HONG KONG - Hundreds of police officers swooped into central Hong Kong on Tuesday, pushing back pro-democracy demonstrators who had built more barricades around their main street camp after deepening contention had brought thousands out the day before. After the police swept away the fortifications from one major street, apprehension mixed with defiance rippled through the main protest camp, a few minutes' walk from the newly cleared road.
'I think this is not enough to protect us, but we have to stay here,' said Fish Chan, a 19-year-old tour guide who was among the protesters forced to move after the police pressed closer to the main protest camp. She was helping to defend a new barricade made from wooden pallets lashed together with plastic ties.
'I'm feeling angry because I'm here to protect the students,' she said. 'We are not afraid of the police, but we are not sure what will happen next and what will happen if they come.'
On Tuesday morning, several hundred police officers moved onto Queensway, one of the roads where the protesters had erected barriers, and began forcing the crowd onto side streets, holding up warnings that the area was cordoned off. Crowds of protesters watched, yelling curses at the police, while workers began dismantling the barriers.
Regina Ip, a Hong Kong lawmaker who supports Chinese government policies toward the city, told reporters on Tuesday that the protests were tarnishing Hong Kong's image for stability. 'We are beginning to see a breakdown of law and order,' Ms. Ip said. 'The lawlessness that is surfacing is disturbing. This is not what Hong Kong is famous for.'
But actions by the police and threats from opponents of the protests have repeatedly backfired, making the pro-democracy demonstrators more determined to hold fast. Two weeks ago, when the police used tear gas and pepper spray to try to break up the demonstrations, even more people went into the streets in solidarity.
Attempts on Monday to pare back the protesters' barricades had prompted supporters to build more, using bamboo poles, garbage cans, concrete, bus stop signs and even large potted plants and carpet scavenged from office renovations. Bankers, construction workers, engineers and smartly dressed office workers were among the surge of people who gathered deep into Monday night to keep the police from squeezing the student-led protests out of the three major areas of the city that they have clogged for more than two weeks.
'Before, the street barriers were just symbolic, but the ones going up now are something else,' said Jo Wu, an office worker who went out into Queensway, a major shopping thoroughfare, to express support for the protesters, while also walking her pet pug, Mimi. 'People are showing their distrust of the government.'
Like Ms. Wu, many people who turned out on Monday evening to help or to cheer on the demonstrators appeared to be middle class, expressing anger with the government over disappointed hopes for greater democracy.
'We came to show our support for something we really treasure: democracy,' said Steven Tsui, a financial analyst in his 20s who was dressed in a dark business suit. 'We need to show that this is not only students who are angry.'
Many Hong Kong residents see the Chinese government's rejection of full democracy for their city as an affront to their values, and feel that the special status that they have had since Hong Kong returned to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 is under threat.
The Chinese government has promised to let Hong Kong voters choose the city's leader, called the chief executive, starting in 2017. But rather than allow open nominations, the government has said that candidates must be screened by a committee dominated by people loyal to Beijing.
Surveys have indicated that managers, professionals and educators are among the Hong Kong residents who are most dissatisfied with their local government. And while only a minority has actively supported the protests, that support remains robust.
The initial police efforts to remove some barricades in the Admiralty and Central districts began before dawn on Monday, taking sleeping protesters by surprise, but left the main protest camp untouched.
Later in the day, hundreds of people who oppose the pro-democracy demonstrations tore down more of the barricades around Admiralty that have choked traffic in the city. The crowds appeared to include truck and taxi drivers and members of triads, the local organized crime gangs, according to supporters of the pro-democracy demonstrators, but a good number appeared to be ordinary residents.
Pro-democracy demonstrators regained the upper hand on Monday evening. At Mong Kok, a district across the harbor from Admiralty, volunteers used crates and bamboo poles to reinforce their barriers. By Tuesday evening, the police had not made any efforts to remove the barriers.
On Tuesday morning, the police, equipped with heavy steel shears, began cutting plastic ties and dismantling barricades in one of the city's busiest shopping areas, Causeway Bay, but there was little sign of resistance or arrests. 'Please leave for your own safety,' officers said through loudspeakers.
The swift police operation Tuesday on Queensway, near the biggest protest camp, appeared to be undertaken with little physical force against protesters, although at least one man was thrown to the ground. A group of supporters of the protesting students stood on a hillock overlooking the street, and some of them chanted 'gangsters' while the police dragged away tents that had been used by the demonstrators guarding the barriers, throwing them into a dump truck with other debris, including broken bamboo poles.
Later in the day, the police warned protesters not to try moving back in with barricades. 'If protesters try to rebuild the barricades, it absolutely will not be tolerated - we will have patrols,' Hui Chun-tak, the chief police spokesman, said at his daily news conference.
Alex Chow, the secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the main organizations supporting the protests, said in an interview that he was 'somewhat relieved' that the protesters no longer had to defend Queensway. The retreat could help consolidate protesters' strength at other sites and ease residents' complaints about the inconveniences caused by the roadblocks, he said.
'It's not a wholly ideal strategy to occupy Queensway in the first place,' he said. 'The inconvenience cost us sympathizers, and the fact is you don't have enough people to defend it.'
Stephanie Lo, a 27-year-old poet and office worker sat in a tent for protesters in the main camp and expressed resentment of the police action, which she described as unnecessary. But she said that previous student offers to give up obstacles on Queensway in exchange for more space to protest close to the Hong Kong government headquarters had made many protesters ambivalent about Queensway, and more concerned about the nearby main camp. 'This is more important, and we didn't have so many people to take care of Queensway, so maybe it's better that we are all here,' Ms. Lo said.
Posted by Unknown on Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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