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Hong Kong police use pepper spray as video of beating reignites protests Hong Kong chief executive calls for talks with student protesters
(about 9 hours later)
Hong Kong police used pepper spray early on Thursday to stop pro-democracy protesters from blocking a major road near the office of the city’s embattled leader amid public anger over the police beating of a protester a day earlier. Hong Kong’s chief executive Leung Chun-ying said on Thursday that he hopes the government can hold talks with students calling for democracy for the Chinese-controlled city as early as next week.
At the police HQ in the nearby district of Wan Chai, hundreds of people gathered outside into the early hours of the morning to express outrage at the beating, with dozens queuing to lodge formal complaints over the incident. He was speaking after more than two weeks of protests that have paralysed parts of the city. The protesters are demanding free elections in 2017 and calling for Leung to step down, but Beijing insists on screening candidates first.
Authorities said on Wednesday that police involved in the beating of Ken Tsang Kin-chiu, a member of the pro-democracy Civic party, would be suspended. Chief Secretary Carrie Lam cancelled talks with student leaders earlier this month, saying it was impossible to have constructive dialogue.
Footage of the beating has gone viral and injected fresh momentum into a protest movement that had been flagging after nearly three weeks of demonstrations over Chinese restrictions on how Hong Kong will choose its next leader. Police briefly scuffled with protesters camped out in Hong Kong’s streets early on Thursday, but held back from dismantling barricades erected by the activists pushing for greater democracy in the Chinese territory.
In the latest confrontation, Hong Kong’s public broadcaster RTHK said protesters rushed on to a road next to the office of chief executive Leung Chun-ying, dragging plastic barriers and other objects with them. Public anger simmered over a video appearing to show a group of officers kicking a handcuffed protester on Wednesday morning, as police charged the mostly student demonstrators occupying an underpass, using pepper spray and dragging dozens away.
A Reuters photographer saw protesters later scuffling with a small group of police on the side of the road. Police repelled them using pepper spray. Police again used pepper spray in the early hours of Thursday morning to push back crowds trying to occupy a road outside the government’s headquarters. Police said two protesters were arrested, one for kicking a bottle at a private car and one for assaulting police, and three officers were injured.
Protesters caught police by surprise 24 hours earlier, building makeshift barricades to block the thoroughfare, prompting officers to move in and arrest 45 people and clear the road. Wednesday’s police beating appeared to mark a change in mood for many protesters.
Traffic chaos at other protest sites in the city has severely disrupted some parts of what is Asia’s financial hub. “I used to say at every rally that frontline police officers were just following orders. We shouldn’t hurt frontline officers because we were angry or because we blamed them. Frontline officers were just doing their jobs,” Joshua Wong, one of the protest leaders, said Wednesday evening at a rally at the main protest zone in Admiralty.
At its peak, 100,000 protesters had been on the streets. Those numbers have dwindled significantly. “But I won’t say this again at future rallies,” said the 18-year-old leader of Scholarism, one of three main groups leading the protests. “If they’re just doing their work, why do they have to beat people?”
But a hardcore group of demonstrators, mostly students, has kept up the pressure on Hong Kong authorities, who have called the protests illegal. Earlier this week, police had removed barriers in an apparent attempt to chip at the edges of the three main protest zones, which have blocked traffic and angered some local businesses.
China rules Hong Kong under a “one country, two systems” formula that accords the city a degree of autonomy and freedom not enjoyed in mainland China, with universal suffrage an eventual goal. Protesters reacted to those moves by building bamboo structures that police dismantled. Protested later moved into an underpass before police forcefully removed them early Wednesday.
But Beijing has said only candidates screened by a nominating committee will be able to contest a full city-wide vote to choose the next chief executive in 2017. Anger over the aggressive tactics used by police erupted after local TV showed several officers taking a protester around a dark corner and kicking him repeatedly on the ground. It’s unclear what provoked the attack. Local Now TV showed him splashing water on officers beforehand.
Tsang was taken to hospital after being beaten and activists released photographs showing bruising on his face and body. Protester Ken Tsang said he was kicked while he was “detained and defenceless.” He added that he was assaulted again later in the police station. Tsang, a social worker and a member of a pro-democracy political party, lifted his shirt to show reporters injuries to his torso and said he is considering legal action against police.
“I’m afraid that one day I will come out for a protest and the police will do the same thing to me,” said Jen Lau, a social worker who was sitting on the pavement outside the police HQ just after midnight. Police spokesman Steve Hui said seven officers who were involved have been temporarily reassigned, and that authorities will carry out an impartial investigation.
“Even though he is a protester he should not be treated this way. I think the police should receive disciplinary action or something even more serious.” Several hundred people turned up at Hong Kong police headquarters on Wednesday night for a protest organized by a social workers’ union over the treatment of Tsang. They lined up to file individual complaints about the beating.
Several social workers printed a “wanted” poster with colour pictures of the police officers they said were responsible for the beating, and were carrying it up and down the line of those waiting to file complaints. “He was handcuffed already, he was not able to resist but still he was beaten,” said Maggie Yuen, one of the protesters. “I don’t see any explanation other than that the police abuse their authority.”
“I think the police have betrayed us Hong Kong citizens,” said Tony Yip, a research assistant at a science museum. “They are using violence against ordinary citizens.” The demonstrators have taken to the streets since 26 September to oppose the Chinese central government’s decision to screen candidates to run in the territory’s first direct elections in 2017. They also want the territory’s unpopular leader Leung Chan-ying, who was picked by Beijing, to resign.
Leung has said there was “zero chance” China’s leaders would give in to protesters’ demands, a view shared by most political analysts and many Hong Kong citizens. Protesters have also demanded that Leung resign. China’s central government is becoming increasingly impatient with the mostly peaceful demonstrations, the biggest challenge to its authority since China took control of the former British colony in 1997. There were no signs, however, that Beijing was planning to become directly involved in suppressing them.
China’s ruling Communist party believes it has offered enough concessions to Hong Kong in the past, and would give no ground because it wants to avoid setting a precedent for reform on the mainland, sources told Reuters.
On Wednesday, Hong Kong’s most prominent tycoon, Li Ka-shing, urged the protesters to go home.
Li, Asia’s richest man and chairman of property developer Cheung Kong, had made no public comment on the protests but broke his silence to say if Hong Kong’s rule of law broke down it would be the city’s “greatest sorrow”.
“I urge everyone not to be agitated,” he said. “I urge everyone not to let today’s passion become the regret for tomorrow. I earnestly request everyone to return to their families.”