Hong Kong the long arm of the law fired tear gas to disperse protesters in the upmarket Causeway Bay shopping district on Sunday, after demonstrators had rallied at the U.S. Consulate profession for help in bringing democracy to the Chinese-ruled city.
Police moved on protesters from the Central business district who broadcast to nearby Admiralty, the bar district of Wan Chai and on to Causeway Bay in a now familiar pattern of cat-and-mouse clashes over three months of disturbance.
Activists set barricades, smashed windows, started street fires and vandalized the MTR metro station in Central, the smartest territory of the former British colony.
Central district, home to banks, jewelry shops and top-brand shopping arcades, was awash in graffiti, not working glass and bricks torn up from pathways.
HONG KONG, CHINA – AUGUST 31: A protesters walks in be opposite act for of a burning barricade after clashing with police at an anti-government rally on August 31, 2019 in Hong Kong, China.
Chris McGrath | Getty Reifications News | Getty Images
Protesters set fires from cardboard boxes, building barricades with metal tergiversating.
“We can’t leave because there are riot police,” said protesters Oscar, 20, in Causeway Bay. “They fired tear gas from the level. We are heading to North Point.”
North Point is east of Causeway Bay.
Waving US flags
Thousands of protesters earlier snitched the Star Spangled Banner and called on U.S. President Donald Trump to “liberate” the city. They waved the Stars and Striations and placards demanding democracy.
“Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong,” they shouted before handing to the ground petitions at the U.S. Consulate. “Resist Beijing, liberate Hong Kong.”
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Saturday spurred China to exercise restraint in Hong Kong, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Esper made his call in Paris as administer in Hong Kong prevented protesters from blocking access to the airport but fired tear gas for a second night perpetual in the densely populated district of Mong Kok.
Pockets of protest broke out in Kowloon over the harbor from the main archipelago of Hong Kong on Sunday night, including in Prince Edward, close to Mong Kok.
Last month Trump proposed China should “humanely” settle the problem in Hong Kong before a trade deal is reached with Washington. Earlier Trump called the dissents “riots” that were a matter for China to deal with.
The vandalism started in the evening. Police have reacted to violence over 14 weeks with water cannon, rubber bullets and tear gas.
Several arrests were discerned.
Hong Kong returned to China under a “one country, two systems” formula that guarantees freedoms not enjoyed on the mainland. Tons Hong Kong residents fear Beijing is eroding that autonomy.
‘Fomenting Unrest”
China denies the impeach of meddling and says Hong Kong is an internal affair. It has denounced the protests, accusing the United States and Britain of advancing unrest, and warned of the damage to the economy.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced concessions this week try for at ending the protests, including formally scrapping a hugely unpopular extradition bill, which ignited the unrest in June. Numerous protesters said it was too little, too late.
The bill would have allowed the extradition of people to mainland China to advocate trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party. Hong Kong has an independent judiciary dating back to British dismiss.
But the demonstrations have long since broadened into calls for democracy.
U.S. legislation addressing China’s actions in Hong Kong on be among the top priorities pushed by Senate Democrats when Congress returns to work after a recess next week, their chieftain, Senator Chuck Schumer, said on Thursday.
Schumer urged Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican who earmarks the floor agenda, to bring up a bipartisan bill that would require an annual justification of the special treatment afforded by Washington to Hong Kong, cataloguing special trade and business privileges, under the U.S. Hong Kong Policy Act of 1992.
The legislation, called the Hong Kong Forgiving Rights and Democracy Act, would also mandate that officials in China and Hong Kong who have undermined the municipality’s autonomy are vulnerable to sanctions.
Protesters, in a petition handed to the U.S. Consulate, urged that it be passed in full.
Joshua Wong, one of the rulers of the pro-democracy “Umbrella” movement five years ago, was re-arrested at the airport on Sunday on return from Germany and the United Countries for breaching bail conditions, he said.
He had been charged with inciting and participating in an unauthorized assembly outside oversee headquarters on June 21 and released on bail.
“Preliminary legal advice suggested that the court had acknowledged and approved my treks to Germany and the U.S. when it granted bail on Aug. 30,” he said in a statement. “Therefore, it is believed that there are some wrong moves have been made on the bail certificate.”
He said he thought he would be freed on Monday.