Hong Kong defies police ban in latest chapter of unrest

Hong Kong protesters flooded the city’s streets yesterday in defiance of a ban by the authorities on their march, setting up roadblocks and tossing firebombs amid the firing of tear gas by police.

Protest leaders carried a black banner at the front of the procession that read, “Five main demands, not one less,” as they pressed their calls for accountability and political rights in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory.

Police beefed up security measures for the unauthorized rally, the latest chapter in unrest that has disrupted life in the financial hub since early June.

Black-clad and masked protesters barricaded streets at multiple locations in Kowloon, where the city’s subway operator restricted passenger access.

The protesters tore off stones from the sidewalk and scattered them on the road, commandeered plastic safety barriers and unscrewed metal railings to form makeshift roadblocks. They sang the protest movement’s anthem and held up placards depicting the Chinese flag as a Nazi swastika.

Matthew Lee, a university student, said he was determined to keep protesting even after more than four months.

“I can see some people want to give up, but I don’t want to do this because Hong Kong is my home, we want to protect this place, protect Hong Kong,” he said. “You can’t give up because Hong Kong is your home.”

A water cannon truck and armored car led a column of dozens of police vans down Nathan Road, a major artery lined with shops, stopping frequently to spray liquid tinted blue as they moved to clear the road of protesters and barricades.

Residents jeered at riot police walking alongside the vehicles, cursing them and telling them to leave. The officers, in turn, told people they were part of an illegal assembly and warned them to leave, and unleashed rounds of tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowds.

Along the way, protesters trashed outlets of a discount grocery chain because of what they say is its pro-Beijing ownership. They also tried to set fire to ATMs and branches of mainland Chinese banks, setting off sprinklers in at least two.

As night fell, protesters returned to the streets, setting trash on fire in intersections. Police responded with more tear gas.

Many of the protesters wore masks in defiance of a recently introduced ban on face coverings at public gatherings, and volunteers handed more out to the crowd.

Organizers said they wanted to use their right to protest as guaranteed by the city’s constitution despite the risk of arrest.

“We’re using peaceful, rational, nonviolent ways to voice our demands,” Figo Chan, vice convener of the Civil Human Rights Front, told reporters. “We’re not afraid of being arrested. What I’m most scared of is everyone giving up on our principles.”

The group has organized some of the movement’s biggest protest marches. One of its leaders, Jimmy Sham, was attacked last week by assailants wielding hammers.

On Saturday, a man distributing leaflets near a wall with pro-democracy messages was stabbed and wounded. Police said they arrested a 22-year-old man in connection with the knife attack that wounded a 19-year-old.

Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers including Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democratic Rep. Alexandra Ocasio Cortez wrote to tech company Apple and video game studio Activision Blizzard to condemn what they called protest-related censorship on behalf of China.

The group urged Apple to reverse its decision to remove from its app store the crowdsourced mapping app HKMaplive that was used to report police locations so that they could be avoided.

They also wrote separately to Activision to reconsider its decision to suspend a Hong Kong gamer after he voiced support for the protesters during an interview.

“Cases like these raise real concerns about whether Apple and other large U.S. entities will bow to growing Chinese demands rather than lose access to more than a billion Chinese consumers,” said the letter sent Friday and co-signed by Sens. Marco Rubio and Ron Wyden and Reps. Mike Gallagher and Tom Malinowski.

The lawmakers also cited China’s pressure on the NBA after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey’s tweet in support of the protesters. On Friday night, some basketball fans held signs, wore shirts and chanted support for Hong Kong at a Brooklyn Nets preseason game.

One sign called out LeBron James and Nets owner Joe Tsai, co-founder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, who were critical of Morey’s tweet. Tsai wrote a Facebook post explaining why the since-deleted tweet upset China.

Also Saturday, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said the murder suspect whose case inadvertently helped ignite the city’s protest movement wants to surrender to authorities in Taiwan after he’s released from prison later this week for a different offense.

Lam said on a radio show that Chan Tong-Kai’s decision to surrender has led to a “relatively relieving” conclusion to the case.

Chan is wanted by Taiwanese authorities for allegedly killing his girlfriend during a trip to the self-ruled island last year but wasn’t sent back to face charges because there’s no extradition agreement, though he was jailed in Hong Kong on money laundering charges.

Lam had tried to resolve the case by proposing extradition amendments, but the bill sparked massive protests over fears they would put Hong Kong residents at risk of being sent into mainland China’s Communist Party-controlled judicial system. MDT/AP

Masquerade: the new protest tactic

Winnie the Pooh, Guy Fawkes, Pepe the Frog — these are the new faces of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protest movement.

Demonstrators masqueraded Friday night as their favorite characters in defiance of the government’s ban this month on face coverings at public gatherings.

Protesters in the semi-autonomous Chinese city took a humorous approach to draw attention to their cause as they try to keep up the pressure on the government five months since the movement erupted.

Many assumed the identity of Winnie the Pooh, because Chinese internet users joke that the talking bear resembles President Xi Jinping.

Others wore Guy Fawkes masks, a global symbol of antigovernment protests. Some became Pepe the Frog, a character adopted by Hong Kong protesters unaware of its association with U.S. far-right extremists. AP