Hong Kong police have fired teargas to disperse protesters in the upmarket Causeway Bay shopping district after demonstrators rallied at the US consulate calling on Donald Trump to “liberate” the territory. Police had clashed with protesters in the Central district as the demonstrations in Hong Kong entered their 14th week. Protesters dispersed to nearby Admiralty, the bar district of Wan Chai and on to Causeway Bay. On Sunday evening activists set up barricades, smashed windows, started street fires and vandalized the mass transit railway (MTR) station in Central. Home to banks, jewelry shops, and luxury shopping arcades, the area was awash with graffiti, broken glass and bricks torn up from pathways. Protesters set fire to cardboard boxes and built barricades with metal fencing.
“We can’t leave because there are riot police,” said Oscar, a 20-year-old protester in Causeway Bay. “They fired teargas from the station. We are heading to North Point [east of Causeway Bay].” Several arrests were made. The violence followed an earlier march during which thousands of protesters sang the Star-spangled Banner and called on the US president to “liberate” the city. They waved US national flags and placards demanding democracy. “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong” and “Resist Beijing, liberate Hong Kong” were among the slogans shouted before protesters handed over petitions at the consulate. The US defense secretary, Mark Esper, urged China on Saturday to exercise restraint. He made his call in Paris as police in Hong Kong prevented protesters from blocking access to the airport, but fired teargas for a second night in the densely populated district of Mong Kok.
Hong Kong’s protesters have scored one for democracy, but the struggle is far from over
Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, announced concessions this week aimed at ending the protests, including formally scrapping a hugely unpopular extradition bill that ignited the unrest in June. The bill would have allowed the extradition of people to mainland China to stand trial in courts controlled by China’s ruling Communist Party. Hong Kong has an independent judiciary dating back to British rule. But the demonstrations have long since broadened into calls for greater democracy and many protesters responded to Lam’s concessions by saying they were too little, too late. US legislation addressing China’s actions in Hong Kong will be among the top priorities pushed by Democrats in the US Senate when Congress returns to work after a recess next week, their leader, Chuck Schumer, said on Thursday.
Schumer urged the Republican Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, who sets the floor agenda, to bring up a bipartisan bill that would require an annual justification of the special treatment afforded by Washington to Hong Kong. This includes special trade and business privileges under the US Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992. The legislation, called the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, would also mandate that officials in China and Hong Kong who have undermined the city’s autonomy be vulnerable to sanctions. In their petition handed to the US consulate, the Hong Kong protesters urged that the bill be passed in full. Meanwhile, the activist Joshua Wong was rearrested at Hong Kong airport on Sunday for allegedly breaching bail conditions.
One of the leaders of the pro-democracy “umbrella movement” behind protests in Hong Kong five years ago, Wong had been granted bail on 30 August after being charged with inciting and participating in an unauthorized assembly outside police headquarters in June. “Preliminary legal advice suggested that the court had acknowledged and approved my trips to Germany and the US when it granted bail on 30 August,” Wong said in a statement. “Therefore, it is believed that there are some mistakes that have been made on the bail certificate.” He said he expected to be freed on Monday.
Follow us on Twitter – twitter.com/StarvisionN
Like & Follow us on Facebook – www.facebook.com/starvisionnewsenglish
