Hong Kong was rocked by fresh violence yesterday as tens of thousands hit the streets to defy a ban on masks, sparking clashes with police, street fights and vandalism across the strife-torn territory.
Large crowds marched through torrential rain in peaceful but unsanctioned rallies on both sides of Victoria Harbour, condemning the government for deploying emergency powers to ban masks at public gatherings.
However, violence erupted as police dispersed crowds with tear gas, and then battled hardcore protesters in multiple locations.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In one incident, a taxi driver was beaten bloody in the district of Sham Shui Po after he drove into a crowd that had surrounded his car.
“Two girls were hit by the car and one girl was trapped between the car and a shop,” said a witness, who gave his surname as Wong, adding that the crowd pushed the car off the injured woman.
Volunteer medics treated both the driver and the injured women before paramedics and police arrived, while protesters smashed the taxi.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Hospital authorities said three people had been admitted in serious condition.
Earlier, a crowd ransacked nearby government offices, while multiple Chinese-owned banks and subway stations were vandalized across the territory.
Activists have staged three straight days of flash mob rallies and sprees of vandalism after Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) outlawed face coverings by protesters, invoking colonial-era emergency powers not used for half a century.
Photo: AFP
Pro-democracy lawmakers yesterday morning went to Hong Kong’s High Court seeking an injunction against the ban, arguing the emergency powers bypassed the legislature and contravened the territory’s Basic Law, its mini-constitution.
However, a senior judge dismissed their case.
Opposition lawmakers said the use of the old law has deepened the crisis.
“I would say this is one of the most important constitutional cases in the history of Hong Kong,” lawmaker Dennis Kwok (郭榮鏗) told reporters before yesterday’s ruling.
The law allows Lam to make “any regulations whatsoever” during a time of public danger, and she has warned that she would use the powers to introduce new regulations if the unrest did not abate.
However, the ban has done little to calm tensions.
“If Carrie Lam wants to de-escalate the situation, this is not the right way,” a 19-year-old protester who gave his first name as Corey said as he marched under a forest of umbrellas on the main island.
More than half the territory’s subway stations, which were shut down on Friday night, remained shuttered, many of them in the heart of the main tourist districts.
Some lines were later closed entirely as violence worsened.
Meanwhile, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) garrison in the territory yesterday warned that protesters could be arrested for targeting its barracks with laser lights.
In the first direct interaction between the PLA and protesters, the PLA raised a yellow flag with the arrest warning written in large letters.
Police use similar color-coded flags to warn people to disperse.
As a few hundred protesters shone laser lights on the barrack’s walls, troops in fatigues on the roof of the building shone spotlights at protesters and used binoculars and cameras to monitor the crowd.
In related news, the Chinese Basketball Association yesterday said it was suspending “exchanges and cooperation” with the Houston Rockets basketball team, after Rockets general manager Daryl Morey took to Twitter to support the Hong Kong protests.
“Houston Rockets general manager Morey publicly made an inappropriate comment related to Hong Kong,” it said in a statement on Sina Weibo. “The Chinese Basketball Association strongly opposes this and will suspend exchanges and cooperation.”
Morey’s original Twitter message on Friday included an image captioned: “Fight For Freedom. Stand With Hong Kong.”
The post has since been removed and team owner Tilman Fertitta went on Twitter to distance the team from the statement.
“Daryl Morey does not speak for the Houston Rockets,” he said on Saturday.
The Rockets are popular in China, partly because they drafted the Chinese player Yao Ming (姚明) in 2002, who became a star for the team.
Additional reporting by Reuters
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College