Scuffles break out along barricades of Hong Kong pro-democracy protest site
Hong Kong protesters rebuild barricades after scuffles; police warn of more action
(about 4 hours later)
HONG KONG — Scores of men, many wearing medical face masks, moved in Monday to forcibly remove some of the barricades surrounding a main protest site in the heart of Hong Kong’s business district, provoking scuffles and a tense standoff with pro-democracy protesters.
HONG KONG — Pro-democracy protesters erected even stronger fortifications around their sprawling encampment in Hong Kong’s business district on Monday, after an abortive attack on their sit-in by masked men led to scuffles and heightened tensions.
The scuffles came just after police had quietly removed some barricades on the fringes of the protest site early Monday and had asked protesters to vacate the area peacefully. But tensions rose sharply later in the day as hundreds of people approached the main protest site as part of an organized rally demanding that roads be reopened.
The day had begun with police peacefully removing barriers around the periphery of the main protest site at dawn, in what they said was an attempt to ease traffic congestion but not to clear the demonstrators. It ended with protesting students dramatically reinforcing their defenses and police warning that they would be back.
As they chanted slogans against the sit-in, groups of men took advantage of the chaos to rush the barricades at both ends of Queensway, a normally busy street flanked by gleaming skyscrapers.
The developments increasingly suggest that the standoff is entering a decisive phase: The chances of police action to clear the protest site appears to be growing by the day, but the challenge they would face in doing so is also steadily mounting.
At one end, they successfully removed many barricades, using knives to cut through the plastic ties that had held them together and even taking away some of the students’ tents in two large trucks. At the other end, they were less successful, as students quickly regrouped to man the barriers and the two sides clashed.
Tensions peaked around midday Monday as hundreds of people converged on the site demanding that the roads be reopened.
“There were 40 or 50 of them, all very organized — they didn't talk to us, they just removed the barriers violently,” said 23-year-old student Chokin Wong, who was sitting down in the middle of the street. “We don't want to give back the road to violent people.”
As the opponents chanted slogans against the sit-in, groups of men, many wearing surgical masks, rushed the barricades at both ends of Queensway, a wide street that runs through Admiralty district.
Students and pro-democracy protesters formed human chains across one end of the street and sat down behind barricades at the other end, facing a line of police, who tried to keep the two sides apart.
At one end, they used knives to cut the plastic cable ties securing the barricades and removed them in two trucks. Some pushed and punched students who tried to hold on to the barriers.
“Open the roads,” chanted dozens of people unhappy with the sit-in protest, accusing the students of being tools of the West and not being “real Chinese.”
But at the other end, pro-democracy protesters quickly regrouped, forming human chains across the street and sitting down behind barricades, facing a line of police keeping the two sides apart.
“Don’t let them pass,” the pro-democracy protesters replied, accusing their opponents of not being Hong Kong natives. “Go back to the mainland,” they chanted. “Speak Cantonese.”
“Open the roads,” chanted dozens of people unhappy with the sit-in, accusing the students of being tools of the West and not “real Chinese.”
The protests in Hong Kong, a former British colony, have reflected growing tensions between natives and mainland Chinese, who have flooded into the territory since Britain handed it over to China in 1997.
“Don’t let them pass,” the pro-democracy demonstrators replied, accusing their opponents of not being Hong Kong natives. “Go back to the mainland,” they chanted. “Speak Cantonese.”
Scores of taxi drivers drove up to the barricades to signal their opposition to the protesters, beeping their horns continuously. “We can't stand any more,” said one slogan pasted to a car. Another slogan complained of loss of income. “You are breaking our rice bowl,” it read.
The protests have reflected growing tensions between Hong Kong natives and Chinese mainlanders, who have flooded into the territory since its hand-over from British rule in 1997.
Broken plastic ties, splintered wooden barriers and broken glass littered the street where barriers had been removed.
Scores of taxi drivers drove up to signal their opposition to the protesters, honking horns. “You are breaking our rice bowl,” read one slogan pasted on a car, complaining of a loss of income.
The police action earlier Monday seemed more symbolic than a concerted attempt to clear the roads. Outnumbered so early in the morning, protesters put up no resistance to the police action, witnesses said. But they soon regrouped, using bamboo poles to rebuild the barricades.
Gradually, however, the group opposed to the protests dispersed, and students began reinforcing the barricades at almost every intersection, using hundreds of bamboo poles, wooden boards and anything else they could lay their hands on.
The heart of the main protest site has a more permanent feel to it with each passing day, with tents, awnings, desks and mats stretching down normally busy roads, as students prepare to carry through on their threat for a “long-term occupation” if the government refuses to come to the negotiating table to discuss their demands for democracy.
Queensway lies to the south of the main protest site, and the barricades there had been lightly manned for days. But now they were thronging with people, activity and the sound of hammering.
On Sunday, Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, said pro-democracy protesters were making “impossible” demands. He warned that their movement had “spun out of control,” as the sit-in entered its third week with no sign of a solution.
“I feel sorry for the young people,” said an old man nailing wooden boards together, who gave his name only as Chan. “You can never trust the Communist Party.”
Student leaders argue that they cannot call the protests off unless the government makes some concession and at least agrees to properly represent their views to the Chinese government in Beijing.
The government once again urged protesters to end what it deems their illegal occupation of the streets, while police warned that they would return.
The Hong Kong government, with China at its back, is refusing even to talk to student leaders unless they end their protests and drop their demand for genuine democracy when the chief executive’s role next comes up for election in 2017.
“We want to point out that reinforcing the existing obstacles or setting up new obstacles to enlarge the occupied area and to block the roads is illegal and extremely irresponsible,” Hui Chun-tak, a senior police spokesman, said at a news conference.
The government appears to be playing a waiting game, hoping that support for the protests will continue to wane as frustration mounts among the general public with the accompanying disruptions to daily life.
He complained that the protesters’ rebuilding of barricades in Queensway had raised the risk of confrontation, and he warned that police would soon be back to remove the barriers, “so as to recover part of the roads for public transport and tram services, but not to clear the protesters.”
Leung said in a Sunday television interview that he was confident the protests could not go on for a long time. He said it was impossible to grant the students’ demand for an open election in 2017, because the Communist Party in Beijing would have to revoke its August ruling setting out in detail how these elections would be held. There was, he said, “almost zero chance” of that.
The authorities have swung between intransigence and seeming indifference to the protests, interspersed with half-hearted and sometimes heavy-handed attempts to take the students on.
China wants the right to vet candidates in the 2017 elections through a nominating committee stacked with its loyalists; protesters want an open field of candidates, nominated by the public.
Each move the authorities have made has only galvanized the protests further, and it was no different Monday.
On Sunday, construction workers and taxi drivers turned up near the protest site to complain that the sit-in was damaging their livelihoods. Hundreds of people also took part in a march asking the government to end the protests and remove the barricades.
By the evening, several thousand people thronged the site, where protest leaders implored them to stay until the government agreed to negotiations. Hundreds of tents now fill the streets in what is resembling a permanent settlement.
Conscious of the frustration that their occupation is causing, some protest leaders had discussed closing one or two of the three main protest sites, or opening more roads around the fringes to minimize disruption to traffic. But there was reluctance among many of the rank-and-file to give ground unless the government makes some concession to their demands.
“We will use all powers to guard our fortresses,” protest organizer Chan Kin-man told the crowd, saying he was proud of how the demonstrators had not risen to provocation earlier in the day.
On Saturday, student leaders issued an open letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping, urging him to consider political reforms in the city and blaming Hong Kong’s chief executive for the demonstrations. Throughout the protests, they have been careful not to criticize the Chinese government directly.
“Peaceful nonviolence is our business. It’s our most honorable point,” he said, asking people to raise their hands in the air “to tell them we are peaceful protesters.”
There appeared to be little chance that China would give ground. In the latest of a series of critical editorials, the official People’s Daily newspaper in Beijing described the protest movement as “unrest” on Saturday — language that some observers said represented growing impatience among China’s leaders with the movement.
Speaking to reporters at an event in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, said the authorities had handled the protests with a “huge degree of tolerance” but warned that they “cannot let this situation continue in the long term.”
