Factbox: What people in Hong Kong are saying after days of violence

[snoop1130]

Factbox: What people in Hong Kong are saying after days of violence

 

Anti-government protesters gather at the Chinese University of Hong Kong campus in Hong Kong, China, November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

 

(Reuters) - Quotes from people in Hong Kong’s central and financial districts and East Kowloon on Wednesday after days of protests and violence that have caused widespread disruption in many parts of the territory.

 

They declined to give their full names owing to the sensitivity of talking about the protests.

 

FINANCIAL DISTRICT, CENTRAL:

 

WAI-CHUNG, 57, CONSTRUCTION WORKER:

 

“The government is a big machine and needs time. We know that parts of the machine are not working, but you need to allow it time to fix itself. People already told the government the machine is not working.”

 

He had a meeting scheduled in the financial district, but it was canceled owing to the disruption to the transport system.

 

“What they call the five demands are not achievable. There’s no room for bargaining,” he said, mentioning that he attended protests in June but no longer supports the protesters.

 

“For some people trying to make a change, they’ve stepped up their actions. It’s not acceptable to most people. They have freedoms to express their views but if they take the actions, they should take responsibility for the damages and consequences.”

 

LIU, 25, WORKS IN REAL ESTATE:

 

“I’m not saying all the violence is right, but the values they are striving for are always right,” said Liu, who wore a turquoise face mask, referring to the protesters.

 

“Because the roots have not yet been solved, the government has not replied to the demands, people have escalated the violence to get the government’s attention,” said Liu, who has attended lunch-time rallies over the past two days.

 

“The biggest problem is setting up the independent investigation to investigate police violence. As long as the government doesn’t reply to the demands, the violence will go on and keep escalating.”

 

He sees two ways forward:

 

“The government will use extreme situations to stop the violence, like not letting people go out at night. But I think that will be slim because it’s too extreme and will be condemned by western countries. Hong Kong is still an international city.... Or the government will surrender”

 

LAW, 63:

 

“I have been crying watching the footage at the universities.”

 

“We are hopeless and helpless in Hong Kong now. The British did not give us democracy, but we did have our freedoms. We need help from the rest of the world.”

 

PANDA:

 

“Hong Kong belongs to China, these people don’t need to be scared. Did you see what happened at the university last night, I have a lot of friends who are leaving Hong Kong to move back to Shenzhen, the mainland, to get away from everything crazy that is happening here,” said Panda, who is from mainland Chinese and has lived in Hong Kong for seven years.

 

MICHELLE, 32, MARKETER:

 

“It hurts, really hurts. It’s not just hurting Hong Kong’s economy, but also tearing every Hong Konger’s heart apart. This is going to leave us a lifelong scar and time won’t take that away.”

 

ALEXANDRA, 42, WORKS IN INSURANCE:

 

“It is very painful to watch my city turn into this. Look at everyone around, how angry they are. There are many children inside the station, do you see anybody shouting at them? They are shouting at MTR (staff). Everyone is very tense, nobody is rational anymore. But when you see traffic police shooting at students how can you be reasonable? I want the world to know that Carrie Lam has destroyed this city and Hong Kong police are acting like Chinese police,” said Alexandra, dressed in a long, wavy black skirt and a white shirt and wearing a surgical mask.

 

“I grew up here. I’ve been working for almost 20 years for the same company. I never missed a day of work. This is the second time this week. I have two children, they can’t go to school. I always worry about (the children) being arrested. I don’t participate in the protests, I am too old for that. But you see on TV, police beating up children, Hong Kong’s children. Is that reasonable? What is wrong with what they are demanding? We all want to return to normal, but how can the government do that if they don’t listen to what Hong Kongers have been asking for. It’s been five months already and they still don’t care.”

 

JANNET, 29, RECEPTIONIST:

 

“My destination is Mong Kok. Even if I get there, it’s the tear gas capital of the world. Will I be able to get back? My husband is always working from home when this happens, but I’m a receptionist. I can’t be a receptionist from home, can I?”

 

“There’s three of us taking turns, but the other two live close by. I’m worried about my job. They know it’s not my fault but at the end of the day my colleagues can’t cover for me forever. Do I blame anyone? I blame the MTR. The government is trying to turn Hong Kongers against the students and all the protesters. But if they just listened to the protesters none of this would happen.”

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-13

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[Orton Rd]

Brits planned to introduce democracy to HK in the 50's. CCP threatened to invade if they did.

[saengd]

I was living there during the handover also, we all knew there was quite a large number of Chinese troops massed at the border but their purpose was to keep Chinese people out rather anything else, a lot of rural Chinese expected they could just walk across the border and go live in HK, once handover was complete.

 

In the interests of balance in the debate about HK, it's worth reminding that we are 25 years into a 50 year agreement so some tweaking of the agreement was to be expected by this point.

[tonbridgebrit]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/14/hong-kong-protests-foreign-students-start-to-leave-as-unrest-shifts-to-universities

The above report is from the Guardian newspaper in Britain. So, foreign students are starting to leave Hong Kong. The report is mainly about Nordic students (from Denmark and Norway) leaving Hong Kong, because it's dangerous in Hong Kong.


From the article, "Several Nordic students at Hong Kong Baptist University were being moved after anti-government demonstrators moved on to its grounds, and the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) urged its 36 students in Hong Kong to return home."

And "Anders Overgaard Bjarklev, the head of DTU, said the decision to move came after some of the riots shifted to the campuses and “some of our students have been forced to move from their dormitories because they were put on fire”. "
So, the students have been forced to move from their dormitories because they were put on fire.

Now, who are the people who looked at the dormitories and put them on fire ? Was it Hong Kong riot police ? No. Surely, it was the rioters/demonstraters ?


Do we all accept the following ? If ONE Nordic student is harmed by the fires, Hong Kong must pay the penalty. Those who started the fire must be punished. If Hong Kong doesn't punish them, then we, Europe, we've got to take action against those who harmed our people.

[yuyiinthesky]

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

“I’m not saying all the violence is right, but the values they are striving for are always right,” said Liu,

 

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

LAW, 63:

 

“I have been crying watching the footage at the universities.”

 

“We are hopeless and helpless in Hong Kong now. The British did not give us democracy, but we did have our freedoms. We need help from the rest of the world.”

 

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

The government is trying to turn Hong Kongers against the students and all the protesters. But if they just listened to the protesters none of this would happen.

 

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

But when you see traffic police shooting at students how can you be reasonable? I want the world to know that Carrie Lam has destroyed this city and Hong Kong police are acting like Chinese police

19 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

But you see on TV, police beating up children, Hong Kong’s children. Is that reasonable? What is wrong with what they are demanding? We all want to return to normal, but how can the government do that if they don’t listen to what Hong Kongers have been asking for.

 

The people of Hong Kong. Not much to add there. I wish you good luck!

[KhunBENQ]

I start to believe that the Chinese commies setup agent provocateurs to fire the unrest. In the end they will "be forced" to break through the gates, restore law and order and end this insubordination (Tiananmen style), take control and burn the 50 year contract.

Who could stop them?

Who will complain if business goes on?

[yuyiinthesky]

Hmmm, you might be on to something here.

[Monomial]

1 hour ago, KhunBENQ said:

I start to believe that the Chinese commies setup agent provocateurs to fire the unrest. In the end they will "be forced" to break through the gates, restore law and order and end this insubordination (Tiananmen style), take control and burn the 50 year contract.

Who could stop them?

Who will complain if business goes on?

 

I have no idea if you are correct or not, but I would just like to caution that kind of thinking is getting perilously close to the Red Shirts cries of "Abhisit planted bad black shirts in the good, peaceful crowd as an excuse to go in and break up the rallies" mantra.

 

Unless there is strong evidence of what you are proposing, I don't think anyone should go there. This protest is fundamentally harming China and Hong Kong far worse than any benefit of tearing up the contract.

 

[yuyiinthesky]

Unfortunately history is full of such events. The Reichstag fire comes to mind.

[Ireland32]

4 hours ago, rhyddid said:

What is happening in HK, it's a well organized criminal gangs riots with aim to destroy HK peace !

The hidden news of a HK citizen verbally confronting the guerrilla protesters and being burned alive is the clear evidence that there is nothing about freedom, criminals that burn alive anyone who argue with them, is this the democracy the fighting for ? 

The hidden news which no reuters, cnn, AP or any PRO US news agency has show, they only talk about innocent students fighting China.

An innocent simple worker father of 2 which has to work to everyday to keep his child up, being burned without pity, this is the freedom they show. 

https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-and-crime/article/3037243/hong-kong-father-two-burned-alive-after-chasing

The video (please consider that you will watch a man been burnt alive) by the so called by western media  "freedom fighter" protesters 
 

 

Boycott China , Support The brave Hong  Kongers...Freedom Fighters Hate CCP

[tonbridgebrit]

45 minutes ago, Ireland32 said:

Boycott China , Support The brave Hong  Kongers...Freedom Fighters Hate CCP

Boycott China ???    When turning up at the shops, half the stuff you see is made in China. Mobile phones, flat-screen tvs, other electronic stuff, and other stuuf as well. And you want people to boycott China ?

There's more and more Chinese tourists turning up in London, are we suppose to try and reduce the number of Chinese tourists turning up in Britain ?

[Traubert]

5 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

I start to believe that the Chinese commies setup agent provocateurs to fire the unrest. In the end they will "be forced" to break through the gates, restore law and order and end this insubordination (Tiananmen style), take control and burn the 50 year contract.

Who could stop them?

Who will complain if business goes on?

It wouldn't be anything to do with the NED then? Protest leaders are given VIP treatment in Washingto but the Chinese are to blame?

 

Fantasy.

[Number 6]

All the protesters need do is scrawl 4-6, Tankman and put pictures of Tankman everywhere. Banksy create a symbol of Tankman, graffitied all over city. International press picks up on it. Chinese won't dare move in.

 

Here democracy already lost.