monday.
The protests were ignited by a now scrapped plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland but have since morphed into a revolt against Chinese rule.
Among the movement's demands is an independent inquiry into the police and fully free elections.
In a separate protest, around 1,000 people waving Chinese flags rallied in a park on Sunday afternoon in support of the city's police force.
Coupled with the trade war, the protests have hammered the economy and helped tip the city into recession as tourists stay way.
Hong Kong's airport on Sunday reported its steepest drop in passengers in a decade -- down 16 percent in November compared to the same month the year before.
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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.
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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."
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HONG KONG, China- Pro-democracy demonstrators holed up in a Hong Kong university campus set the main entrance ablaze Monday after police surrounding the building warned they may use live rounds, deepening fears over how nearly 6 months of unrest across the city will end.
The violence extended a dangerous new phase of the crisis, which over the past week has seen schools shut down, roads barricaded and Chinese soldiers briefly leave their local barracks to clean up streets.
China has refused to budge on any of the protesters' key demands, which include free elections for the city of 7.5 million people.
China has instead repeatedly warned it will not tolerate any dissent, and concerns are growing it could intervene militarily to quell the unrest.
On Monday several loud blasts were heard around dawn before a wall of fire lit up an entrance to the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), AFP reporters said, as what appeared to be a police attempt to enter the campus was repelled by protesters determined to hold their ground.
Police said they had fired 3 live rounds in the early hours of Monday at a protest site near the university but that no one appeared to have been hit.
INTENSE CLASHES
Intense clashes on Sunday, which saw a police officer hit in the leg by an arrow and protesters meet police tear gas with volleys of petrol bombs, rolled overnight across the Kowloon district, as a call went out to defend the besieged campus.
There, protesters had hunkered down under umbrellas from occasional fire from police water cannon and hurled Molotov cocktails at an armored vehicle, leaving it ablaze on a flyover near the campus.
Police declared the campus a "riot" scene -- rioting is punishable by up to 10 years in jail -- and blocked exits as spokesman Louis Lau issued a stark warning in a Facebook live broadcast.
"I hereby warn rioters not to use petrol bombs, arrows, cars or any deadly weapons to attack police officers," he said.
"If they continue such dangerous actions, we would have no choice but to use the minimum force necessary, including live rounds, to fire back."
Hong Kong police routinely carry sidearms, but until now they have only used them in isolated incidents during running street clashes with protestors. Three people have been shot, none of them fatally.
Faced with large groups throwing bricks and Molotov cocktails, the police have mostly relied on tear gas, water cannon, and rubber bullets as dispersal tools, but the new warning suggests a more active use of live rounds to counter the unrest.
'HELPLESS'
Fear gripped protesters still inside the campus -- whose occupation is a twist in tactics by a leaderless movement so far defined by its fluid, unpredictable nature.
One 19-year-old, who gave her name as "K", said there was desperation among the 200 demonstrators she estimated remained.
"Some people were crying badly, some were furious, some agonizing because they felt hopeless as we were left no way out of the campus.
"We don’t know when the police will storm in."
A few hundred meters from the campus, protesters erected barricades in the Tsim Sha Tsui and Jordan areas.
One 16-year-old, who gave his name as Joshua, said it was an attempt to draw police attention away from the university.
'BLOSSOM EVERYWHERE'
The nearly 6 months of unrest has rocked previously stable Hong Kong, tipping the international financial hub into recession and frightening off tourists.
What began as a series of mostly peaceful demonstrations against a now-shelved bill to allow extradition to the Chinese mainland has morphed into wider calls for democracy and an inquiry into alleged police brutality.
Violence has worsened this month, with two men killed in separate incidents.
Demonstrators last week engineered a "Blossom Everywhere" campaign of blockades and vandalism, which forced the police to draft in prison officers as reinforcements, shut down sections of Hong Kong's transport network and closed schools and shopping malls.
Chinese President Xi Jinping last week issued his most strident comments on the crisis, saying it threatened the "one country, two systems" model under which Hong Kong has been ruled since the 1997 handover from Britain.
Chinese state media remains robustly hostile to the demonstrations, and frequently urges Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam to brook no compromise.
On Saturday dozens of soldiers from Chinese People's Liberation Army briefly left their Hong Kong barracks to help clean-up the streets.
It was a rare and symbolic operation, as the troops are normally confined to barracks and are meant to be only called out in a time of emergency.
Chinese defense ministry spokesman Wu Qian on Monday defended the clean-up operation, as he repeated warnings from Beijing that the military had the capabilities to quell the unrest.
"Ending violence and restoring order is the most pressing task we have in Hong Kong," Wu said in Bangkok.
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HONG KONG - Hong Kong police Monday warned for the first time in months of unrest that they may use "live rounds" after pro-democracy protesters fired arrows and threw petrol bombs at officers at a besieged university campus, as the crisis engulfing the city sharply escalated.
Protests have tremored through the global financial hub since June, with many in the city of 7.5 million people venting fury at eroding freedoms under Chinese rule.
China has repeatedly warned that it will not tolerate the dissent, and there have been concerns that Beijing could send in troops to put an end to the spiraling unrest.
A day of intense, rolling clashes on Sunday, which saw a police officer struck in the leg by an arrow and protesters meet police tear gas with volleys of petrol bombs, worsened as night fell.
Clashes spilled across Kowloon, with the epicenter around the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), where scores of defiant demonstrators set large fires to prevent police from conducting a threatened raid on the campus.
They hunkered down under umbrellas from occasional fire from water cannon and hurled Molotov cocktails at an armored police vehicle, leaving it ablaze on a flyover near the campus.
Police declared the campus a "riot" scene -- a rioting conviction carries up to 10 years in jail -- and blocked exits as spokesman Louis Lau issued a stark warning in a Facebook live broadcast.
"I hereby warn rioters not to use petrol bombs, arrows, cars or any deadly weapons to attack police officers," he said.
"If they continue such dangerous actions, we would have no choice but to use the minimum force necessary, including live rounds, to fire back."
Three protesters have been shot by police in the unrelenting months of protests, but all in scuffles as chaotic street clashes played out -- and without a sweeping warning being given by a force which overwhelmingly depends on tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets.
Fear gripped protesters still trapped on Monday inside the campus -- whose occupation is a twist in tactics by a leaderless movement so far defined by its fluid, unpredictable nature.
"I feel scared. There's no way out, all I can do is fight to the end," said one protester joining the barricade in front of the university building.
Owen Li, a PolyU council member and student, said "panic" had taken hold of the estimated few hundred protesters who remained.
"Many friends feel helpless... we appeal to all of society to come out and help us."
Throughout Sunday, activists parried attempts by police to break through into the campus, firing rocks from a homemade catapult from the university roof, while an AFP reporter saw a team of masked archers -- several carrying sports bows -- patrolling the site.
Violence has worsened in recent days, with two men killed in separate incidents linked to the protests this month.
Chinese President Xi Jinping this week issued his most strident comments on the crisis, saying it threatened the "one country, two systems" model under which Hong Kong has been ruled since the 1997 handover from Britain.
'Squeeze the economy'
Demonstrators last week engineered a "Blossom Everywhere" campaign of blockades and vandalism, which forced the police to draft in prison officers as reinforcements, shut down large chunks of Hong Kong's transport network and closed schools and shopping malls.
The movement, characterized by its fluidity and unpredictability, has started to coagulate in fixed locations, showing the protesters' ability to switch tactics.
The protests started against a now-shelved bill to allow extradition to China but have billowed to encompass wider issues such as perceived police brutality and calls for universal suffrage in the former British colony.
The financial hub has been nudged into a recession by the unrelenting turmoil.
A poster circulating on social media called for the "dawn action" to continue on Monday.
"Squeeze the economy to increase pressure," it said.
Divided city
Earlier on Sunday, dozens of government supporters gathered to clear barricades near the university campus -- a sign of the divisions slicing through the city.
Many residents are wearied by the sapping protests. Others support the Chinese-backed city government.
Some applauded a Saturday clean-up by Chinese troops from a garrison of the People's Liberation Army in Kowloon.
The garrison is usually confined to the barracks under Hong Kong's mini-constitution, although it can be deployed at the request of the city's government to help with public order breakdown or natural disasters.
Hong Kong's government, which presides over a city that enjoys greater freedoms than the mainland, said it did not ask the PLA for help on Saturday.
The choreographed troop movement "has only compounded the impression that Beijing has simply ignored" Hong Kong's unique political system, said analyst Dixon Sing.
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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."
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HONG KONG -- Pro-democracy protesters Wednesday stepped up a "blossom everywhere" campaign of road blocks and vandalism across Hong Kong that has crippled the international financial hub this week and ignited some of the worst violence in five months of unrest.
The new phase in the crisis, which has forced schools and shopping malls to close as well as the shutdown of large chunks of the vital train network, has prompted police to warn the city is on the verge of "total collapse" and a "breakdown."
China, facing the biggest challenge to its rule of the territory since it was handed back by the British in 1997, has insisted it will not buckle to the pressure and warned of even tougher security measures.
As they have since the start of the week, protesters on Wednesday choked roads and blocked traffic with anything they could lay their hands on including bricks, bicycles, couches and other materials. Key routes were targeted in morning and after-work peak hours.
Various lines on the subway -- used daily by more than half of the city's 7.5 million people -- were also suspended, forcing many workers to stay at home.
In the Central business district, hundreds of people left their offices at lunchtime to join the more hardcore protesters setting up barricades outside luxury-item shops and headquarters of big financial firms.
Masked protesters dressed in their signature black were also locked in a series of tense standoffs at university campuses, following intense clashes on Tuesday night that saw police fire tear gas and rubber bullets.
Authorities said 58 injured people -- one of them in critical condition -- were taken to hospitals during Wednesday’s unrest.
Hospital authorities did not provide details on the critical case, but local media reported that a 70-year-old man was seriously hurt from a suspected hit in the head with a brick during a clash between protesters and residents in the Sheung Shui district.
Highlighting the growing security fears, mainland Chinese students began fleeing Hong Kong on buses and boats back across the border, according to police and universities, although it was not immediately clear how many had left.
MAXIMUM DISRUPTION
The chaos was part of the largely leaderless protest movement's new strategy branded "blossom everywhere", in which small groups target as many parts of the city as possible to cause maximum disruption and stretch police resources.
Until this week protesters had largely confined their actions to evenings and the weekends.
The campaign began Monday with an effort to shut down trains and enforce a city-wide strike, and has for the first time seen three straight days of chaos during the working week.
"The rioters' intention is to bring Hong Kong into a total breakdown. No excuse, no political motives can justify or glory this madness," police spokesman John Tse told reporters on Wednesday.
A day earlier, one of his colleagues said Hong Kong was "on the brink of total collapse".
The poisonous atmosphere worsened on Monday morning when a police officer shot an unarmed 21-year-old protester, leaving him in a critical condition.
It was only the third confirmed instance police had hit someone with live rounds since the unrest began in June.
The shooting, broadcast live on Facebook, exacerbated fury among protesters about what they say is excessive police violence.
However fears have also risen about increasingly violent tactics from the protesters.
A masked person on Monday doused a 57-year-old man, who had been arguing with protesters, with a flammable liquid and set him on fire. He was also hospitalized in critical condition.
ERODING FREEDOMS
The protest movement has been fueled by anger that China is choking the liberties and freedoms that Hong Kong is meant to have under the terms of the handover deal with the British.
Protesters are demanding the right to freely elect their leaders.
Instead of offering concessions, China has responded with ominous warnings that it is prepared to further curb freedoms, and that it wants tougher security measures in Hong Kong.
On Tuesday the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of China's ruling Communist Party, signaled that local district elections due to be held on November 24 may be cancelled if the protesters do not back down.
"Only by supporting the police force to decisively put down the riots can (Hong Kong) return to peace and hold fair elections, to help Hong Kong start again," the commentary said.
Other powerful arms of the Chinese state media have also again raised the prospect this week of the Chinese military being deployed in Hong Kong to end the crisis.
Still, China is not yet prepared to take such drastic action as military intervention as it plays a longer game of weakening and intimidating the protest movement, according to Ben Bland, Sydney-based director of the Southeast Asia Project at the Lowy Institute, a policy think-tank.
"It still seems, as far as we can tell, that the most likely response is going to continue to be led by the Hong Kong authorities and the Hong Kong police," Bland told AFP on Wednesday.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
HONG KONG- Hong Kong's legislature on Wednesday formally withdrew planned legislation that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but the move was unlikely to end months of unrest as it met just 1 of 5 demands of pro-democracy protesters.
The rallying cry of the protesters, who have trashed public buildings in the Chinese-ruled city, set street fires and thrown petrol bombs at police, has been "5 demands, not 1 less," meaning the withdrawal of the bill make no difference.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam had said many times the bill was as good as dead and said that other demands, including universal suffrage and an amnesty for all those charged with rioting, were beyond her control.
Protesters are also calling for her to stand down and for an independent inquiry into perceived police brutality during a long hot summer of running battles on the streets.
"There aren't any big differences between suspension and withdrawal (of the extradition bill)... It's too little, too late," said 27-year-old protester Connie, hours before the bill was withdrawn.
"There are still other demands the government needs to meet, especially the problem of police brutality."
Police have responded to the violence with water cannon, tear gas, rubber bullets, and several live rounds.
Protesters are angry at what they see as Beijing encroaching on the former British colony's "1 country, 2 systems" formula enshrined during the handover in 1997, which permits the city wide-ranging freedoms not available on the mainland such as an independent judiciary.
The extradition bill would have allowed defendants charged with serious crimes to be sent for trial abroad, including to Communist Party-controlled courts in China.
The bill was seen as the latest move by Beijing to erode those freedoms. China has denied these claims and accuses foreign countries of fomenting trouble.
A murder suspect whose case Lam had originally held up as showing the need for the extradition bill walked free on Wednesday as the city's government squabbled with Taiwan over how to handle his potential voluntary surrender to authorities.
Chan Tong-kai, a Hong Kong citizen, was accused of murdering his girlfriend in Taiwan last year before fleeing back to the financial hub. Chan was arrested by Hong Kong police in March 2018 and authorities there were only able to find evidence against him for money laundering, for which he was sentenced to 29 months in prison.
Chan has offered to voluntarily surrender himself to Taiwan, but both Hong Kong and Taiwan have clashed over the next steps.
"There's no such thing as surrender," Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen told reporters. "There's only arrest... We will continue to ask for legal assistance from the Hong Kong government, including providing related evidence and to ask the Hong Kong government not to evade the matter."
Hong Kong Secretary for Security John Lee said Taiwan, which China claims as its own, was obstructing the case.
SPECULATION ABOUT LAM "WRONG"
China, which views Taiwan as a renegade province, has offered the "1 country, 2 systems" formula for it to unite with the mainland.
Fiercely democratic Taiwan has rejected the offer with Tsai saying this month such an arrangement had set Hong Kong "on the edge of disorder."
China, which has many times expressed confidence in Lam and her government to end the unrest, was drawing up a plan to replace her with an "interim" chief executive, the Financial Times reported, citing people briefed on the deliberations.
Lam has become a lightning rod for protests and another of the protesters' demands has been for her to stand down.
The leading candidates to succeed Lam include Norman Chan, the former head of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and Henry Tang, who has also served as the territory's financial secretary and chief secretary for administration, the report said.
A spokesman said Tang did not comment on speculation and that he supported Lam as chief executive.
A senior official in Beijing said the FT story was wrong and none of the suggested candidates listed in the story could possibly take over from Lam based on the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution which came into force in 1997.
The law says that if the chief executive is unable to discharge his or her duties, such duties will be temporarily assumed by the Administrative Secretary, Financial Secretary or Secretary of Justice in that order, the official said. A new chief executive would be selected within 6 months, the law says.
But Beijing had prepared all kinds of contingency plans for different scenarios in Hong Kong, including Lam’s administration losing total control of the situation, the official said.
Over recent months, Beijing has set up a special team working from Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong, to gather information and it acted as the major communication channel between Hong Kong and Beijing, according to 2 people familiar with the situation.
Lam’s office was authorized to talk to the team directly without going through Beijing’s Liaison Office, one of the people said.
The Liaison Office, the symbol of Chinese rule, was attacked and daubed with anti-China graffiti in July.
In September, in response to a Reuters report about a recording of Lam saying she would step down if she could, she said she had never asked the Chinese government to let her resign.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Hong Kong police fired water cannon and tear gas Sunday as crowds held an illegal march, with hardcore protesters throwing petrol bombs and trashing businesses to cap a week of anger after recent attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators.
Authorities had forbidden the rally in Tsim Sha Tsui, a densely-packed shopping district filled with luxury boutiques and hotels, citing public safety and previous violence from hardcore protesters.
But tens of thousands nevertheless joined the unsanctioned demo, showing the movement can still keep pressure on the city's pro-Beijing leaders after nearly five months of protests and political unrest.
In a familiar pattern, the huge rally began peacefully.
But it soon descended into chaos as smaller groups of protesters hurled petrol bombs at police, subway entrances and at Chinese mainland bank branches, and vandalized multiple shops.
Police responded with volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets, and baton charges.
Throughout the afternoon, a water cannon truck chased protesters down Nathan Road, one of the city's busiest shopping thoroughfares, leaving it streaked with blue dye.
The dye in the water, used to identify protesters, also contains a painful pepper solution.
The entrance to the city's largest mosque was bathed in blue when the water cannon blasted a handful of people outside the building. Police said hitting the mosque was an accident.
As the protesters fled, frontliners stayed behind to slow the advance of riot police, setting fire to makeshift barricades. Clashes went on deep into the night.
A Xiaomi and a Best Mart store -- both mainland Chinese businesses -- were set alight.
ACTIVISTS ATTACKED
Tensions were running high after the leader of the group organizing the weekend rally, Jimmy Sham, was hospitalized after being attacked by unknown assailants wielding hammers earlier in the week.
Then late Saturday, a man handing out pro-democracy flyers was stabbed in the neck and stomach, reportedly by an assailant who shouted pro-Beijing slogans.
Many on Sunday's march said they wanted to show they were unbowed by the attacks and moves by authorities to ban public gatherings.
"The more they suppress, the more we resist," a 69-year-old demonstrator, who gave her surname as Yeung, told AFP. "Can police arrest us all, tens of thousands of people?"
Philip Tsoi, a self-described frontline protester, said they needed to keep getting numbers out even though many hardcore activists like him had been "arrested or wounded" in recent weeks.
"What I want is a truly democratic government whose leader is elected by Hong Kong people instead of selected by a Communist regime," he told AFP.
Vigilante violence has mounted on both sides of the ideological divide.
In recent weeks pro-democracy supporters have badly beaten people who vocally disagree with them -- although those fights tend to be spontaneous outbursts of mob anger during protests.
In contrast, pro-democracy figures have been attacked in a noticeably more targeted way, with at least eight prominent government critics, including politicians, beaten by unknown assailants since mid-August.
Protesters have labelled the attacks "white terror" and accused the city's shadowy organised crime groups of forming an alliance with Beijing supporters.
Beijing has denounced the protests as a foreign-backed plot and condemned attacks on those voicing support for China.
But it has remained largely silent on the attacks carried out against pro-democracy figures.
MONTHS OF UNREST
Hong Kong has now been battered by 20 weeks of protests and with no political solution in sight, clashes have intensified each month.
Hardliners have embraced widespread vandalism, while riot police are quick to respond with tear gas, rubber bullets and, more recently, live rounds.
The rallies were triggered by a now-abandoned plan to allow extraditions to the authoritarian mainland, but have morphed into wider calls for democracy and police accountability.
Protesters are demanding an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for those arrested and fully free elections, all of which have been rejected by Beijing and Hong Kong's unelected leader Carrie Lam.
Earlier this month, Lam invoked a colonial-era emergency law to ban face masks.
The decision set off a new wave of protests and vandalism that shut down much of the city's transport network.
In the last fortnight, the clashes have become less intense, with the city's subway closing each night at 10 pm.
But protests have continued, with many defying the mask ban during "flashmob" rallies.
Separately, Chinese state television CCTV claimed that "sooner or later," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will be punished for refusing to apologize for an earlier tweet by Daryl Morey of the Houston Rockets supporting the Hong Kong demonstrators.
CCTV accused Silver of "inventing lies to dirty China," and said that by defending Morey he had "crossed the bottom line by showing a lack of respect to Chinese."
The backlash against Morey's comments has cast a cloud over the NBA's lucrative broadcasting, merchandising and sponsorship interests in China, where it has legions of fans.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
OSLO, Norway - A Norwegian politician has nominated the "people of Hong Kong" for the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, in a move which risks drawing China's ire.
"I have nominated the people of Hong Kong, who risk their lives and security every day to stand up for freedom of speech and basic democracy, to the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020," Guri Melby, a member of Norway's parliament for the liberal party, said in a Twitter post on Tuesday.
In an interview published by newspaper Aftenposten on Wednesday Melby explained that "what they do has an impact far beyond Hong Kong, both in the region and in the rest of the world".
The former British colony is going through its worst political crisis since its return to China in 1997.
Millions have taken to the streets of Hong Kong, initially against a now-dropped bid by its leaders to allow extraditions to the Chinese mainland.
But after Beijing and Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam took a hard line, the movement snowballed into a broader push for democracy and police accountability.
Activists say freedoms are being eroded by Beijing, contrary to a deal that outlined Hong Kong's 1997 return to China from British colonial rule.
Melby's initiative is likely to displease China, which was already angered by the Nobel Committee's 2010 decision to give the award to imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who has since died.
Although the Nobel Committee is independent from the government in Norway, Beijing froze its relations with the Scandinavian country, suspended negotiations for a free trade agreement and blocked imports of Norwegian salmon.
Relations between the countries did not normalize until December 2016, after Oslo committed to not "support actions that undermine" Chinese interests.
Nominations are however common and this year the Nobel Committee had to pick from 301 candidates.
In the end, the prize was awarded to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for his work in resolving the conflict with bitter foe Eritrea.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
Hong Kong's embattled leader abandoned a State of the Union-style speech on Wednesday after she was heckled by opposition lawmakers during chaotic scenes inside the city's legislature.
The speech by chief executive Carrie Lam was billed as an attempt to win hearts and minds after four months of seething pro-democracy protests.
But it instead laid bare the intense polarization coursing through the semi-autonomous financial hub after weeks of huge and increasingly violent protests.
Lam tried twice to begin her policy address inside the Legislative Council which had opened for a new session some three months after it was trashed by masked protesters.
But pro-democracy lawmakers, who form a minority of the pro-Beijing legislature, shouted her down.
One even used a pocket projector to broadcast protest slogans behind Lam as she stood on the podium, and later donned a face mask of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
After failing to deliver the address for a second time, Lam left the building and her office announced that she would release a pre-recorded video of the speech instead.
It is the first time in Hong Kong's history that a chief executive or governor has been unable to deliver the annual address in person since the tradition began in 1948.
The chaos inside the Hong Kong legislature comes after a summer of huge and increasingly violent democracy protests as popular anger explodes over sliding freedoms and living standards following two decades of Chinese rule.
There is huge pressure on Lam -- who currently boasts historically low approval ratings -- to unveil flagship measures that might lower some of the anger on the streets.
An advance copy of the speech seen by AFP shows Lam will focus on housing and land shortages in a city that has one of the least affordable property markets in the world and notoriously high rents.
But there are no major concessions to protesters.
CONGRESS MULLS RIGHTS BILL
At a briefing on Tuesday, Lam stuck to her oft-repeated stance that bending to violent demonstrations would be unacceptable.
"For concessions to be made simply because of escalating violence will only make the situation worse. On the other hand, we should consider every means to end the violence," she said.
The core demands of protesters include an independent inquiry into the police, an amnesty for the more than 2,500 people arrested and the right for Hong Kongers to freely elect their leaders.
Both Lam and Beijing have repeatedly dismissed those demands.
Millions have taken to the streets of Hong Kong, initially against a now-dropped bid by its leaders to allow extraditions to the authoritarian Chinese mainland.
The months-long movement has expanded into a broader pro-democracy push in the territory where activists say freedoms are being eroded by Beijing, contrary to a deal that outlined Hong Kong's 1997 return to China from British colonial rule.
Lam's speech comes after the US House of Representatives passed a bill late Tuesday that aims to defend civil rights in Hong Kong and has drawn rare bipartisan support in a polarized Congress.
China, which has accused "external forces" of fueling weeks of unrest in the city, expressed its "strong indignation" over the bill and told Washington to "stop meddling".
The Hong Kong Rights and Democracy Act would link the city's special trading status with the United States to an annual State Department certification that authorities are respecting human rights and the rule of law.
It would also require the US president to identify and sanction the people responsible for the erosion of autonomy and serious abuses of human rights in Hong Kong.
The House also approved a related bill to prohibit the export of certain non-lethal crowd control items such as tear gas to Hong Kong.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
