Hong Kong: police fire teargas as thousands march in Yuen Long

Activists defy police ban to stage protest at site of last weekend’s violent clash

A peaceful march in the town of Yuen Long to condemn an attack by suspected gang members on commuters turned violent as Hong Kong riot police fired teargas and rubber bullets on the crowd and used batons to beat protesters.

On Sunday, the government said 11 men had been arrested, aged between 18 and 68, for unlawful assembly, possession of an offensive weapon and assaulting a police officer. “Police condemn the deliberate attacks by violent protestors and will investigate all illegal and violent acts,” the government said in a statement.

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Hong Kong protests held at airport after Yuen Long attack – video report

Staff at Hong Kong international airport have begun an 11-hour protest in an attempt to hold the government to account for violent attacks on residents by suspected gang members last week. Flight attendants and airport staff were joined by demonstrators dressed in black, the signature colour of the territory's protest movement. Protesters could be heard chanting 'free Hong Kong' as travellers arrived at the terminal

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Hong Kong airport staff stage protest against Yuen Long attack

Flight attendants and airport staff join protesters to condemn government and police

Flight attendants and airport staff have begun a planned 11-hour protest at Hong Kong international airport to call on the government to account for a violent attack on residents by suspected gang members last week.

The aviation staff were joined by demonstrators dressed in black, the signature colour of the Chinese territory’s protest movement, who filled the airport’s arrival hall on Friday. They sat on the ground chanting “Free Hong Kong” as shocked travellers walked through the terminal.

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‘All Hong Kongers are scared’: protests to widen as rural residents fight back

Sleepy town of Yuen Long becomes battleground after suspected gangster attack on commuters

Yuen Long, a quiet residential area close to the Chinese border, has become the unlikely next battleground of Hong Kong’s protest movement.

Over the last seven weeks, demonstrators have planned rallies across the territory – in parks, along main roads, in the airport and outside government offices – calling for the withdrawal of an extradition bill and making other political demands. But Yuen Long, known as one of the more remote, isolated areas in the north-west, had never been on the agenda.

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Hong Kong protests: China blames ‘black hands’ of US for unrest

Foreign affairs ministry and state media accuse US of seeking to bring down the region

Beijing has blamed political unrest in Hong Kong on “black hands” from the US, advising America to remember that “Hong Kong is China’s Hong Kong”.

“We can see that US officials are behind such incidents. Can US officials honestly tell the world what role they played and what are their aims?” said, Hua Chunying, a ministry of foreign affairs spokeswoman, on Tuesday.

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Hong Kong protesters pledge to stand up to thugs after attack

Anger growing against police and authorities after masked men left 45 people in hospital

Protesters in Hong Kong have pledged to stand up to thugs who attacked demonstrators at the weekend as public anger grows towards the government and police.

Demonstrators have filed for a permit to hold a rally on Saturday in Yuen Long, the district on the outskirts of Hong Kong where dozens of masked men chased and beat commuters and protesters with wooden poles and metal rods, leaving at least 45 people in hospital. Police arrived after the assailants left.

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Hong Kong: why thugs may be doing the government’s work

Sunday’s assault was blamed on criminals, but there are signs of links to pro-Beijing figures

At a pro-government rally on Saturday, one speaker made a disconcerting proposal for disciplining Hong Kong’s young protesters. “Do we have canes at home? Bring out your canes,” said Arthur Shek, a co-founder of the Economic Times newspaper. “Find a long one to beat your son. If you don’t have a cane, what do you do? We can still go to a hardware shop to buy a 20mm PVC pipe.”

The next day, dozens of men in white T-shirts and masks descended on a railway station in Yuen Long where they beat commuters with long bamboo rods and pipes.

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‘Where were the police?’ Hong Kong outcry after masked thugs launch attack

Police accused of doing nothing to stop suspected triads storming train station and beating people including women and children

Pro-democracy activists and lawmakers in Hong Kong have accused the police of standing by as men dressed in white attacked commuters and protesters late on Sunday, leaving 45 hospitalised, including one who is critically injured.

Video footage showed dozens of men, most in masks, storming a mass transit station in Yuen Long, chasing passengers and beating them with rods. Among those hurt in the attack were demonstrators returning from a large anti-government rally, as well as a pregnant woman and a woman holding an infant, according to witnesses.

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Chaos as armed men attack pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong – video

Men  dressed  in white T-shirts, some armed with sticks, entered the Yuen Long MTR station and stormed a train, attacking passengers, according to footage taken by commuters, journalists and Democratic party politician Lam Cheuk-ting. Witnesses said the attackers appeared to target black-shirted passengers who had been at an anti-government march earlier in the day

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How Hong Kong maids became caught in a ‘humanitarian tsunami’

Migrant workers who become pregnant by their employers face dismissal, homelessness and a swift return home

The sun had not yet risen in Hong Kong when Sally*, a domestic worker, was woken and told she needed to leave immediately. As she lay on the sofa, confused, Sally saw her employer standing over her with a piece of paper he wanted her to sign. It was a resignation letter he had written for her. She was being let go because she was pregnant. Her employer, a German man in his 50s, is the father of the child.

Sally, 39, from Manilla in the Philippines, is one of the 390,000 domestic workers – mainly from poorer Asian countries – who keep Hong Kong functioning. One in every 20 employees in Hong Kong is a migrant worker, and most of these are women of child bearing age.

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Hong Kong police fire rubber bullets as protests turn violent

Widespread conflict erupts on pro-democracy march, with Beijing liaison office targeted

A major anti-government march in Hong Kong descended into chaos late on Sunday, as police fired teargas on protesters and unidentified masked men attacked commuters returning from the demonstration.

The protesters had surrounded China’s liaison office in the city, where they barricaded the building’s entrance and wrote graffiti its walls.

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Police fire teargas at protesters during Hong Kong democracy march – video report

Police in Hong Kong fired teargas and rubber bullets at demonstrators during the city's biggest protests in weeks. Hundreds of thousands of anti-government protesters took to the streets, some clashing with riot police after they defied police orders to restrict the boundaries of their rally 

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Hong Kong police find explosives on eve of latest protests

Police warn of possible violence as man is arrested after ‘extremely powerful’ explosives found

Police in Hong Kong are warning of possible violence on the eve of another mass protest against a controversial extradition bill after making “the largest seizure” of explosives in the territory.

The seizure came on the day that thousands of pro-government supporters took part in a rally.

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Which is the world’s most vertical city?

You might think of Hong Kong, given its famous skyscraper skyline, but by different measures of verticality other cities come out on top

Looking out from sky100, Hong Kong’s highest observation deck on the 100th floor of the city’s tallest building, the 494-metre-high International Commerce Centre, you get a 360-degree view of one of the world’s most famous skylines – an urban jungle framed by mountains and the gleaming Victoria harbour, with endless clusters of high-rise buildings packed so closely together they resemble a game of Tetris.

It’s little wonder a city of such visible density has more skyscrapers than anywhere else in the world. According to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), Hong Kong has 355 buildings over 150m in height.

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Riot police clash with protesters in Hong Kong shopping centre – video

Officers dressed in riot gear have fought with demonstrators inside a shopping centre in the residential district of Sha Tin, as they tried to disperse tens of thousands of people rallying against an extradition bill that would allow suspects to be sent to mainland China to face trial. Millions have taken to the streets in the past month in some of the largest and most violent protests for decades

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Hong Kong protest ends in chaotic clashes between police and demonstrators

Standoff in Sha Tin over extradition bill came one day after unrest in Sheung Shui

Violent clashes have erupted between Hong Kong police and protesters at the end of a peaceful demonstration against the controversial extradition bill. The incidents took place late on Sunday in a bustling town between Hong Kong island and the border with China.

The scene descended into chaos shortly before 10pm local time (1400 GMT), after riot police chased protesters into a shopping centre in Sha Tin. Police used truncheons and pepper spray against protesters, who threw objects such as umbrellas and plastic water bottles at them. Some protesters were also seen beating a police officer. Several arrests were made.

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‘Don’t mess with us’: the spirit of rebellion spreads in Hong Kong

The successful protests against the extradition law are unleasing popular anger on a range of issues

An old Chinese idiom has become the key catchphrase of Hong Kong’s social discourse in recent days. Pien Dei Hoi Fa flowers blooming everywhere – is the term being used to describe the emergence of local protests and so-called Lennon walls, colourful collages of sticky labels with political messages, that are popping up in local communities all over Hong Kong.

Millions in this former British colony have flocked to the streets in several mass protests over the past month to fight against a proposed law that would allow individuals to be extradited to stand trial in China’s opaque courts. Now, feeling emboldened by the solidarity and big turnout at recent protests, which have made headlines across the world, Hong Kong people are now riding on the wave of their success to speak up on a range of issues, which are generally related to their discontent with the encroachment of China into Hong Kong.

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Protesters and police clash in Hong Kong after peaceful march

Police use pepper spray and truncheons after protest about cross-border traders

Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Hong Kong on Saturday after thousands took part in a peaceful march in an out-of-town district in Hong Kong.

After the end of the Reclaim Sheung Shui protest against parallel traders who snap up goods such as foreign-made formula milk, medicines and soy sauce for reselling in China in the town near the mainland border, hundreds of protesters put on goggles, face masks and hard hats and occupied the streets around the train station, which had been cordoned off for the police-sanctioned demonstration earlier.

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Are artificial islands the answer to Hong Kong’s housing crisis?

Will a $60bn development to house 1.1 million people help to ease the world’s most unaffordable property market or is it simply ‘pouring money into the sea’?

“Reclamation is unavoidable,” Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, told journalists in a Q&A session on land supply last year. “In the long term, many developing cities have to adopt this choice.”

Hong Kong suffers from chronic overcrowding and housing shortages – a situation made worse by the 150 residence permits a day that have been issued to mainland Chinese citizens since 1997. Additionally, 62% of land is “locked up” or “semi-locked up” by law or regulatory constraints due to environmental reasons in terms of land development, according to the thinktank Our Hong Kong Foundation.

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