Hongkongers returned to the streets Sunday for a mass march testing ongoing support for the increasingly violent antigovernment demonstrations that have seized the Chinese-ruled territory for six months.
Police gave the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF) approval to hold the protest, the first time the organization has been granted an official green light for a march since August. Protesters aimed for huge crowds to signal to the Hong Kong government and its political masters in Beijing that the protracted movement has not lost steam.
Thousands assembled for a rally in Victoria Park before the march began, as overhead surveilling helicopters buzzed the high-traffic commercial area of Causeway Bay.
“I am exhausted internally and physically, but I will never say that I’m tired … and never give up,” says Eric, a 38-year-old who joined the march alongside his wife and their two and and five-year-old daughters. “In the next six months or the next six years we have to stick together until the government apologizes and takes responsibility for what they’ve done.”
Earlier in the day, police announced they had seized a semi-automatic pistol, five magazines and over 100 bullets they believe were intended for use during the march. Eleven people aged between 20 and 53 were arrested during three raids that also produced sabres, daggers, batons and pepper spray, local news broadcaster RTHK reported. Senior superintendent Li Kwai-wah said it was the first time in the half year of protests that a handgun was found.
The protests kicked off in June over a now-withdrawn extradition bill that would have allowed criminal suspects to be sent for trial in Communist Party-controlled courts in the Chinese mainland. It has since evolved into a broader challenge over Beijing’s hold on the city.
Seeking to preserve Hong Kong’s civil liberties and semiautonomy from perceived authoritarian encroachment, millions have taken to the streets. Their demands include greater democracy and an inquiry into the police’s use of force.
At the beginning of the movement in June, CHRF organized some of the biggest peaceful marches, estimating crowd sizes of first one and then two million at separate weekend protests.
Since then, police have banned many of the rallies, processions and public events, citing organizers’ inability to ensure the gatherings would not end in violent confrontations between protesters and police. With many of the events deemed “unlawful,” protesters have dwindled in number and become more violent.
Demonstrators have vandalized vehicles and shopfronts, and returned the police’s rubber bullets and tear gas with petrol bombs and bricks. Nearly 6,000 people have been arrested in the protests since June, three demonstrators have been shot by police and one protest detractor was set on fire.
As the unrest has morphed from weekend eruptions of street battles into weekday spontaneous lunchtime protests, Hong Kong’s reputation as one of Asia’s safest cities has eroded. For the first time since the global financial crisis a decade ago, the city tipped into a recession.
It remains unclear how long protests that have stretched into the winter will continue, and how far the central government will go to assert it grip on the enclave of 7.5 million people.
Sunday’s protest comes two weeks after pro-democracy politicians scored a landslide in local elections, a result that cast doubt on Beijing’s claims that a supposed “silent majority” opposes the demonstrations.
Despite protesters’ radical acts of civil disobedience, polls have shown widespread support for the movement’s demands. Sunday’s march was widely seen as another way to gauge the ongoing momentum.
Organizers billed the event as a “last chance” for the city’s embattled leader Carrie Lam to meet the protest demands.
“We have to keep fighting,” says Dave, a 45-year-old architect who joined the march. “An independent inquiry into the police is the most important demand. And [Chief Executive] Carrie Lam has to resign. She needs to go away.”
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