Clashes Break Out at Hong Kong Protest Site
Crowds Scuffle With Pro-Democracy Demonstrators, Derailing Talks With Government
A group in masks clash with a man, right, who tried to
stop them from removing barricades Friday from a pro-democracy protest
area in the Causeway Bay district of Hong Kong.
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
HONG KONG—Angry crowds descended on protesters in Hong Kong on Friday, causing clashes and derailing talks with the government.
Protest
leaders called for their people to retreat from one site that had been
occupied since Monday night after a large crowd surrounded the
demonstrators. The Hong Kong Federation of Students, one of the two main
student protest groups, issued a statement late Friday saying it had
decided to shelve talks agreed upon the night before because of police
inaction over the attacks. (Read The Wall Street Journal’s live blog on the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests.)
The
organizers of the protests, which have occupied three districts in the
city since Monday, were under pressure on several fronts Friday. In the
latest twist in the fast-moving crisis, protest numbers dwindled Friday,
allowing police to reopen some streets, and leaving them vulnerable to
opponents who quickly outnumbered them in the Mong Kok district in
Kowloon.
A pro-democracy protester is escorted by the police after
being beaten by anti-Occupy Central protesters in Hong Kong's Mong Kok
district.
Reuters
Government officials and police also
harshly criticized the protesters for blocking the entrance to the
office of Hong Kong’s top official. Police told the protesters to vacate
other sites and began removing barriers the protesters had erected.
The
clashes in Mong Kok occurred after a tense showdown at government
headquarters in the city’s Admiralty district Thursday night that ended
when protesters and city officials agreed to meet to negotiate a
solution to the crisis. Protesters want voters to be able to choose the
city’s next leader when the election occurs in 2017. Beijing has ruled
that Hong Kong residents can vote but only for approved candidates.
Currently, a 1,200-member committee of mostly pro-business, pro-Beijing
members picked the chief executive of the city, a Chinese territory that
operates under a separate set of laws from the mainland that offers
greater freedoms for its residents.
Hong
Kong Chief Secretary
Carrie Lam
said she was very concerned about the conflicts taking place in
Mong Kok. She said she had been in touch with student representatives
Friday, discussing about the time and venue of the coming meeting. “I
hope our meeting will be materialized soon,” Ms. Lam said.
Hong Kong's Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has refused
to resign despite pro-democracy protestors’ demands. WSJ's Ramy
Inocencio recaps night six of the city's Occupy Central movement.
See 360 Degree Views From Protest Sites
Admiralty, mid-protest.
Henry Williams/The Wall Street Journal
Ms. Lam’s comments came before
protest leaders shelved plans to meet. Initially the protesters had
agreed to meet with her, the city’s No. 2 official, instead of the
city’s current chief executive,
Leung Chun-ying.
After several days of relative calm following battles Sunday where police used tear gas and pepper spray against protesters,
there were clashes at government headquarters overnight as students
attempted to block the entrance to the chief executive’s office. The
government announced Friday morning after employees showed up for work
that offices would be closed because of the protesters. (See panoramic photos from the protest sites.)
Hong
Kong police said what the protesters were doing was, “illegal,
extremely unreasonable and inhumane, and is even worse than that of
radical social activists and almost complete anarchy.” While protesters
gathering peacefully would be tolerated, the people in the vicinity of
the chief executive’s office “will be dealt with resolutely in
accordance with the law,” the police said.
In
Mong Kok, a largely working class district that is one of the most
densely populated areas in the world, groups of mostly middle-aged men
set upon the students who had erected makeshift tents at a main
intersection. They grabbed the students one by one and bundled them out
of the area. The students were taunted with shouts of “Garbage!
Garbage!” as they were shoved through hostile crowds.
Several
younger men—one covered in tattoos, often a sign of Triad gang
affiliation—tried to force the students to raise their arms in a gesture
of submission. The government and police believe that the violence at
Mong Kok is being carried out by triad gangs, according to a person
familiar with the matter. “They deliberately attacked the peaceful
protesters,” the person said.
An
elderly bystander, wearing dark glasses after night had fallen, yelled
expletives at the student protesters and told them to “Stop talking
Jesus [preaching].” Like some of the others, he appeared to be a street
trader with a large money pouch around his waist.
Several
dozen police at the intersection were hugely outnumbered and largely
ineffectual. They linked arms around the students. “The government is
hoping to have the end result of the protest being cleared,” the person
familiar with the government and police said.
At
one point, a group of police led by a tall Western officer forcefully
pulled several of the assailants out of the crowds. Punches were thrown
and one man fell to the crowd with blood gushing from a deep gash in his
forehead. “Triads,” some voices in the crowd shouted out. “Arrest
them!”
Asked who was opposing the
protesters in Mong Kok, “everyone almost,” said Max Law, 19, a
university student, standing by a line of police between the young
protesters, who had linked arms, and the rest of a crowd of onlookers.
“We think they received money from other people, and that by yelling at
us they can earn more. We are doing nothing wrong. We are not against
the Hong Kong economy.”
At a news
conference, police officials said they had arrested two people for
fighting as of 10 p.m. and didn’t rule out more arrests. The officials
said their priority was to restore order. Police presence had swelled in
the area by late Friday night.
Hong Kong police scuffle with pro-democracy protesters
outside the compound housing the chief executive's office on Oct. 3.
Associated Press
Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai
urged the pro-democracy crowds in Mong Kok to leave the site and to
defend the Admiralty district, where the largest crowds are in place and
where government offices are located. Student leaders condemned the
violence but said they would continue the protests in a nonviolent way.
“I hope all the protesters at Mong Kok, Causeway Bay and Admiralty could
stick to the nonviolence principle, don’t actively incite or assault
anyone, including those with different viewpoints,” said Lester Shum, a
representative of the Hong Kong Federation of Students.
When
the government pulled back police and allowed protesters to occupy city
streets, it hoped that public opinion would eventually turn against the
protesters as businesses lost money and people were inconvenienced in
the famously efficient city.
In the
Causeway Bay, another district occupied by protesters, people opposing
the protesters appeared to be trying to remove police barriers from the
area on a truck. Protesters and police on the scene said they wanted the
barriers to remain to protect the protesters. “We can’t do anything
right now except support peoples’ safety no matter what side they’re
on,” a police officer said. Police earlier demanded protesters leave the
area.
The city returned to work Friday
after a two-day holiday and were greeted with traffic jams and rerouted
or canceled buses. The number of closed bank branches decreased to 11
according to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. After starting the day in
the red, the Hong Kong stock market rose 0.6%.
In what is normally one of the busiest shopping weeks on the year, many tourists stayed away. Tourist arrivals were 7% lower Wednesday, China’s National Day holiday, compared with a year earlier.
The
planned negotiations would move the dispute into a new phase. But it
wasn’t clear what issues would be open for discussion. The Chinese
government made clear again Friday that it wouldn’t revisit the decision
by the National Peoples’ Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp
legislature, that only approved candidates could run for the chief
executive office.
Some analysts said
the only two areas of possible compromise would be the resignation of
Mr. Leung as chief executive, something the protesters had called for
earlier in the week, and the composition of the committee charged with
vetting the candidates. It wasn’t clear what the government would be
willing to negotiate. Mr. Leung, who had said he wouldn’t resign, spent
much of the day meeting with other officials to plan strategy.
It also wasn’t clear what role Beijing played in the decision to negotiate or whether it would allow Mr. Leung to resign.
—Enda Curran, Lorraine Luk and Jason Chow contributed to this article.