Flat-owners invaded the road
Over 1,400 Pearl Horizon flat-owners gathered outside the Polytec Asset’s headquarters on Sunday. The group froze traffic around a nearby roundabout in a desperate attempt to protest against the authorities’ decision to recover the land.
The chaos unfolded at around noon on the day marking the 16th year since the region’s return to Chinese sovereignty. “2018, I want my flat ready. 2018, I want my flat ready,” chanted the protesters en masse, holding placards bearing various slogans. Aside from expressing opposition against the revocation of the land concession, they demanded a direct dialogue with the relevant high-level government officials.
Shortly later, the crowd of protesters forced a shutdown of the area after some of them spilled onto the road. At least 25 vehicles were seen driving slowly around the roundabout to assist with the paralyzing effort.
Protesters outside the Polytec Asset’s headquarters
The police immediately formed human walls blocking the protesters’ advance towards the Amizade Bridge. The chaos escalated into a scuffle between the security forces and protesters around half an hour into the assembly, as the latter demanded the release of a protester who was taken in a police vehicle.
An online video shows that the mass scrambled to pull open a police van’s door, and one man allegedly reached his hand out for the upper torso of the female police officer seated in the front.
Their deranged actions prompted the police to disperse the crowd surrounding the car using pepper spray. The road reopened to traffic at around two thirty after the mass had retreated to the pavement.
According to the Public Security Police Force, two men were taken to the police station and discharged later on the same day. It was also said that no charge has yet been made.
In the afternoon on the same day, hundreds of people collectively hailing from six organizations, marched in the rain from the Iao Han garden to the government’s headquarters, where representatives of each organization voiced respective pleas to the authorities.
Among the groups were pro-democracy groups New Macau Association and Macau Community Development Initiative, which urged for the following: implementation of universal suffrage in electing the region’s governor; better policymaking for public housing; and the introduction of directly elected seats in the legislature.
Some elderly marchers sought to reunite with their sons and daughters from across the border, who had been long denied permanent local residence by the government.
The police authorities claimed that roughly 330 officers in total were deployed to respond to all the demonstrations and assemblies on Sunday. AU
hk journalists rejected access to macau
Journalists from Hong Kong’s outspoken media outlet Apple Daily were denied entry into Macau on Sunday, according to the paper’s online coverage. Upon arriving at the ferry terminal checkpoint, the journalists were turned back by local customs authorities, who claimed that they would pose threats to internal security. This is not the first time the region has rejected the presence of the media outlet’s personnel on sensitive occasions. The newspaper was similarly denied entry ahead of Labor Day this year, and for the Chinese president Xi Jinping’s visit to the region last year.
protesters unhappy with coverage
Some of the protesters clashed with local journalists as they accused their media coverage as unfavorable to them, according to the Macau Journalists Association. A camera-wielding plain-clothes officer allegedly suffered a kick from protesters who mistook him as a journalist. It was also said that some journalists were pressured to delete video clips in earlier assemblies
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