HK protesters lay siege to cops

Violence between protesters and police spreads across five districts.

‘The situation is really precarious’: A protester is arrested in Hong Kong early yesterday. More than 20 people have been charged. Picture: Getty Images

Violence between protesters and police spread across five districts early yesterday, with several police stations besieged and hundreds of residents pouring on to the streets to drive riot police from their neighbourhood.

Clashes between citizens and police are growing, with no sign of a political resolution to the unrest that has driven eight weeks of protests that are underpinned by anger at China’s growing influence in the city.

Another protest was underway last night, and demonstrators have called for a general strike today.

On Saturday in front of one police station, thousands of black-clad pro-democracy protesters in yellow hard hats gathered. A few used poles to dent parked police vehicles, while others shot with slingshots. Two small fires were set outside the station.

Police massed to clear the protesters, charging at them with riot shields and firing rounds of teargas that left the street outside in a fog. The crowd fell back but didn’t disperse. About 10pm (midnight AEST), a standoff took hold. Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the street, some building barricades with sandbags and other ­debris from a nearby work site.

In another district, hundreds of residents rushed out to demand police leave their neighbourhood after protesters were arrested in the area. They cheered as officers with riot shields retreated back towards their vans to leave, but blocked their way with umbrellas — a symbol of the months-long pro-democracy protests in 2014 — to demand police release those ­arrested. The police then used teargas to disperse them.

The anti-Beijing protest movement has gained momentum even as police use more aggressive tactics to bring it to heel. Police yesterday arrested more than 20 people and charged them with unlawful assembly, which carries a term of up to 10 years in prison.

The spark for the protests was a proposed extradition law that would make it easier for Beijing to prosecute residents under mainland China’s more opaque legal system. Many in Hong Kong see that as undermining a way of life rooted in democratic values such as rule of law and freedom of expression. “The situation is really precarious,” said Albert Ho, a human-rights lawyer who is defending several protesters. “Right now there are a lot of young people out there who feel they have nothing to lose, who feel they are looking at the end of rule of law, of a legal system, of a culture.”

Adding to the tension, the scene of Saturday’s initial march was Mong Kok, where violent clashes unfolded during protests in 2014 and 2016. Across the harbour on Hong Kong Island, thousands of people attended an afternoon rally in Victoria Park to support police.

The movement has been further inflamed by allegations of excessive force by police and an incident where dozens of men, some with ties to the triads, beat protesters and bystanders bloody in a subway station.

Adding to a sense of unease in the former British colony, there is almost no sign that a political resolution will materialise soon. Chief Executive, Carrie Lam has put the extradition law on hold. Demonstrators want the measure withdrawn completely, as well as an inquiry into police handling of the unrest and an overhaul of the voting system.

The anger powering the protests appears to have spread to new sectors of society. On Friday, thousands of civil servants held a rare protest against their own government’s handling of the unrest.

Last week, the Chinese government office responsible for Hong Kong affairs declared that a return to law and order had become Hong Kong’s “most pressing priority”.

The Wall Street Journal