Hundreds of protesters faced off with riot police early on Monday, the anniversary of Hong Kong's return to Chinese rule, ahead of an annual rally that is expected to draw huge crowds amid widespread anger over a controversial extradition bill. Police sprayed pepper spray to disperse the demonstrators in protests that follow huge demonstrations in the city over the bill, which would allow more people to be sent to mainland China for trial
Continue reading...Category Archives: Hong Kong
Tension in Hong Kong on eve of anniversary of China handover
Pro- and anti-government demonstrators rally, with mass protest planned on Monday
Thousands of pro-government protesters have rallied outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong as tensions rose on the eve of what is expected to be Hong Kong’s fourth mass protest in a month against a controversial extradition law.
While top officials attend a ceremony on 1 July every year to mark the anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover of sovereignty from the UK to China, a large anti-government protest also takes place on the same day.
Continue reading...‘They will definitely take revenge’: how China could respond to the Hong Kong protests
Hong Kong has seen its biggest political crisis in decades, but Beijing cannot afford to let the dissent go unpunished
The Communist Party has always been aware of the power of mass protests.
Mao Zedong in 1930 famously used the traditional saying: “a single spark can start a prairie fire” to remind fellow Communists the power of strikes and uprisings when they were a fledgling opposition party under the one-party Nationalist rule.
Continue reading...Beijing will not rest until it controls Hong Kong. We must keep fighting | Joshua Wong and Johnson Yeung
In Hong Kong, we have pushed back against the extradition bill. But China is finding other ways to attack our freedom
Let’s put it in plain words: the people of Hong Kong haven’t defeated the proposed extradition law to China yet – we have only earned a small window to catch our breath. And so have the hardliners in the administration and the Chinese government.
Related: Hong Kong protesters hold noisy rally outside police headquarters
Continue reading...Why aren’t Hong Kong’s protesters backing down? – podcast
Millions of people have taken to the streets over the past three weeks in opposition to an extradition law. The Guardian correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison discusses covering the demonstrations and what could happen next. Plus: Angie Zelter on why she doesn’t regret being arrested at an Extinction Rebellion protest
Hong Kong has been rocked by its biggest political crisis in decades, with millions of people taking to the streets in central business districts to protest against a proposed law that would allow the extradition of suspects to mainland China, where the court system has a conviction rate as high as 99%.
The chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, eventually suspended the bill and apologised. Emma Graham-Harrison, who has been reporting from the special administrative region, tells India Rakusen about the murder case that prompted the extradition legislation and why those in Hong Kong fear Beijing is attempting to erode their democracy.
Continue reading...Hong Kong protesters hold noisy rally outside police headquarters
About a thousand people wearing masks and hats build barricades and obscure cameras with umbrellas
About a thousand people have held a noisy rally outside the police headquarters in downtown Hong Kong, calling for the release of protesters arrested during this month’s wave of political unrest, following a peaceful demonstration earlier on Wednesday.
The protesters, mostly dressed in black and many covering their faces with masks and wearing hard hats, occupied the streets around the police headquarters in Wan Chai after 10pm and chanted loudly “Shame on you” and “Release the righteous fighters” to the beating of drums.
Continue reading...Hong Kong protesters call on foreign leaders to raise crisis at G20
Demonstrators march on consulates to petition overseas governments to assist in fight against ‘authoritarian regime’
Hundreds have gathered at a rally in Hong Kong and marched to foreign consulates to lobby international governments about the city’s political crisis during the G20 summit this week.
President Xi Jinping of China and the US president, Donald Trump, are expected to meet at the summit in Japan amid heightened trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.
Continue reading...‘We have no other choice’: as China erodes democracy Hong Kong citizens prepare to leave
The extradition bill, exorbitant house prices and high cost of living are driving a rise in emigration
Elisa Wong had always thought she would move away from Hong Kong when her seven-year-old daughter reached university age. But the recent political crisis has prompted her to reach for an application form to emigrate to Australia now.
“I must put in an application as quickly as possible,” the 45-year-old former manager at a bank said. “It’s hard to uproot your family and start again in a new country, but the upheavals in the past weeks have made up my mind.”
Continue reading...China will not allow G20 to discuss Hong Kong, says foreign minister
Foreign powers have no right to interfere in ‘internal affair’, says Zhang Jun, as Beijing also calls for trade compromise
China has said it will not allow the G20 nations to discuss the Hong Kong issue at its summit this week, assistant foreign minister Zhang Jun said on Monday.
Millions of people demonstrated on the streets of the city this month against a bill that would allow people to be extradited to the mainland to face trial in courts controlled by the Communist party.
Continue reading...Hong Kong’s elite fear extradition law could harm their reputation
Business leaders in the region take tentative steps in face of contentious bill
Days after Hong Kong’s first major protest against its stalled extradition law, a property firm decided to take a £2.5m hit and abandon an option to develop a slice of prime city land, blaming “social contradiction and economic instability”.
The decision by Goldin Financial Holdings was made after one of its directors, a pro-Beijing lawmaker called Abraham Shek Lai-him, called an urgent meeting to discuss whether to go ahead with the project on part of the old city airport.
Continue reading...Hong Kong protesters disperse after blockade of police HQ
City heads into third weekend of potential unrest about extradition bill that is before legislature
Thousands of protesters who had blockaded police headquarters in Asia’s leading financial centre had mostly dispersed by Saturday morning with some roads reopened for traffic as normal, but it remained unclear whether further mass protests would take place.
Hong Kong has been bracing for a third weekend of widespread protests against an extradition bill that has plunged the Chinese-ruled city into crisis, posing the greatest popular challenge to President Xi Jinping since he took power on the mainland in 2012.
Continue reading...Hong Kong, China and universal values | Letter
Michael Minden says we must grapple with the different realities of those who think and feel not as we do
I agree with Natalie Nougayrède’s point that “universalism is not a dirty word” (Hong Kong’s struggles are ours too, Journal, 19 June), but I don’t think it is “beautiful” either.
As I understand it, it entails a challenge to all of us to assume responsibility for our condition. This cannot be achieved by affirming values as universal because they belong to our particular vocabulary (“basic human aspirations”, “fundamental rights and freedom”, “essential, individual rights”, etc). It can only be achieved by grappling with the different realities of those who think and feel not as we do.
Continue reading...Thousands gather outside police HQ in renewed Hong Kong protests – video
Demonstrators including the activist Joshua Wong have blocked a main road through the city centre in Hong Kong and massed outside the police headquarters to demand the total withdrawal of a new extradition law, the release of detained activists and apologies for police brutality. The protest on Friday is the fourth major demonstration in the city in less than two weeks
Continue reading...Hong Kong: thousands gather for fresh protest against extradition bill
Demonstrators blocks key road and mass outside police headquarters in fourth protest in two weeks
Protestors in Hong Kong have blocked a key road through the city centre and massed outside police headquarters to demand the total withdrawal of a controversial extradition law, the release of detained activists and apologies for police brutality.
The protest on Friday is the fourth major demonstration in the city in less than two weeks.
Continue reading...Fresh Hong Kong protests planned for Friday
Calls for new demonstrations come as government fails to respond to a list of protester demands
Hong Kong is braced for another round of demonstrations after the government failed to respond to a list of protester demands including an investigation into police brutality and the withdrawal of an extradition bill by a Thursday afternoon deadline.
After cut-off set by protest leaders passed without word from the government, messages began circulating on social media calling people to come to central Hong Kong from 7am on Friday.
Continue reading...Fears Hong Kong protests could turn violent amid calls to ‘escalate action’
Protesters have given authorities until Thursday afternoon to answer demands to retract extradition bill
Hong Kong is bracing for fresh rallies on Friday, which many fear could turn violent, as protesters gave city authorities until Thursday to meet their demands on the retraction of the city’s controversial extradition bill.
Anonymous messages have circulated on social media and messaging services calling for people to gather outside the government headquarters in the Admiralty business district to “escalate their actions” if the Hong Kong government fails to meet their demands by 5pm on Thursday. It called on people to strike, close shops and stay off school on Friday. On one popular chat platform alone, the message received nearly 89,000 “likes”. A user called this “Hong Kong’s last battle”.
Continue reading...Carrie Lam ignored public opinion, says freed activist
Joshua Wong blames Hong Kong leader for city’s protests, despite her apology
Hong Kong’s leader, Carrie Lam, is the person responsible for mobilising the biggest protests in the city’s history, the freed student activist Joshua Wong has said.
The 22-year-old, who was the face of the last major demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2014, was released from jail on Monday following a two-month term for contempt of court.
Continue reading...Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam offers apology after protests – video
Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, has offered a 'sincere and solemn' apology to the people of her city following record protests on Sunday in response to the controversial China extradition law. In her first press conference since crowds poured on to the streets to denounce Lam, the bureaucrat-turned-politician described going through an emotional period of 'self-reflection', and said she hoped to heal rifts in society. However, Lam refused to fully meet any of the protesters’ requests for her to resign, withdraw her extradition law, and apologise both for police brutality and for describing one protest as a riot
Continue reading...Sound of Hong Kong’s defiance reverberates in Beijing
Beijing’s public support for Hong Kong leader likely hides private fury, but letting her go would be another humiliation
The most obvious casualty of Hong Kong’s extraordinary uprising against chief executive, Carrie Lam, and her campaign to tie the city more closely to China, will be the bureaucrat-turned-politician’s own career. If she stays on, it will only be as a lame duck leader.
But the city’s turmoil is also a major challenge to her boss and patron, Chinese president, Xi Jinping.
Continue reading...Hong Kong: pressure builds on Carrie Lam as public rejects apology
Calls for leader to stand down after estimated 2 million march over unpopular extradition bill
Protesters have kept up pressure on Hong Kong’s leader by blocking streets outside the shuttered legislature building and welcoming the city’s most prominent political activist, Joshua Wong, on his release from jail.
As the political crisis entered its second week, Hong Kong’s police chief admitted that his officers had sought to arrest wounded demonstrators in hospitals after a previous protest, but claimed criminal screening was routine for anyone arriving at A&E.
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