Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam formally withdrew an extradition bill on Wednesday that has sparked months of violent protests and plunged the territory into its biggest political crisis in decades. In a pre-recorded statement, Lam made four proposals to 'initiate a dialogue' between the government and Hong Kong residents
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Hong Kong protests: Carrie Lam denies offering to resign
Leader says she wants to remain in job, but doesn’t deny authenticity of leaked audio recording saying otherwise as arrests continue
Hong Kong’s embattled leader Carrie Lam has said that she has never offered to step down, a day after an audio recording emerged of her saying she would quit if she had “a choice”.
In a press conference on Tuesday, Lam did not deny veracity of the audio, but told reporters: “I have never tendered resignation to the central people’s government. I have not even contemplated tendering resignation ... The choice of not resigning is my own choice.” She added: “The reason being I believe I can lead my team to come out of this impasse.”
Continue reading...Carrie Lam says she would quit as Hong Kong CEO if she had a choice – audio
The embattled Hong Kong leader, Carrie Lam, said she has caused ‘unforgivable havoc’ by igniting the political crisis engulfing the city and would quit if she had a choice, according to a leaked audio recording of remarks she made last week to a group of businesspeople.
Lam admitted she now has ‘very limited’ options to resolve the crisis because the unrest has become a national security and sovereignty issue for China amid rising tensions with the United States.
Continue reading...Thousands of Hong Kong students boycott first day of term – video
University and secondary school students attend pro-democracy rallies in central Hong Kong on Monday as part of a wider anti-government movement that has plunged the region into its biggest political crisis in decades. The boycott follows a weekend marked by some of the worst violence since unrest escalated more than three months ago, with protesters burning barricades and throwing petrol bombs, and police retaliating with water cannon, teargas and batons
Continue reading...Hong Kong students boycott classes as Chinese media warns ‘end is coming’
School and university students call for democracy after weekend of violent clashes
Thousands of students in Hong Kong have boycotted the first day of the new term in a fresh wave of protests, after a tense weekend of violent clashes between police and demonstrators.
On Monday, university and secondary students marked the end of their summer break by skipping classes and holding rallies to call on the government to withdraw a controversial extradition bill, among other demands.
Continue reading...Fire and fear: Hong Kong lit by protests after dark – in pictures
In a continuation of the waves of demonstrations and sometimes violent clashes between police and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong since 9 June, protesters have blocked the freeway leading to the city’s airport, and the operator of the express train to the airport suspended service. Others protested outside the British consulate, calling on London to grant citizenship to people born in the former colony before its return to China. Hong Kong’s chief executive Carrie Lam apologised for introducing a controversial extradition bill, declaring it ‘dead’, but protesters have continued to draw large crowds demanding her resignation and the withdrawal of the bill
Continue reading...How far will China go to stamp out Hong Kong protests?
Fears of Tiananmen-style crackdown as regional officials’ tactics only serve to fuel unrest
How far will China go to end Hong Kong’s unrest, now in its 13th week and still growing? Senior officials have spoken not only of “terrorist acts” but of “colour revolution characteristics”, making it clear that they have ruled out compromise.
So far they have relied on the Hong Kong government to suppress the protests, but the banning of rallies, brutal police tactics, thug attacks, the arrests of high-profile activists and metro line closures have failed to dampen the unrest. On Sunday, thousands of activists descended on the airport.
Continue reading...Hong Kong protesters gather at airport – video
Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have descended on Hong Kong’s international airport, blocking roads and filling a bus terminus, in the latest wave of political unrest to hit the city. Less than 24 hours after protesters and police clashed in running battles on Saturday, demonstrators attempted to paralyse the airport
Continue reading...Hong Kong: riot police pursue pro-democracy protesters from airport
Activists take over shopping complex and vandalise rail station after trying to choke city’s international hub
Thousands of demonstrators in Hong Kong have paralysed traffic and shut down transport links between the city and the airport during another day of protests demanding democratic freedoms in the semiautonomous Chinese territory.
On Sunday, demonstrators attempted to lay siege to the airport to draw global attention to the city that has been plunged into political crisis for the last three months.
Continue reading...Hong Kong: ‘Revolution is war, and no war is without bloodshed’
Anger is rising as the government crackdown intensifies, and protesters say they are prepared for confrontation and sacrifice
Ryan Lee, a 27-year-old computer engineer, only started taking part in Hong Kong’s demonstrations in June. Since then, it has been a steep learning curve.
He has tackled a police officer to the ground to rescue another protester, tossed teargas canisters back at the police and covered the gas grenades with the metal dishes commonly used in Hong Kong for steaming fish.
Continue reading...Hong Kong police seen beating protesters in clash at metro station – video
Clashes broke out between protesters and police at Hong Kong's Prince Edward station on Saturday in the 13th consecutive weekend of anti-government and anti-police demonstrations. Police were seen hitting passengers with their batons, spraying pepper spray and pointing rubber pellet guns toward demonstrators on the subway. A number of protesters were arrested and escorted off the station platform by police.
Continue reading...Fire, teargas and water cannon on Hong Kong streets in latest protests – video report
Protesters in Hong Kong set fire to piles of barriers and debris on Saturday on the city's 13th straight weekend of mass protests. Earlier, police fired teargas and water cannon at the protesters outside the government headquarters after some threw objects and petrol bombs at them.
Continue reading...Hong Kong protests: riot police storm metro station with batons
Unrest deepens on anniversary of Beijing’s move to limit democratic reforms in territory
Hong Kong riot police have stormed a metro station, using batons to beat passengers as violent clashes deepened political unrest in the city for the 13th weekend in a row.
Lai, 31, returning home from protests, was in a train car that pulled into the Prince Edward mass transit railway stop in Kowloon just before 11pm on Saturday night. He saw at least 20 police officers on the station platform when suddenly five or six ran into his carriage.
Continue reading...‘We shall not surrender,’ Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong says after release on bail – video
The Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong says he will not surrender after he was charged with organising an illegal protest on Friday. Wong, who led pro-democracy demonstrations five years ago, is the most prominent activist to be arrested since protests escalated in mid-June over fears China is exerting greater control over the territory. Police arrested several other activists and blocked plans for a mass demonstration on Saturday
Continue reading...Hong Kong protests: Joshua Wong and other pro-democracy figures arrested
Wong and fellow activist Agnes Chow subsequently released
Several prominent pro-democracy figures have been arrested in Hong Kong in an apparent crackdown on protests that have plunged the city into its worst political crisis in decades.
The democracy activists Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow, former student leaders of pro-democracy protests in 2014, were arrested on Friday and Andy Chan, the head of a now banned pro-independence party, was detained by police on Thursday. Wong and Chow were charged with offences including taking part in an unlawful assembly on 21 June 21 at Hong Kong police headquarters and released.
Continue reading...Hong Kong’s ‘be water’ protests leave China casting about for an enemy
Beijing’s worldview cannot conceive of a leaderless movement: there have to be saboteurs behind it
On Friday morning, as Hong Kong woke up, the news came in as thick as the incessant rain: Andy Chan Ho-tin, the head of the outlawed Hong Kong National party, was arrested overnight at the airport as he was about to go to Japan.
Then came the news of Joshua Wong’s arrest – one of the most famous pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong. Wong’s name became known in 2012 when, at 15, he organised the protests against the national education curriculum. The curriculum was seen as an attempt at instilling patriotism in Hong Kong’s youth, but described as “brainwashing” by Wong and his supporters. He was one of the leaders of the Umbrella Movement, in 2014 – for which he served time in jail, and is still facing a number of charges. Among the Umbrella Movement’s leaders was Agnes Chow: she, too, was arrested on Friday. Wong and Chow are the co-founders of the political party Demosisto, which, like Chan’s Hong Kong National party, is one of the organisations that emerged from the Umbrella Movement.
Continue reading...Political uncertainty puts London listing for Saudi Aramco in doubt
Decision to rule out UK and Hong Kong would be major blow to both financial centres
Saudi Arabia’s revived plans for a $2tn mega-listing of its state oil company may rule out the London Stock Exchange amid Britain’s rising political uncertainty, according to reports.
Saudi Aramco, the world’s most profitable company, may instead look to Japan’s Tokyo stock exchange to host the second phase of what would be the biggest public offering in history.
Continue reading...Chinese troop movement into Hong Kong prompts unease
Movements, which have been portrayed as a scheduled troop rotation, come days ahead of anti-government protests
Chinese military vehicles have been seen moving across the border into Hong Kong, in what the military said were regular troop movements, as fears rose that the city could see a Beijing-led crackdown after months of political unrest.
Following witness reports of the movements in the early hours of Thursday, state-run news agency Xinhua released a report that the Hong Kong Garrison of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was making a scheduled rotation and that it was an “annual normal routine”.
Continue reading...‘A nuclear option’: Hong Kong and the threat of the emergency law
Analysts say use of draconian law that would allow censorship, arrest and deportation could push city into bigger crisis
The Hong Kong government’s hint that it may use a draconian law to quell its biggest crisis in decades has sparked widespread concern, with analysts saying it would plunge the city into a worse crisis.
The city’s leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday the government will use existing laws to “put a stop to violence and chaos”, after the pro-Beijing newspaper Sing Tao Daily said the government was considering invoking the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, a colonial era law with sweeping powers that was last used in 1967, to put an end to the current political crisis.
Continue reading...The Hong Kong Way protest shows enchantment is a powerful weapon | Antony Dapiran
Peaceful protests like this human chain help to counteract the violence and cynicism shrouding the city
It almost felt like magic. A few people standing on the street were joined by a few more; people lining the footpath of one block connected to those on the next block. And suddenly, there they all were. Hand in hand, chanting slogans and singing songs. On 23 August, the 30th anniversary of the Baltic Way – a human chain linking the capitals of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to demand the Baltic republics’ independence from the Soviet Union – more than 200,000 people came out on to the streets of Hong Kong to form the “Hong Kong Way”. From the crowded streets of Wan Chai on Hong Kong island, to the famous waterfront of Tsim Sha Tsui, to the suburbs of the New Territories, to the peak of Lion Rock, people linked hands in a continuous human chain that some said measured 60km in total.
This was just the latest action in Hong Kong’s ongoing anti-government protest movement calling for democratic reforms. As a protest action, it was incredibly effective: entirely peaceful, a striking visual spectacle, and a very physical manifestation of the broad support for the movement from across the community. People of all ages and from all walks of life, families with young children, the elderly – all joined the chain and put paid to any suggestion that these ongoing protests were just a few hot-headed young student agitators. But perhaps most importantly, the Hong Kong Way created a moment of enchantment.
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