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LAST UPDATE | 12 Jun 2019
VIOLENT CLASHES HAVE broken out in Hong Kong as police tried to stop protesters storming the city’s parliament, while tens of thousands of people blocked key arteries in a show of strength against government plans to allow extraditions to China.
Police used tear gas, pepper spray and batons to disperse crowds of black-clad demonstrators — most of them young people and students — calling for authorities to scrap the Beijing-backed law.
Clashes broke out shortly after 3:00 pm (8am Irish time) — the deadline protesters had given for the government to abandon the controversial bill.
Black-clad demonstrators, most of them young people and students, had surrounded government offices, bringing traffic to a standstill as they called on authorities to scrap the Beijing-backed plan.
Rows of riot police were far outnumbered by protesters — many of whom wore face masks, helmets or goggles — just hours ahead of a scheduled debate in the city’s legislature.
Bloomberg Asia / Twitter9/ A video from our reporter showing police firing tear gas on protesters in Hong Kong
— Bloomberg Asia (@BloombergAsia) June 12, 2019
See the latest here: https://t.co/yFnBLb3jKC pic.twitter.com/5tvq8DbReO
By late morning, with crowds continuing to swell, officials in the Legislative Council (Legco) said they would delay the second reading of the bill “to a later date”.
In scenes echoing the Occupy movement in 2014 that shut down swathes of the city for months, people flooded major roads and junctions in the heart of the city, dragging barricades onto highways and tying them together. Some plucked loose bricks from pavements.
Police used water cannons and pepper spray on protesters outside the Legco building and held up signs warning demonstrators they were prepared to use force.
Organisers of a gigantic march on Sunday said more than a million people turned out to voice their objections to the proposed law, which would allow Hong Kong to send suspects to other jurisdictions around the world — including China.
But the record numbers have failed to sway pro-Beijing chief executive Carrie Lam, who has rejected calls to withdraw the bill.
Many opponents are fearful the law would entangle people in the mainland’s opaque courts, leaving them vulnerable to a justice system seen as acting at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.
More than 100 Hong Kong businesses said they would close today in a sign of solidarity with the protesters, and the city’s major student unions announced they would boycott classes to attend the rallies.
A string of other prominent unions in the transport, social work and teaching sectors either followed suit or encouraged members to attend while a bus drivers’ union said it would encourage members to drive deliberately slowly to support protests.
Stocks on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.59%, or 440.82 points, to 27,348.52, making it the worst performer in Asia yesterday.
“It’s the government who has forced people to escalate their actions, so I think it’s inevitable for the fight this time to get heated,” said protestor Lau Ka-chun, 21.
‘Hong Kong’s children will hurt’
Overnight, a group of around 2,000 protesters held a vigil outside the government offices, with some singing hymns.
Hardline protesters had on Sunday made similar plans to spend the night but were prevented by police, who fought running battles with small groups of demonstrators.
Throughout yesterday evening, police flooded the area around the government offices, stopping and searching many young people as they arrived in the area.
Lawmakers were to debate the bill this morning in the city’s legislature, which is dominated by Beijing loyalists. A final vote is expected on 20 June.
“The only responsible thing to do now is for Carrie Lam to withdraw the evil bill, or at least to shelve it in order to solve the crisis,” said pro-democracy lawmaker Fernando Cheung.
“Because the situation is very tense, if she forces it through and asks the police to use violence, I’m afraid Hong Kong’s children will be hurt, will bleed.”
Hong Kong’s leaders say it is needed to plug loopholes and to stop the city being a sanctuary for fugitives, and that safeguards are in place to ensure that political critics of Beijing will not be targeted.
But many Hong Kongers have little faith in the government’s assurances after years of heightened fears that a resurgent Beijing is trying to quash the city’s unique freedoms and culture.
A 50-year agreement between Hong Kong’s former colonial ruler, Britain, and China theoretically means the city is guaranteed freedoms of speech and assembly unseen on the Chinese mainland.
The pastor of a usually pro-government mega-church issued a statement saying he could not support the bill while the Catholic diocese urged Lam — a devout Catholic — to delay the bill.
Western governments have also voiced alarm, with the US this week warning the bill would put people at risk of “China’s capricious judicial system”.
Beijing hit back, with a foreign ministry official saying China “resolutely opposes interference in Hong Kong affairs”.
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A country that can mobilise. Pity we can’t do the same. I wish them the best
@K: what’s even more pitiful is that if this much Irish people protested about the issues affecting them, the government would relent.
The Hong Kong(-ese?) on the other hand are up against a totalitarian regime.
@K: I know. This March in Hong Kong was against the threat of injustice. There was a huge March in Belfast by folks looking for justice in relation to people murdered in the North that have not had any proper investigations to date (particularly state sponsored murders). This didn’t warrant an article on the Journal.
@Mushy Peas: Its very unlikely the Chinese government will relent. It could be a very violent few days in Hong Kong. Hopefully not.
@Cal Mooney: You need to seek professional help.
@CrabaRev: Is that a professional opinion or the childish response from someone with no feelings for the families of the murder victims, including those of Dublin Monaghan Belturbet.
@Cal Mooney:
No, it’s a professional opinion.
@Cal Mooney: I have lots of sympathy for all the victims of the Troubles. As such I would never dream of, like you constantly do, exploiting their deaths to try to justify an irrational and frankly psychotic hatred of all thing British or “english” as you refer to it.
@CrabaRev: Do you agree that it’s a crying shame the Journal didn’t think to have any coverage of Saturday’s protest in Belfast. 1000s attended. But obviously falling on deaf ears and zero Fs given by the media in terms of demanding these victims getting justice.
@Cal Mooney: You are not looking for justice for the victims, you are just looking to justify your hatred of the UK.
@CrabaRev: I have many friends from Britain and the North. It’s the Norths sectarian police force and war hawkish government which I have an issue with. If you think that is wrong, I have no issue with that. Please stop making your attacks personal like a good lad.
@Cal Mooney:
I am not making any attacks. I am calling you out on what you are doing.
You are clearly promoting an irrational and unfounded anti British agenda, for personal or perhaps political reasons. Even in your last post you uses the expression “Norths sectarian police force”. Accusing a respected police force of being sectarian with not a shred of evidence.
You have no qualms about exploiting the deaths of people during the troubles and right up to the present to promote your agenda. It is beyond despicable.
For two years , China has waged a campaign of unparalleled repression against its Islamic minorities , having incarcerated more than one million in concentration camps for ‘re-education ‘ forcibly separating parents from children.
The Chinese government has consistently denied that it is locking up Muslims without trial.
Therefore these demonstrations certainly seem to be based on a real and genuine fear
@judy burke: any chance of providing proof of this? When people make outrageous claims, they usually cite their source material.
@Peter Cavey: Pop onto google, input “Uyghurs China” – let us know how you get on.
@Peter Cavey: no offense to you personally, but this is the reason why people go mental at Trump, and protest, but give China’s regime leaders a free pass.
The Uygur people are undergoing a form of ethic cleansing in China.
@Mushy Peas: People are also sick of duplicitous standards when it comes to news reporting and commentary. The US and england supporting the mass killings in Yemen, much worse than what you guys are rightly accusing China of. You get the picture.
@Peter Cavey: Google is a wonderful thing. Honestly, if you have no idea as to what the Chinese government is doing to its own citizens you must be living under a very large rock or you’re just living under a bridge.
@Peter Cavey: China Uighurs: One million held in political camps, UN told http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-45147972
@Cal Mooney: I didn’t mean to brush them issues under the carpet, but let’s be honest, people hate Trump because of his populist rhetoric. There is a group of people who find his very existence an affront to their life outlook.
They are not as angry about the US’ foreign policy opposed to some of the mean things he has said. I assume they would prefer Obama to drop more drones than have Trump as President.
@Peter Cavey: I’m sure you can do a bit more searching and re-educate yourself, as the Chinese claim to be doing
@Mushy Peas: Unfortunately the ‘populist rhetoric’ has widespread ramifications when you are the POTUS
The reason the government is pro-Beijing is because they have to be approved by Beijing to run. It’s essentially a puppet government with an opposition in name only. They won’t listen to the people unless Beijing tells them to make some concessions to appease them. But Beijing want to make a grab for much more so may not accept a setback.
Just hope this doesn’t end like Tiananmen square for these people!
@Edmond Mc Grath: There was no massacre in Tiananmen. There were fights on the outskirts of the city that night with armed insurgents and Chinese soldiers dead, along with innocent civilians caught in the crossfire. Well that’s what the US diplomats who were there said.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8555142/Wikileaks-no-bloodshed-inside-Tiananmen-Square-cables-claim.html
Also, the students protesting all wanted different things – some wanted a return to communism and others wanted a fully open capitalist economy. They weren’t all pro democracy.
If China persists don’t by Chinese goods.
@Dave Walsh: thats my shoes, tv, phone, plates, xmas toys, my wallet, my clothes, my flooring, and my collection of bonsai gone
@Dave Walsh: thats my shoes, tv, phone, plates, xmas toys, my wallet, my clothes, my flooring, and my collection of bonsai gone
The nightmare scenario of China with its present political regime dominating the global stage is the stuff of nightmares” Take it from one who has travelled there since 1999. The repression of any opposion to the Party line is growing not diminishing with its new found wealth . The latest is to bring Hong Kong into mainland China’s “legal” system so that “dissidents” in Hong Kong who up until now had criticized the Beijng Junta Can now be extradited to mainland China for their “crimes”
Teargas, pepper spray and rubber bullets against unarmed people. Disgraceful tactics. Amnesty international has also condemned the police over reaction.
https://twitter.com/StellaLeeHKnews/status/1138775276769275904?s=19
The repression of any opposion to the Party line is growing not diminishing with China’s prosperity. The latest attempt to bring Hong Kong into mainland China’s “legal” system so that “dissidents” in Hong Kong who up until now had criticized the Beijng Junta can now be extradited to mainland China for their “crimes”
The repression of any opposion to the Party line is growing not diminishing with China’s new found wealth . The latest is to bring Hong Kong into mainland China’s “legal” system so that “dissidents” in Hong Kong who up until now had criticized the Beijng Junta Can now be extradited to mainland China for their “crimes”
have your say