Hong Kong police have warned violence is bringing the Chinese-ruled city to the “brink of total breakdown” after more street battles raged in several parts of the territory.
Police on Tuesday fired tear gas in the heart of the central financial district and at two university campuses to break up pro-democracy protests.
The clashes came a day after police shot a protester at close range and a man was doused with petrol and set on fire in some of the worst violence in the former British colony in decades.
A flash mob of more than 1,000 protesters, many wearing office clothes and face masks, rallied in Central for a second day during their lunch hour, blocking roads below some of the city’s tallest skyscrapers and most expensive real estate.
Crowds blocked traffic on two major roads, with half a dozen of Hong Kong’s famous trams lined up unable to move.
After the crowds dispersed, officers fired tear gas at the remaining protesters on old, narrow Pedder Street and made more than a dozen arrests.
He said masked “rioters” had committed “insane” acts, such as throwing trash, bicycles and other debris onto metro tracks and overhead power lines, paralysing the transport system.
He said the man set on fire on Monday was still in critical condition and appealed for information about who was responsible.
On Monday police officers fired volley after volley of tear gas in the central financial district, where some protesters blocked streets lined with banks and jewellery shops. Most had their shutters down.
Police also fired tear gas at City University in Kowloon Tong, beneath the Lion Rock, and at Chinese University on the other side of the mountain, where protesters threw petrol bombs and bricks at police.
Protesters at City University stockpiled bricks and petrol bombs on the bridges and other approaches and were making small devices with nails, apparently to puncture tyres.
Streets inside and outside the Chinese University campus entrance were littered with bricks, other debris and small street fires as police tackled some protesters to the ground.
A van used as part of a street barricade was set ablaze.
‘We need to protect our home’
The university said some people had broken into a storeroom and taken bows, arrows and javelins that were later retrieved.
Several people were injured, including a student reporter hit in the eye, apparently by a brick, who was sitting in tears as friends offered comfort.
Police also fired tear gas in the nearby new town of Tai Po, where protesters took shelter on the street behind umbrellas.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said protesters were being extremely selfish and she hoped universities and schools would urge students not to take part in the demonstrations.
More than 260 people were arrested on Monday, police said, bringing the total number to more than 3,000 since the protests escalated in June.
Protesters are angry about what they see as police brutality and meddling by Beijing in the freedoms guaranteed under the “one country, two systems” formula put in place when the territory returned to China from British rule in 1997.
China denies interfering and has blamed Western countries including Britain and the United States for stirring up trouble.
The US on Monday condemned “unjustified use of deadly force” in Hong Kong and urged police and civilians alike to de-escalate the situation.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang urged Britain and the United States not to intrude, saying: “Hong Kong affairs are purely China’s internal affairs that allow no foreign interference.”
>He also told a briefing in Beijing that China’s Government firmly supported Ms Lam’s administration and the Hong Kong police “in law enforcement, maintaining social order and protecting the safety of citizens”.
Fresh clashes broke out at the Chinese University of Hong Kong after nightfall on Tuesday as the school’s top management failed to broker a deal between protesters and police.
After a lull in the afternoon, police fired tear gas shortly before 7:30pm at the No. 2 Bridge – a bridge at the edge of the Sha Tin-based campus which overlooks the Tolo Highway and MTR tracks. Police took the bridge after accusing protesters of throwing objects to obstruct traffic below.
In the ensuing clashes, CUHK Vice-chancellor Rocky Tuan and other senior executives were among those affected by tear gas.
The water cannon truck also made its first appearance at the CUHK campus, firing blue dye liquid at around 10pm.
Jeez, I wonder why we haven’t issued a travel alert?
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Fight on HK. Fight to the last dying man. You can’t win but you can expose the Chinese Communist Party for the mobster thugs that they are, and force corrupt Western elites to think twice about their dealings with it.
I hate to say it, but the worse things get in Hong Kong, the better off global democracy will be as suspicions of the CCP skyrocket.
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
