HONG KONG | Some barricades cleared from protest site as demonstrators stand by

A pro-democracy protester removes her belongings before the workers start to clear away barricades at an occupied area outside government headquarters in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s government cleared some barriers that have blocked the city center for the past seven weeks, with little opposition from pro-democracy protesters who erected them.
Court bailiffs and security staff wearing white gloves moved to enforce an injunction against student-led demonstrators blocking an entrance to Citic Tower in the Admiralty district. The protesters earlier moved some barriers themselves to reinforce those at the main protest site nearby on roads outside the government’s headquarters, where hundreds of demonstrators remain camped out in tents.
Though the clearance passed without incident yesterday at Admiralty, it isn’t clear whether attempts to remove barricades will go as smoothly in Mong Kok across the harbor, which has seen more clashes in recent weeks.
“Some protesters have not complied with protest leaders in Mong Kok and that’s the loose canon,” said Michael Davis, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong, who emphasized that by cooperating students would demonstrate their respect for the rule of law.
Police have said they will arrest anyone who impedes the bailiffs and will take “resolute action” against any violence. No action has started to clear barricades in Mong Kok, a more volatile protest zone that is the target of separate injunctions.
Protesters’ options are shrinking after their attempts to negotiate with the government failed, a planned trip by demonstration leaders to Beijing was thwarted and Hong Kong’s High Court issued injunctions for the removal of some barricades. Though crowds have dwindled since their peak six weeks ago, several hundred tents remain pitched.
The demonstrations, the largest since China resumed its sovereignty over Hong Kong in 1997, were sparked by the mainland government’s decision to screen candidates for the city’s leadership election in 2017.
“If the policemen just clear the road outside of Citic car park then it is acceptable to us,” Joshua Wong, the 18-year-old leader of the Scholarism activist group, said before barriers were removed yesterday. Efforts to clear other parts of the site would be contested and protesters should make their own decision on whether they are prepared to be arrested, he said.
The protesters are losing public support that surged in the wake of earlier police attempts to disperse them by using tear gas and pepper spray. About 67.4 percent of people surveyed said the activists should give up their street occupation immediately, a poll conducted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong from Nov. 5 to Nov. 11 showed. Those against the movement rose to 43.5 percent from 35.5 percent in October.
“Hong Kong is a law-abiding society and the rest of Hong Kong expect the occupiers like everyone else to follow the law,” the city’s Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying told reporters yesterday. “The demands on the part of occupiers when it comes to constitutional development, especially universal suffrage to elect the chief executive in 2017, is very clear. I don’t see any point in resisting the court order.”
Among protester demands is the right for the public to nominate candidates for the leadership election. Leung has said that isn’t permissible under the city’s effective constitution, the Basic Law.
High Court Chief Judge Andrew Cheung Kui-nung ruled last week that bailiffs can remove obstructions at two protest sites in Mong Kok on the north side of Victoria Harbour. The court of appeals on Nov. 15 dismissed appeals against the injunctions.
Many protesters suspect that the authorities will resort to more court orders to gradually clear out the protest zones after previous attempts using other methods failed.
“Before they tried to use police to do it, after that they found triads. Now they’re going to use bailiffs and injunctions,” said protester Angelo Heung, a 34-year-old freelance art designer. “They’re going to use legal principles and court orders but we still won’t be afraid.”
On several occasions, police took protesters by surprise as they attempted to dismantle barricades in dawn operations that backfired, drawing more people out into the streets.
Groups of masked men who some suspect were members of triads, or organized crime gangs, have also clashed with protesters as they attempted to remove barricades.
The barricade removal comes after the tower’s owner, Chinese state-owned conglomerate Citic Ltd., was granted a restraining order requiring protesters to stop blocking access for cars and pedestrians to the building. A court also granted a separate order against a second protest site in Kowloon’s Mong Kok district brought by taxi and minibus operators. Activists are also occupying a third site in the Causeway Bay shopping district that is not affected by any court order. Bloomberg/AP

87% in poll say hk withstood democracy protests

Hong Kong’s appeal to the financial community has withstood pro-democracy protests that threatened to become the city’s biggest political crisis in decades, according to a Bloomberg Global Poll.
Eighty-seven percent of the survey’s 510 respondents said the democracy movement that blocked major roads and shopping districts for seven weeks hasn’t diverted financial activity away from the city. Fifty-seven percent said the protests could drive away business if they continue, while 30 percent said that the protests were unlikely to affect the city’s position as a financial center. Ten percent said they weren’t sure.
“Hong Kong has a strong rule of law and continues to be a major Asian financial hub,” said Jason Petras, a Sydney-based portfolio manager at BT Investment Management Ltd.
“I have no concern whatsoever about any bigger calamity,” said Niklas Hageback, a partner at Valkyria Kapital Ltd., a Hong Kong-based money-management firm that oversees about $116 million. “Money is still flowing in here, no one is taking anything out.”