This weekend the government and protest movement claims of public support will be put to the test at the polling booth
This Sunday Hong Kong holds district council elections. Normally a sleepy affair with low turnout, this year they have become a focus of intense interest.
Nearly six months of protests have upended daily life, and the poll is expected to serve as a kind of proxy referendum on the movement and its calls for greater democratic rights.
Continue reading...Anti-government protesters and students armed with bricks and bows and arrows took over the campus a week ago. A dwindling core remain
Continue reading...Simon Cheng, a former UK consular employee, has only been offered a two-year visa
Questions have been raised about Britain’s treatment of a former UK consular worker from Hong Kong, who said he was asked to resign after being detained and allegedly tortured on a work trip to mainland China.
Simon Cheng has been offered a two-year UK visa, but sources said it is a “working holiday” type, which only allows him to spend 12 months employed and leaves him without a path to permanent residency.
Continue reading...People trapped inside campus are using increasingly desperate measures to escape
Yanny Man, 23, had no time to think about it before crawling over the ledge of a bridge, eight metres high, grabbing a rope and pushing off toward the ground below.
Behind her people shouted: “Just go, just go!” Police trying to stop them had paused from shooting teargas and were very likely to fire again.
Continue reading...Beijing brands human rights bill, which Trump has yet to approve, a ‘whitewash’ as university standoff continues
The US Senate has passed legislation aimed at protecting human rights in Hong Kong amid a crackdown on the pro-democracy movement, as dozens of protester spent a fourth day stranded in a university campus.
The “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act” will go to the House of Representatives, which approved its own version last month. The two chambers will have to work out their differences before any legislation can be sent to President Donald Trump for his consideration.
Continue reading...As another week of violence grips the city, normal life is on hold - people cannot work, schools are closed, roads are paralysed and children are terrified
The ongoing political crisis in Hong Kong is probably the biggest challenge of my life. I don’t remember having lost sleep and appetite and not being able to think about anything else for months on end ever before.
Like many other Hongkongers, I have been overwhelmed by an acute sense of helplessness and anxiety during the past five months as I have watched our home descend in to a war zone every few days.
Continue reading...Protesters in Hong Kong have been going into the sewers to escape the Polytechnic University campus they have been occupying since last week, which police have surrounded. About 600 protesters surrendered to authorities overnight, while 200 remain inside the building, which has become the focus of the most prolonged and tense confrontation between police and protesters in more than five months of conflict in the semi-autonomous city.
Continue reading...Volunteers and supporters streaming towards Polytechnic University were fearful of what might befall the demonstrators
As hundreds of protesters were trapped inside a university on Monday night, besieged on all sides by riot police, thousands of Hongkongers rose up in protest, filling highways, public squares and bridges trying to get to them.
The streets of the city were turned into a war zone as protesters, alumni, volunteers and other supporters streamed toward Polytechnic University in Kowloon, where anti-government protesters have been under siege for more than 36 hours.
Continue reading...Hundreds trapped inside Polytechnic as demonstrators try to break campus siege
Hong Kong police have fought running battles with protesters trying to break a security cordon around a university in the city, firing teargas both at activists trying to escape the besieged campus and at crowds trying to reach it from outside.
Police have said the demonstrators inside Polytechnic University had no option but to come out and surrender.
Continue reading...Riot police have swooped on pro-democracy activists trying to flee a university they had set ablaze in one of the most violent confrontations in nearly six months of unrest. Hundreds of demonstrators clashed with officers who had threatened to use deadly force, as tensions flared elsewhere in the region
Continue reading...Hundreds of Hong Kong protesters have been trapped inside the Polytechnic University campus they have been occupying since last week. Despite a pledge from the university president that demonstrators could leave peacefully, those who tried to leave were forced back into the campus by teargas and water cannon
Continue reading...Pro-democracy activists see move as effort by Beijing to intervene in HK’s affairs
On Saturday afternoon, a few dozen Chinese soldiers jogged out of their barracks in triple file line, wearing shorts and matching army green T-shirts. They cheerily joined a group of residents, clearing away road blocks set up by anti-government protesters, using brooms and plastic buckets.
One of the officers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), when asked by a local journalist what the group were doing, responded: “We volunteered! Stopping violence and ending chaos is our responsibility.” He shouted: “We are spreading positive energy!”
Continue reading...Police pulled back after attempted dawn raid on Polytechnic University was met with fire
Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo says medics are among those arrested at Poly U.
Hongkong police #arrest #medics who were on PolyU campus to help
This is surely #against #humanitarian law principles
Front: Doctor, Back: Nurse#HongkongProtests pic.twitter.com/prMD5m2uee
According to Reuters, a senior US official has condemned the “unjustified use of force” in Hong Kong and encouraged China to “protect Hong Kong’s freedom”.
“We condemn the unjustified use of force and urge all sides to refrain from violence and engage in constructive dialogue,” the official said.
Continue reading...Police deployed water cannon against protesters in Hong Kong on Sunday, in some cases using blue-dyed water laced with pepper spray. Teargas was also fired in an attempt to drive people away from the streets outside Polytechnic University. Protesters who occupied several university campuses last week have largely retreated, but hardliners have fortified themselves inside the campus and are refusing to leave
Continue reading...Although many remain sympathetic to the cause, citizens are becoming increasingly fearful
One crisp and sunny morning last week, the normally busy road outside the main entrance to the University of Hong Kong was eerily quiet. Overlooked by mango trees, the road was empty, save for piles of bricks that protesters had scattered across it overnight as a barricade to paralyse traffic.
As students guarded the entrance against the potential arrival of riot police, a woman shouted “We support you!” across the road. As soon as she had finished, another man shouted: “I don’t! You people are university students, for crying out loud!”
Continue reading...Chinese soldiers stationed in Hong Kong came out to clear streets on Saturday, which protesters had strewn with debris to slow down any police advances while they had been on the campus. People's Liberation Army soldiers joined the clean-up outside Hong Kong Baptist University, the site of clashes earlier in the week. They can only be deployed to help with disaster relief or to maintain public order if requested by the local government. The controversial move threatens to escalate already high tensions in the Chinese territory
Continue reading...Controversial move could exacerbate tensions in territory dealing with months of anti-government protests
Chinese troops in Hong Kong have been deployed to help clear roads blockaded by anti-government protesters in a controversial move that could escalate the already high tensions in the Chinese territory.
Dozens of soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), dressed in shorts and T-shirts, jogged from their barracks in Kowloon to the Hong Kong Baptist University where protesters had built barricades to stop riot police entering the campus. Joining a group of residents, they moved desks, signposts, and bricks blocking a road.
Continue reading...University writes to students on exchange in Hong Kong as campuses become focus of battles between police and protesters
The University of Sydney has urged Australian students on exchange in Hong Kong to return home as pro-democracy protests intensify on university campuses, the ABC is reporting.
The university has written to students after Hong Kong University and other institutions suspended classes for the last few weeks of semester.
Continue reading...Demonstrators say local elections must continue, amid fears of postponement to avoid losses for pro-China candidates
Protesters in Hong Kong have cleared a highway that they have blocked since Monday as a gesture of goodwill, as political unrest paralysed the city for a fifth day in a row.
At a 3am press conference demonstrators at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, one of the main battlegrounds of the last week, said they would reopen the Tolo highway, a major traffic artery, outside of the school.
Continue reading...Retailer and airline report disappointing figures as anti-government rallies take toll
Two companies with substantial interests in Hong Kong have announced figures that underline the damage being inflicted on the economy by the continuing anti-government protests.
Burberry said its sales were down more than 10% and it had slashed £14m off the value of its 12 stores in the territory.
Continue reading...