{"id":190032,"date":"2019-06-17T05:04:09","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T05:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190032"},"modified":"2019-06-19T05:35:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-19T05:35:56","slug":"theyre-kids-not-rioters-new-generation-of-protesters-bring-hong-kong-to-standstill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=190032","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They’re kids, not rioters’: new generation of protesters bring Hong Kong to standstill"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emma Graham-Harrison and Verna Yu \u2013 The Guardian June 16, 2019<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a>

Hong Kong\u2019s central streets were packed with protesters calling for the total withdrawal of a controversial extradition law. Photograph: Jorge Silva\/Reuters. Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n

A wave of protesters hundreds of thousands strong, most dressed in black and many carrying white flowers of mourning, have swept through central Hong Kong to denounce a controversial extradition law<\/a> <\/strong><\/span>and demand the city\u2019s leader, Carrie Lam, steps down.<\/span><\/p>\n

They poured in from all over the city, in numbers so large that the march route had to be extended, and then widened, with crowds spilling from the main road to fill neighbouring streets, and halting all traffic outside government headquarters.<\/span><\/p>\n

Echoes of protest songs, hymns and chants bounced off the surrounding high rises as darkness fell and then into the evening, hours after the early afternoon start of the protest, which remained peaceful throughout.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was an extraordinary show of grassroots political power in a city where residents cannot choose their leaders but are free to take to the streets to denounce them. Veteran activists with years of protest experience walked beside novices who had little interest in politics until this crisis flared up<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBefore this week I had never been on a protest,\u201d said 28-year-old Ms Lau. \u201cBut I am a teacher, and I realised if I didn\u2019t come I wouldn\u2019t be able to face my students. This is their future.\u201d Like many others, she had been unnerved by the arrests of activists and did not want her full name printed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lam, Hong Kong\u2019s chief executive, had agreed to suspend the <\/a>extradition bill<\/a><\/strong><\/span> after a week of protests, perhaps the most serious government climbdown in the face of public pressure since a security law was dropped in 2003.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if she hoped to defuse public anger before Sunday\u2019s march, she badly misjudged the city\u2019s mood.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSuspending the law but not cancelling it is like holding a knife over someone\u2019s head and saying, \u2018I\u2019m not going to kill you now.\u2019 But you could do it any time,\u201d said Betty, an 18-year-old protester who just finished school. \u201cWe\u2019re fighting for our freedom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Demonstrators turned out in force, calling on authorities to withdraw the bill, free activists rounded up after previous demonstrations, and hold police accountable for violent crowd control tactics<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many also demanded Lam\u2019s resignation. After hours of protests, she issued a fresh apology on Sunday through a spokesman \u201cacknowledging that deficiencies in the government\u2019s work\u201d have caused controversy and disputes.<\/span><\/p>\n

But although she promised a humble acceptance of criticism, Lam\u2019s statement was couched in the vaguest terms, and met with derision on the streets.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur demands are clear. She hasn\u2019t addressed any of them,\u201d said a protester, William Cheung, 31. \u201cAnd why can\u2019t she apologise in front of a camera, rather than in a dry official statement?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hong Kong\u2019s most dramatic political crisis in years was set in motion a week earlier, when about a million people turned out \u2013 dressed mostly in white \u2013 to protest against the planned extradition law.<\/span><\/p>\n

The legislation would allow residents and visitors to be sent for trial in China\u2019s opaque Communist-controlled courts, which critics say would fatally undermine Hong Kong\u2019s economy and society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lam had shrugged off the first demonstration, even though it was one of the largest the city has ever seen, and vowed to ram the bill through Hong Kong\u2019s legislature.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Wednesday, fresh demonstrations spiralled into the worst political violence since the handover from British rule, with police firing teargas and rubber bullets and attacking protesters. Later, there were arrests of activists, including in hospital<\/a><\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

With Sunday\u2019s march already scheduled, and public anger heightened by police brutality and the detentions, Lam was eventually forced into her dramatic reversal, reportedly after meeting top Chinese officials across the border.<\/span><\/p>\n

But if anything the press conference in which she announced the bill would be suspended seemed to encourage rather than deter her opponents.<\/span><\/p>\n

Protesters said they were infuriated by Lam\u2019s air of confident determination as she insisted the law was fundamentally sound, defended police violence and insisted her only mistakes were in communication.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are so many young people here today, and if there is one person who mobilises them, it is Carrie [Lam],\u201d said opposition lawmaker Emily Lau, who welcomed the huge turnout as vital to defending Hong Kong\u2019s freedoms. \u201cThe only way to ensure we keep our civil liberties is to be internally vigilant\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

There was a sea of protest signs, ranging from a vast banner, carried by dozens, that read \u201cOppose the evil police, protect the students\u201d, to small witty handmade signs poking fun at Lam\u2019s hardline language.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey are kids, not rioters\u201d read one. \u201cHK has become China<\/a>, we\u2019re all stuffed\u201d said another. Others simply held up sombre images of police violence earlier in the week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many protesters also carried white flowers in tribute to a man who fell to his death on Saturday night while hanging up a large protest banner on a building in the town centre. Several people described the 35-year-old, who has not been identified, as their movement\u2019s \u201cfirst martyr\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Along the march route there were official condolence books to sign, and thousands left bunches of roses and lilies, gerbera and babies blossom at the site of his death to create an impromptu shrine.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think I should pay tribute to this person who died to protect our city,\u201d said 20 year-old Cheng Chun, one of those carrying flowers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Older marchers said that although they feared Hong Kong<\/a> faced the most serious crisis of their lifetime, they had found hope in the numbers of youth protesters.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very encouraged by the younger people. If it was just us [the older generation] the city would be finished,\u201d said 75-year-old Mr Wu, marching despite his age and the enervating heat. \u201cI was a refugee. I escaped China when there was a famine, and I saw people being shot there. The Communist party isn\u2019t to be trusted.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside the central Wan Chai metro station, the Rev Chu Yiu-ming, a prominent dissident and activist was greeting protesters arriving at the march.<\/span><\/p>\n

His decades of experience as an activist include helping Tiananmen Square protest leaders escape mainland China<\/a> in 1989, and he said he could not have imagined as he supported them three decades ago that he would one day face such a bitter fight for his rights at home in Hong Kong.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what the law means in China,\u201d he said, referring to a recent case of a jailed activist. \u201cWe must try to prevent Hong Kong from becoming a totalitarian place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of thousands join new protests in Hong Kong to demand the resignation of Carrie Lam, the city\u2019s chief executive<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-china"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=190032"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190032\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190036,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190032\/revisions\/190036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=190032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=190032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=190032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}