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Hong Kong Police Make Sweeping Arrests as Protests Return

Hong Kong police arrested hundreds of people including key activists as protests again flared up on the city’s streets on Sunday.

Hong Kong Police Make Sweeping Arrests as Protests Return
A riot police officer points a pepper-ball gun towards people on the street during a protest in Hong Kong, China. (Photographer: Lam Yik/Bloomberg)

Hong Kong police arrested hundreds of people as protests flared up after weeks of relative calm, a sign that a sweeping national security law hadn’t suppressed anger over a delayed legislative election.

Some 270 people were arrested for illegal assembly local time as of late Sunday, and another 19 held for offenses including disorderly conduct, obstructing and assaulting police, the Hong Kong police said in a Facebook post. The arrests were made in the Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok neighborhoods in Kowloon, known for their night markets that attract tourists.

Hong Kong Police Make Sweeping Arrests as Protests Return

Protesters marched through the area in defiance of social-distancing restrictions, blocking a city street with barricades, chanting pro-democracy slogans and holding up placards. Their main thrust was to protest Hong Kong’s delayed Legislative Council election, which was scheduled to take place Sunday, but has been pushed back a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition to the election delay, organizers were opposing plans to loosen travel restrictions between Hong Kong and mainland China, as well as the national security law, which has been criticized by the U.S. for eroding Hong Kong’s freedoms even as it has made protests less frequent.

‘A Lot Of Anger’

“Government tactics are working in the sense that they are preventing people from gathering, but they’re not winning people’s hearts and minds because people have actually gotten more angry,” said Ma Ngok, an associate professor of political science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “This shows that there is still a lot of anger out there.”

Support for some of the protest movement’s goals -- from enacting universal suffrage and asking Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam to resign -- has risen, according to a poll conducted by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute for Reuters in August. More respondents said they “very much oppose” the national security law, while those who “very much support” the law dipped slightly, compared with a similar survey in June.

Prominent pro-democracy activists with the League of Social Democrats, Figo Chan, Raphael Wong and Leung Kwok-hung, were among those arrested Sunday, according to a Facebook post by the group. A video posted on their Facebook page appeared to show the three being taken away by police in a van.

The trio “were accused by the police of leading more than 30 people to gather, were escorted into a police car and taken back to the police station for arrest,” according to a Facebook post.

Hong Kong Police Make Sweeping Arrests as Protests Return

Hong Kong police also arrested a 47-year-old man Sunday for “uttering seditious words” between the end of June and August. Local media reported pro-democracy activist Tam Tak Chi had been arrested by police.

The government condemned the protests in a statement Sunday, calling them “unlawful” and “selfish” as they threaten public health, adding that independence slogans may be in violation of the security law.

It also defended the decision to delay the election for a year, warning that the pandemic may persist. Hong Kong reported the death of a Covid-19 patient Sunday night, an 82-year-old man, bringing the death toll in the city to 96.

“The epidemic is likely to last for a while -- there may also be a winter surge,” the government said, adding that the delay was “reasonable” because “preparation work and the vote-registration exercise will take months before an election can be held.”

Challenging Situation

Organizers had initially promised to go ahead with the protest if more than 20,000 voted to participate in an informal online poll. Earlier Sunday, the poll showed just under half of about 14,000 votes cast were in favor of participating, with another 35% considering going and 18% not attending.

Protests have been muted since Beijing imposed a security law on the city in late June. Officials are also starting to ease some social-distancing measures as an outbreak in the city has subsided, but gatherings of more than two people are still prohibited.

Clashes between protesters and police were a regular fixture during political unrest last year that dragged Hong Kong’s economy into a recession. The coronavirus has since continued to weigh on the economy of the financial hub.

Tension is rising amid plans by the city to institute a health code that would allow travel between Hong Kong and nearby cities in mainland China, which has raised ethical concerns among medical professionals. The government defended the health code on Sunday, saying it would facilitate cross-border travel and boost economic activity.

Although the city was likely to see further shocks, businesses could benefit from the newfound stability, according to a research note from Steve Vickers & Associates, a Hong Kong-based political and corporate risk consultancy.

“On the one hand, a return of stability in Hong Kong will benefit commerce, but, on the other, businesses must be mindful that political differences remain intense,” the firm said in a note on Monday. “The situation is challenging, for sure, but does not represent the death of Hong Kong.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.