Hong Kong police yesterday fired tear gas at protesters holding a banned rally against suspected triad gangs who beat up pro-democracy demonstrators near the Chinese border on Sunday last week.
Riot police fired dozens of rounds of tear gas in Yuen Long after tense standoffs with protesters, some of whom were throwing projectiles and had surrounded a police van.
Public anger has been raging since Sunday, when a gang of men in white T-shirts, armed with poles and batons, set upon protesters and bystanders in Yuen Long Station.
Photo: Reuters
Police have been heavily criticized for being too slow to respond to Sunday’s violence, fueling accusations of collusion or turning a blind eye — allegations the force has denied.
Yesterday’s violence compounds the political crisis with the territory’s pro-Beijing leadership seemingly unable — or unwilling — to end the chaos.
Yuen Long is in Hong Kong’s New Territories, a rural area where many of the surrounding villages are known for triad connections and their staunch support for the pro-Beijing establishment.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Police say they have arrested 12 people so far in connection with Sunday’s violence, nine of whom have known triad links.
The white shirt mob ran into two villages near Yuen Long MTR Station after their attack and later left without police making any arrests, despite a large presence of officers.
These two villages became the focus of protester anger yesterday.
The rally began peacefully, but small groups, many in helmets and carrying shields, confronted police outside the villages and accused them of protecting triads.
Tensions soon escalated with projectiles hurled and a police van containing officers surrounded and daubed in graffiti.
Soon tear gas rounds were arcing through the air and a now-familiar pattern of running battles between police and protesters began.
Throughout the afternoon protesters formed shield walls of umbrellas, scattering each time new volleys of tear gas came their way.
In a rare move, police banned the rally, saying that they feared reprisal attacks against villagers from protesters, a decision that only heightened anger toward a force already perceived to be protecting pro-government aggressors.
Social messaging channels used to organize the largely leaderless movement quickly filled up with calls for people to have a “shopping spree” in Yuen Long or play Pokemon Go there.
Crowds spilled out of Yuen Long’s main station in the afternoon as the illegal march began peacefully. Many shops were shuttered.
“Every one of us came here on our own initiation,” a 25-year-old medical worker surnamed Ng said. “So I don’t think this is an illegal assembly. I’ve just come here as an individual to tell people my thoughts.”
Weeks of protests with huge turnouts have had little luck persuading Beijing or Hong Kong’s leaders. Beijing has issued increasingly shrill condemnations, but has left it to the territory’s government to deal with the situation.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) has shown no sign of backing down beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill.
Protesters also plan to march today through a district where riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at projectile-hurling protesters the week before.
Police have allowed a rally to take place, but denied protesters permission to march, raising the likelihood of further confrontations.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat