Hong Kong protests met with tear gas; China frees UK mission staffer

[rooster59]

Hong Kong protests met with tear gas; China frees UK mission staffer

By Jessie Pang and Donny Kwok

 

Riot police clash with demonstrators during a protest in Hong Kong, China, August 24, 2019. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

 

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong police fired volleys of tear gas to break up anti-government protests in a gritty industrial suburb on Saturday after activists threw petrol bombs and bricks, as China freed a British consulate worker whose detention had fuelled tensions.

 

Four MTR subway stations were closed around Kwun Tong, a densely populated area of the Chinese-ruled city on the east of the Kowloon peninsula, but thousands packed the streets anyway, most carrying umbrellas against the sun.

 

Police used tear gas after some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and bricks and others tore up "smart" lamp posts equipped with surveillance cameras. Others had set up roadblocks with bamboo scaffolding.

 

It was the first use of tear gas in 10 days after a series of mostly peaceful demonstrations in the former British colony.

There were no immediate reports of injuries.

 

"Give me democracy or give me death," was spray-painted on a wall, an illustration how the demands of the protesters have expanded beyond the withdrawal of a bill that would have allowed extraditions to China.

 

The government said in a statement the protesters "posed a serious threat to the safety of everyone" at the scene.

 

"After repeated warnings to the protesters..., police officers deployed tear gas and minimum force to disperse protesters," it said.

 

There were sporadic, smaller protests elsewhere in the territory which continued after nightfall. Police fired tear gas in a running battle with protesters blocking a highway in the Wong Tai Sin district, to the northwest of Kwun Tong.

 

The airport and the roads and railways leading to it operated normally despite plans by protesters to implement a "stress test" of transport links after weeks of unrest.

 

The airport was forced to close last week after protesters thronged the main terminal for several days, grounding around 1,000 flights and occasionally clashing with police.

 

The wider calls for democracy have plunged the city into an unprecedented crisis posing a direct challenge for Communist Party leaders in Beijing.

 

Demonstrators say they are fighting the erosion of the "one country, two systems" arrangement that enshrines a high degree of autonomy for Hong Kong since it was handed back from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

 

One Kwun Tong protester showed off a tattoo on her arm which read "Hong Kong add oil", a common encouragement for the protest movement.

 

"I love Hong Kong very much. Even though I may not come out to protest regularly, I still want to mark down this moment,” Bu Chan, 25, told Reuters.

 

Hundreds took part in an "anti-fake news" protest, with people waving the Hong Kong and China flags and targeting government-funded broadcaster RTHK. A station spokeswoman, Amen Ng, rejected claims that RTHK was engaged in fake news.

 

CONSULATE WORKER FREED

 

British consulate staffer Simon Cheng was detained for 15 days for violating public security management regulations, police in Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, said on their Twitter-like Weibo account.

 

Police said Cheng was released as scheduled on Saturday and that his legal rights and interests had been observed.

They also said Cheng had confessed to accusations against him, a commonly used comment by Chinese police, even though Cheng was not given a chance to defend himself in court.

 

Cheng had now returned to Hong Kong, his family said on his Facebook page.

 

No details were given of his detention, with the Facebook post asking the "media and friends to give them some time and space, and we will explain more later".

 

Some protesters in recent days had demanded Cheng be released. Britain said it welcomed the news.

 

Cathay Pacific Airways, which has become the biggest corporate casualty of the protests after China demanded it suspend staff involved in the demonstrations, protested against a planned rally by the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions around the airport's "Cathay City" HQ on Monday.

 

"We have also reiterated to our employees that there is a zero-tolerance approach to any support for or participation in illegal protests, violent activities or overly radical behaviour," it said in a statement.

 

There is no sign of a let-up almost three months after the anti-government demonstrations began. On Friday night, thousands of chanting protesters formed human chains around the city in a peaceful protest dubbed the "Hong Kong Way".

 

Authorities have so far refused to meet any of the protesters' five key demands, including calls for an independent inquiry into police brutality, a full withdrawal of the extradition bill, and full democracy.

 

Organisers are planning a host of protests in the coming weeks including a mass march, a city-wide strike and class boycotts at universities.

 

(Reporting by Anne Marie Roantree, Jessie Pang, Marius Zaharia, Tyrone Siu, Joyce Zhou, Donny Kwok and Twinnie Siu; Writing by James Pomfret and Nick Macfie; Editing by Ros Russell)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-08-24

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[Dumbastheycome]

I have received an email from a long time friend who  said in his  message " This is  now a big  money attempt to provoke the central Chinese administration to revoke the relative autonomy of Hong Kong.

It's  gonna  have an impact  but not what they hope for. Crazy .The  "Core" in  China not  gonna  move until  the other side  does. Look out  for  some  real <deleted> then !  Us that  know  know what it is about. The only  people  gonna lose in  the poor traders in  HK. Again! See  you soon on the outside."

Until I meet  him  I can  only  assume what he means but  I have a  suspicion  of what  it  is.

 

[Roadman]

Petrol bombs and bricks.  Morons....and Hong Kong as a whole will face the consequences for the actions of those who can’t abide to peaceful protest. 

[tonbridgebrit]

2 hours ago, Dumbastheycome said:

I have received an email from a long time friend who  said in his  message " This is  now a big  money attempt to provoke the central Chinese administration to revoke the relative autonomy of Hong Kong.

It's  gonna  have an impact  but not what they hope for. Crazy .The  "Core" in  China not  gonna  move until  the other side  does. Look out  for  some  real <deleted> then !  Us that  know  know what it is about. The only  people  gonna lose in  the poor traders in  HK. Again! See  you soon on the outside."

Until I meet  him  I can  only  assume what he means but  I have a  suspicion  of what  it  is.

 

And the "big money attempt to provoke the central Chinese administration to revoke the relative autonomy of Hong Kong", where do people reckon this money is from ?  Who is the "real power" behind the demonstrations ?

And, "The only people gonna lose in the poor traders in HK".  This, I think, is very unfortunately true.

[tonbridgebrit]

41 minutes ago, Roadman said:

Petrol bombs and bricks.  Morons....and Hong Kong as a whole will face the consequences for the actions of those who can’t abide to peaceful protest. 

And I totally agree.

And for everybody reading this, please note, from the OP "Police used tear gas after some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and bricks and others tore...". 
Yes, police used tear gas after some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and bricks.

[car720]

Understand what the CCP  are capable of before descrying the revolutionaries.

[Morch]

13 hours ago, Dumbastheycome said:

I have received an email from a long time friend who  said in his  message " This is  now a big  money attempt to provoke the central Chinese administration to revoke the relative autonomy of Hong Kong.

It's  gonna  have an impact  but not what they hope for. Crazy .The  "Core" in  China not  gonna  move until  the other side  does. Look out  for  some  real <deleted> then !  Us that  know  know what it is about. The only  people  gonna lose in  the poor traders in  HK. Again! See  you soon on the outside."

Until I meet  him  I can  only  assume what he means but  I have a  suspicion  of what  it  is.

 

 

So...

 

An alleged friend, who's supposedly in the know, allegedly sends a muddled message, alleging some sort of conspiracy afoot. You can "only assume" what is meant, and have "a suspicion" - yet don't share them.

 

Sounds legit.

[Morch]

10 hours ago, tonbridgebrit said:

And I totally agree.

And for everybody reading this, please note, from the OP "Police used tear gas after some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and bricks and others tore...". 
Yes, police used tear gas after some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and bricks.

 

Did anyone claim otherwise?

[tonbridgebrit]

36 minutes ago, Morch said:

 

Did anyone claim otherwise?

Morch, the riot police fired tear gas after the demonstraters threw Molotov cocktails and bricks. Now, I'm going to say, in my opinion, I reckon that people deserve to have tear gas used against them IF they throw Molotov cocktails and/or bricks. I reckon that footage from security cameras should be used to identify who exactly are the people throwing Molotov cocktails and bricks.

And what should the punishment be, for throwing a Molotov cocktail or brick, before the tear gas was released ? What about throwing a Molotov cocktail after the tear gas was released ? I reckon that people should actually be arrested and punished, especially those who threw Molotov cocktails or bricks before the tear gas was released. And indeed, those who watched Molotov cocktails being thrown at the riot police, and then threw bricks or Molotov cocktails after tear gas was fired, well, they should be punished as well.

The security cameras are needed to find out who the offenders are. And people who are shining lights at the security cameras, they should be given a small punishment for "preventing the gathering of evidence, against the offenders".

What do you reckon, Morch ?? Do you reckon it was wrong for the riot police to fire tear gas at the demonstraters ??

[Morch]

 

@tonbridgebrit

 

Waffle.

You made a a big deal about something which wasn't even claimed by anyone. Now you're just adding irrelevant hot air to the non-argument. And I don't do your "reckon" nonsense, sorry.

[tonbridgebrit]

4 hours ago, car720 said:

Understand what the CCP  are capable of before descrying the revolutionaries.

Yes, the Chinese Communist Party certainly have the ability to remove the demonstraters, mass arrests, and stop any demonstrations from tomorrow onwards. But they won't take the bait. They won't crush the demonstrations in a forcefull and violent way. They know that if they do, it will cause a huge backlash against Beijing, across large areas of planet earth.

I think Beijing will simply allow the demonstraters to continue disrupting and harming Hong Kong's economy. And Beijing is hoping that the demonstrations will eventually become reduced and stop.

Surely, all of us here are hoping that there will not be a forceful and massively violent end to the demonstrations.

[Morch]

12 minutes ago, tonbridgebrit said:

Yes, the Chinese Communist Party certainly have the ability to remove the demonstraters, mass arrests, and stop any demonstrations from tomorrow onwards. But they won't take the bait. They won't crush the demonstrations in a forcefull and violent way. They know that if they do, it will cause a huge backlash against Beijing, across large areas of planet earth.

I think Beijing will simply allow the demonstraters to continue disrupting and harming Hong Kong's economy. And Beijing is hoping that the demonstrations will eventually become reduced and stop.

Surely, all of us here are hoping that there will not be a forceful and massively violent end to the demonstrations.

 

And if they'll do just that, you'll come here and post on how it's the bestest policy ever.

[Dumbastheycome]

On 8/26/2019 at 10:01 AM, Morch said:

 

So...

 

An alleged friend, who's supposedly in the know, allegedly sends a muddled message, alleging some sort of conspiracy afoot. You can "only assume" what is meant, and have "a suspicion" - yet don't share them.

 

Sounds legit.

 Your efforts  to be belligerent and scathing worry me not. The friend I speak of is involved in large scale  grocery retailing in Hong Kong and the riots have impacted badly.

His emailed message was a reply to mine asking how it was  for him there and was not "muddled" but lacking in detail certainly.

The use of the word "conspiracy" is yours.

I can and am  at liberty to make assumptions based on his message and my own thoughts as to the escalated diversified protests initiated by the "extradition" proposal.

I am under no obligation to announce the content of my suspicions in any case nor does speculation require evidence.

But I do think that these confrontations  will do more harm than good.

 

[Morch]

1 minute ago, Dumbastheycome said:

 Your efforts  to be belligerent and scathing worry me not. The friend I speak of is involved in large scale  grocery retailing in Hong Kong and the riots have impacted badly.

His emailed message was a reply to mine asking how it was  for him there and was not "muddled" but lacking in detail certainly.

The use of the word "conspiracy" is yours.

I can and am  at liberty to make assumptions based on his message and my own thoughts as to the escalated diversified protests initiated by the "extradition" proposal.

I am under no obligation to announce the content of my suspicions in any case nor does speculation require evidence.

But I do think that these confrontations  will do more harm than good.

 

 

Yes. So it comes down to an alleged friend who's supposedly more in the know than others. And yes, the message, or your rendition of it, is muddled. Asserting there are undeclared forces of some sort directing events does relate a conspiracy.

 

You're at liberty to make assumptions, and other posters are at liberty pointing out issues with such assumptions. You're under no obligation to share your suspicions, but simply stating that you have some suspicions is pretty meaningless.

[Dumbastheycome]

1 minute ago, Morch said:

 

Yes. So it comes down to an alleged friend who's supposedly more in the know than others. And yes, the message, or your rendition of it, is muddled. Asserting there are undeclared forces of some sort directing events does relate a conspiracy.

 

You're at liberty to make assumptions, and other posters are at liberty pointing out issues with such assumptions. You're under no obligation to share your suspicions, but simply stating that you have some suspicions is pretty meaningless.

It may just be that he knows as much as  many others in Hong Kong.

You are presenting as a very  angry Troll.

[Morch]

10 minutes ago, Dumbastheycome said:

It may just be that he knows as much as  many others in Hong Kong.

You are presenting as a very  angry Troll.

 

Again, you're talking about a supposed friend. There's no way to verify what you claim. And there's no real reason to accept your report without question. I'd say your original post was more in line with trolling.