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...Category Archives: Hong Kong
Support for Hong Kong’s rebels wavers after most violent week yet
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...Hong Kong: China deploys troops to remove roadblocks at university – video
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...Hong Kong: Chinese troops deployed to help clear roadblocks
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...Sydney university students urged to leave Hong Kong
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...Hong Kong: protesters lift highway blockade on proviso elections proceed
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...Burberry and Cathay Pacific profits dented by Hong Kong protests
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...UK ministers threaten sanctions on Hong Kong officials
Minister says planned new legislation could be used in response to rights violations
Foreign Office ministers have for the first time threatened to use new sanctions laws against individuals in Hong Kong found guilty of human rights abuses during the government’s efforts to suppress street protests.
The threat, picked up on social media by Hong Kong protesters, was made in a letter from the minister for Asia and the Pacific, Heather Wheeler, setting out the government’s response to the crisis.
Continue reading...Peace more distant than ever in Hong Kong as battle grips universities
Some accuse government of stoking unrest as pretext for delaying elections
A burst of violence in Hong Kong has pushed the city, gripped by more than five months of political unrest, even further away from the possibility of peaceful resolution.
After the death of a demonstrator on Friday and a weekend of clashes between police and protesters, Hong Kong woke up on Monday to live footage of a police officer shooting a 21-year-old student at close range in the stomach. Later, videos emerged of a 57-year-old construction worker being set on fire while arguing with demonstrators, and a police officer repeatedly driving his motorbike at a group of protesters.
Continue reading...Field Marshal Lord Bramall obituary
Former chief of the defence staff who served at D-day and was later embroiled in the Metropolitan Police’s Operation Midland
Field Marshal Lord Bramall, who has died aged 95, was chief of the defence staff from 1982 until 1985, the pinnacle of a long military career that began just in time to land him on the beaches of Normandy as a freshly minted second lieutenant in the D-day invasion of June 1944.
But in March 2015 he was drawn into the saga of claims of historical paedophilia and child abuse in high places that began with the unmasking of Jimmy Savile in 2012. Bramall’s cottage in a village near Farnham, Surrey, was raided by police as part of a co-ordinated initiative that also included the homes of Lord (Leon) Brittan, the former home secretary, who died in January 2015. All this was part of Operation Midland, set up by the Metropolitan police in response to allegations against a number of notable public figures.
Continue reading...Protesters are pushing Hong Kong to brink of collapse, say police
Riot police fire teargas and demonstrators throw petrol bombs as city is paralysed for second day
Police in Hong Kong have accused protesters of bringing the city to the “brink of total collapse” and urged residents not to support them as demonstrations paralysed the city for a second day in a row.
Riot police fired teargas on anti-government demonstrators gathered in Hong Kong’s central business district and several universities on Tuesday. Protesters built street barricades, set fires and threw petrol bombs, chairs and other objects at police during another day of strikes demanding greater democracy in the Chinese territory.
Continue reading...Protester shot and man set on fire during Hong Kong clashes – video
A student was shot by Hong Kong police on Monday, the third time a demonstrator has been hit with live ammunition. Police used teargas, pepper spray and firearms at multiple locations as demonstrators blocked roads, lit fires and hurled missiles.
Later in the day, a man was doused in a flammable liquid and set on fire after arguing with protesters. Both the student and the man were said to be in a critical condition.
Another clip appeared to show a police officer on a motorbike driving at protesters.
Continue reading...Hong Kong protests: man shot by police and burns victim in critical condition
Police fire at unarmed student and middle-aged man set on fire in day of violent clashes
Two people are in a critical condition in Hong Kong after another day of protests and violent clashes between anti-government protesters and police that left more than 60 people injured.
A police officer shot an unarmed 21-year-old male university student in the stomach as demonstrators attempted to disrupt the Monday morning rush hour as part of a day of planned protests and strikes.
Continue reading...Hong Kong protester shot at close range by police – video
WARNING: SOME VIEWERS MAY FIND THIS FOOTAGE DISTRESSING.
A video captured by local media shows a police officer firing three live rounds at demonstrators in Sai Wan. The footage shows an officer struggling to subdue one protester before shooting another in the torso at close range. The protester falls to the ground before the officer fires twice more. The video, taken by Cupid Producer, was circulated widely online on Monday morning after protesters blocked public transit stations during the morning rush hour
Continue reading...Hong Kong protests: student who fell from parking lot during demonstrations dies
Chow Tsz-lok, 22, becomes first fatality from injuries sustained during protests that have rocked the city
A Hong Kong student who fell from a building during clashes between police and protesters earlier this week has died, marking the first death from injuries sustained during anti-government demonstrations that have overtaken the city.
Hong Kong’s hospital authority confirmed that Chow Tsz-lok, 22, died early on Friday morning after suffering brain damage following a fall during protests on Sunday. Chow, a computer science student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), was found injured early on Monday morning in a car park in Tseung Kwan O in Kowloon, where he was believed to have fallen one storey.
Continue reading...China signals desire to bring Hong Kong under tighter control
Beijing issues strongly-worded warning it will not tolerate ‘any actions that split the country’
China has issued unusually tough warnings for Hong Kong, signalling a desire to bring the semi-autonomous city under tighter control, and “perfect” its governance of the territory, after five months of increasingly violent protests.
China’s Communist party, in a statement issued after a meeting of key leaders, said national interest should take priority over the “two systems” policy that has allowed Hong Kong extensive autonomy since the handover from British colonial rule, and warned that it would not tolerate “any actions that split the country”.
Continue reading...‘Alarming’ Chinese meddling at UK universities exposed in report
Chinese embassy appears to be coordinating efforts to curb academic freedom, say MPs
Universities are not adequately responding to the growing risk of China and other “autocracies” influencing academic freedom in the UK, the foreign affairs select committee has said.
The report, rushed out before parliament is suspended pending the election, finds “alarming evidence” of Chinese interference on UK campuses, adding some of the activity seeking to restrict academic freedom appears to be coordinated by the Chinese embassy in London.
Continue reading...Hong Kong protests: Chinese state media urges tougher stance on ‘wanton violence’
China Daily newspaper accuses protesters of being at mercy of hormones, and venting anger ‘at grievances real and imagined’
Chinese state media on Monday urged authorities to take a “tougher line” against protesters in Hong Kong who vandalised the office of the state-run Xinhua news agency and other buildings at the weekend, saying the violence damaged the city’s rule of law.
In an editorial, state-backed China Daily newspaper criticised the “wanton” attacks by “naive” demonstrators, adding: “They are doomed to fail simply because their violence will encounter the full weight of the law.”
Continue reading...Politician’s ear bitten off during knife attack in Hong Kong
Pro-democracy councillor among five wounded by alleged attacker shouting pro-Beijing slogans
A man went on a knife rampage in Hong Kong leaving at least five people wounded, including a local pro-democracy politician who had his ear bitten off, capping another chaotic day of political unrest in the city.
Flashmob rallies erupted on Sunday inside multiple shopping centers across the city, sparking clashes with riot police.
Continue reading...Hong Kong police use water cannon as protesters throw petrol bombs – video
Hong Kong riot police fired teargas rounds and used a water cannon on Saturday to break up a rally by thousands of masked protesters after Beijing indicated it might tighten its grip on the territory
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