March of the brave as HK stands firm

1.7 million people rallied despite rain and rumours that police were preparing to escalate methods.

Protesters march against a controversial extradition bill in the Causeway Bay area. Picture: Getty

They came in their tens of thousands despite the rain. They came despite the rumours that police were preparing to escalate their methods of suppressing protesters. They came despite — or perhaps because of — the fact there was no chance that the number of protesters could ever possibly fit within the space authorities had set aside for the rally.

Most of all, though, they came to make it clear that their hunger for their cause, now entering its third month, had not diminished.

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The latest rally — the biggest in weeks — took place at Victoria Park in Causeway Bay, but so large were the numbers that the maze of streets leading into the park were jammed shoulder to shoulder, forming a human gridlock through a shopping district ­famous for charging some of the highest retail rents in the world.

The main roads in and out of Hong Kong remained closed at around 9.30pm local time, with thousands of people continuing to stream through Wan Chai towards Central more than seven hours after the event formally began.

Despite persistent and at times torrential rain, organisers estimated that around 1.7 million people filled Hong Kong’s Victoria Park and the streets of the surrounding Causeway Bay retail precinct in what was the biggest single protest in the city since June.

China’s ambassador to Australia, Cheng Jingye, warned against “foreign interference” amid the protests.

“Hong Kong affairs are solely the internal affairs of China,” he said. “(The) Chinese government’s determination to safeguard ‘One Country, Two Systems’ is unwavering.

“Foreign governments and entities should strictly abide by international law and basic norms governing international relations, not support violent radicals, not interfere in Hong Kong’s affairs and China’s internal affairs in whatever form. Any attempt to mess up Hong Kong is doomed to fail.”

Sunday’s event appeared to avoid any repeat of the violence that marred protests earlier this week, delivering the “peaceful, rational and non-violent” demonstration that organisers had called for.

Hong Kong’s police, who have been heavily criticised by protestors over their alleged heavy-handedness in recent weeks, kept a low profile during the event.

The only riot police spotted in Hong Kong last night were near Chinese government’s liaison office, although protesters largely avoided the area.

Large crowds instead gathered outside the Hong Kong government’s Legislative Council office and the Hong Kong police headquarters, shining lasers on the building and chanting “gangsters, gangsters”, but there was no visible police presence outside.

Rain has not stopped protesters gathering for a rally in Victoria Park. Picture: AFP

The precinct ground to a halt as protesters filled the streets, even as a torrential afternoon downpour struck. The shops were mostly empty, and the only people in the area’s shopping malls were protesters using them as thoroughfares. As the mass of protesters struggled to move towards the park, spirits remained high. Packed together and soaking wet yet patient, calm and undeterred, they broke out in chants of “Cheer for Hong Kong”. One man, carrying a small loudspeaker, blasted from his phone the movement’s unofficial anthem, Do you hear the people sing?, from Les Miserables.

Some wore patches over their right eyes, a symbol of the young nurse who lost sight in one eye after allegedly being shot by a police bean-bag round. Some carried safety gear, like dust masks, goggles and the movement’s yellow hardhats, in anticipation of scuffles with police to come. All wore black shirts. There were students, obviously, but also mothers and fathers with their children, grandparents, pregnant women.

The city’s MTR subway, which normally handles the movements of massive volumes of people with ease, was swamped with trains and the Causeway Bay station’s corridors packed to capacity well over an hour before the rally was to start. The crowds came despite rumours swirling through the social media and messaging systems used to co-ordinate the protests that police were preparing to get more aggressive with protesters after days of relative calm.

A protester holds up a placard as he and others march during a rally from Victoria Park in Hong Kong. Picture: AFP

“There are rumours that Hong Kong police will be getting more violent,” student Kenneth Leung told The Australian. “But we will show we are peaceful people. We can’t stop coming out because we can see that there is so much injustice happening in Hong Kong.”

Hong Kong man Benny Wong and his six-year-old daughter, Beatrix, were handing out flyers they had designed and had printed at the event. He said he was marching because he believed China would steadily erode Hong Kong’s freedoms.

“For me, as a parent I will look after my children and I will look after Hong Kong,” he said.

“Hong Kong right now is sick, and I don’t want to to be sick anymore. So we are standing up for our children and our future.”

Also among the hundreds of thousands was Hong Kong marketing consultant Ms Chen. Carrying a battery-powered fan and wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “We are Hongkongers”, Ms Chen said the protest would show that the movement was peaceful.

“The government and the police do not consider its citizens any more, they only obey the China government. They are trying to kill us,” she said.

A demonstrator wears an eye patch to show solidarity with a woman injured by a beanbag during a previous protest. Picture: AP

“There is no more justice in Hong Kong. We are so worried and so scared, that’s why we have come out. We have tried to tell our government and we have tried to tell foreign governments, we really need other countries to stand with us, to support us, to save us.”

Sunday’s rally at Victoria Park was organised by the Civil Human Rights Front, the same group responsible for the two peaceful marches in June that attracted estimated crowds of one million and two million people respectively.

The rally was the culmination of a series of protests in Hong Kong and around the world.

While the Victoria Park rally was approved by police, plans for a march from the park, through Wan Chai and into Hong Kong’s centre were denied.

The lack of approval for a march means that, with Victoria Park estimated to hold only about 100,000 people, those who assemble outside the area will be at risk of arrest.

Hong Kong has been relatively calm in the days leading up to Sunday’s rally, with protesters and police appearing more restrained.

An outbreak of violence at Hong Kong’s airport on Tuesday night, where protesters detained and beat two mainland Chinese men suspected of being undercover operatives, drew widespread condemnation and prompted the movement to urge a shift back to the more peaceful approach that characterised its early weeks.

A Friday night rally in central Hong Kong that drew an estimated 60,000 people and a march on Saturday morning by Hong Kong teachers both ended peacefully, although some spot fires emerged in the wake of a march through Hung Hom in Kowloon.

Also on Saturday, about 2000 people marched through Hung Hom, where residents have complained about an influx of mainland Chinese tour buses.

A small group of protesters later converged on a police station in Mong Kok, throwing eggs and shining laser pointers at the dozens of riot police assembled outside and taunting them with chants of “where’s your teargas?”.

Some protesters also threw bins at police buses, prompting one officer to shoot at least one bean-bag round. But no teargas was fired, making it the first Saturday night in almost two months in which it was not fired on the streets. Across the harbour, tens of thousands gathered at Tamar Park, outside Hong Kong’s Legislative Council complex to express their support for China and the Hong Kong police and unfurl a giant banner reading “oppose violence, rescue Hong Kong”.

Counter-protests by supporters of China also took place around the world, and footage of the events in Melbourne and Sydney were shared widely through the social media and messaging platforms used by activists in Hong Kong. Pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong urged their counterparts in Australia not to engage with the China protesters, describing them as a deliberate provocation aimed at drawing a violent response that would hurt the public standing of the movement.

Ms Chen said she had not been surprised to see the international rallies disrupted by pro-Chinese counter-protesters. “They try to ruin our protests,” she said. “You can see how violent they are.”

About 500 supporters gathered in Belmore Park near Sydney’s Central Station on Sunday afternoon after thousands of people attended solidarity rallies across the country on Friday and Saturday.

“One day we will have the same rights, the same freedoms that we enjoy here in Australia,” an activist from Hong Kong said. Jared, a 20-year-old university student from Hong Kong, was holding a flag alongside a young man from mainland China.

“Despite our differences we are able to unite here today for the same cause, freedom of speech and democracy,” he said.

Many of the protesters covered their faces.

Additional reporting: Emily Ritchie

Protesters march near the Tin Hau MTR station in Hong Kong. Picture: AFP