Behind huge Hong Kong march, a dramatic show of public support

The passage of time and outbursts of violence can upend any protest movement. But Hong Kongers have been able to sustain a remarkable sense of unity around their pro-democracy demands.

By Ann Scott Tyson 

At the biggest pro-democracy protest since June, protesters show the palms of their hands as they call on the government Dec. 8, 2019, to meet all five of their key demands, including universal suffrage and an independent investigation of police.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters staged one of Hong Kong’s biggest marches since June on Sunday, in a dramatic sign of the strength of public support for the six-month-old campaign for greater democracy and autonomy from China.
The overwhelmingly peaceful protest was approved by police and saw an estimated 800,000 people surge through downtown Hong Kong, according to the organizer, the Civil Human Rights Front, the territory’s biggest pro-democracy group. 

The group also led marches of an estimated 1 million and 2 million people in June that helped push Hong Kong’s government to withdraw a controversial China extradition bill. 

Chanting “Five Demands, Not One Less,” protesters of all ages and walks of life raised their outstretched palms as the vast crowd spilled out of Victoria Park and slowly flowed down Hennessy Road and Queensway into Central, the heart of Hong Kong’s financial district. 

Parents carrying children and retirees holding umbrellas like parasols against the sun joined black-clad students wearing gas masks, as the nonviolent and more radical elements of protesters joined forces in a striking display of unity that analysts say is the hallmark of the movement.
“There is an ethic of solidarity … that encourages people to stay united,” says Francis Lee, director of the School of Journalism at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, one of a team of scholars surveying public opinion on the protests. 

Indeed, using protest art, banners, and chants, the crowd on Sunday articulated slogans that stressed their strong bonds.
“No derision. No division. No denunciation,” read one poster on display along the march route. “Contributing in our own ways, we traverse toward the same summit as one,” it said, showing a protester waving others onward and upward.
As many as 800,000 people participated in a peaceful march Dec. 8 down a major road on Hong Kong Island.

Polls show that about 70% of Hong Kong’s 7.4 million people are in favor of the pro-autonomy movement, according to Professor Lee’s research. 

The movement has lessened the gaps in political views between Hong Kong’s moderate, pro-democracy, and localist supporters, but has heightened polarization between those groups and the pro-establishment camp, which favors closer ties with Beijing, he says.
About 89% of Hong Kongers now believe that a combination of peaceful protests and radical tactics can achieve the best outcome, while 92% think that radical actions are understandable “when the government fails to listen,” a mid-September poll shows.
Protesters on Sunday included civil servants, teachers, and other professionals, who voiced deep disdain for how Hong Kong’s government, led by Chief Executive Carrie Lam, has handled the political crisis. 

Posters mocking Lam are mainstays of the protests, as her popularity has fallen to a record low.“I work for the government, but I don’t agree with the government,” said one middle-aged civil servant as he marched through the financial district, requesting anonymity because of his position.
One of the protesters’ main demands is to elect Hong Kong’s chief executive by universal suffrage, instead of through the current, Beijing-controlled selection process. 

Some 81% of people polled in October said they seek political reforms. 

Lam is viewed as beholden to Beijing, and prominent posters on Sunday depicted her in the embrace of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping.
While Lam has not achieved a political resolution to the crisis, she has ordered Hong Kong’s 30,000-strong police force to quell the unrest, leading to more than 6,000 arrests, the heavy use of tear gas and rubber bullets, and a few instances of firing live ammunition. 

Protesters have hurled Molotov cocktails, bricks, and arrows at police.
Yet despite an escalation of violence on both sides, polls show the majority of people blame the government and police, not the protesters. 

Trust in the police has dropped sharply since May, and more than half of Hong Kongers have “zero” confidence in the force, a November survey shows.“Hong Kong people are really tough,” says Brian Fong, a political scientist and former government official. 

“Despite the fact that over 6,000 have been arrested, and many have been persecuted, Hong Kong people still fight back. The momentum of the movement is still very strong,” he says.
Sunday’s mass protest unfolded largely without police presence or interference, apart from some tensions toward the end. 

Some marchers said they felt safe to attend because police approved the demonstration. 

“Because today is legal most people will come out,” says a teacher who identified himself only as Mr. T. 

“I’m not afraid of violence, but if it’s illegal we have fears of being arrested, even months later.”
Some protesters shed their masks for the rally, and seemed less worried about being photographed. 

At one point, they enthusiastically responded as a young girl with a loudspeaker led the sea of marchers in chanting: “Fight for freedom! Stand with Hong Kong!” 

As darkness fell, they lit the way with thousands of cellphone lights and sang Hong Kong’s unofficial anthem, “Glory to Hong Kong.”

Thousands of protesters sit in at Hong Kong airport to reiterate their ‘five demands’

• “Please forgive us for the ‘unexpected’ Hong Kong,” said the leaflets that were handed out to arrival passengers at the Hong Kong International Airport. “You’ve arrived in a broken, torn-apart city, not the one you have once pictured. Yet for this Hong Kong, we fight.”
• The demonstrations started as peaceful political rallies in June but have escalated to a wider, pro-democracy movement.

By Grace Shao


Several hundreds of protesters, many of them young and donning black T-shirts, handed out anti-government flyers in more than 16 languages to arrival passengers at the Hong Kong International Airport on Friday.
“Please forgive us for the ‘unexpected’ Hong Kong,” the English leaflets read. 

“You’ve arrived in a broken, torn-apart city, not the one you have once pictured. Yet for this Hong Kong, we fight,” the flyers said according to Reuters.
Protesters said they wanted to reiterate their demands and put their case “in front of an international audience,” according to social media posts from demonstrators.
The massive travel hub connects the city to more than 220 global destinations and served 74.7 million passengers last year, according to the airport’s website.
Airport authorities said only departing passengers with travel documents will be allowed to enter Terminal 1 on Friday morning, as the airport braces for what protesters are describing as a three-day event. 

The terminal serves long-haul flights.
Online platforms such as Instagram, Telegram, Airdrop and local Hong Kong forums have become the main means of organization among protesters because they give some anonymity to users.
The demands were originally released in July, a day after a small group of protesters stormed the Hong Kong legislature:

1. a full withdrawal of a proposed bill that would allow Hong Kong people to be extradited to mainland China
2. a retraction of any characterization of the movement as a “riot”
3. a retraction of charges against anti-extradition protesters
4. an independent committee to investigate the Hong Kong police’s use of force
5. universal suffrage in elections for the city’s chief executive officer and legislature by 2020.

So far, Hong Kong authorities have given no concessions, though Chief Executive Carrie Lam “suspended” the extradition bill last month.
Thursday afternoon in the United States, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman called China a “thuggish regime” for disclosing photographs and personal details of a U.S. diplomat who met with student leaders of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.
Beijing on Wednesday released a photo showing leaders of the movement — including Joshua Wong, the face and leader of the 2014 Umbrella Movement— with an American diplomat. 

Chinese authorities have asked the U.S. to explain why that contact was made and to explain the nature of their relationship.
On Friday morning, officials confirmed that the police commander who dealt with the 2014 demonstrations has been recalled to help settle the ongoing social unrest.
Alan Lau Yip-shing, a former deputy police commissioner, has been appointed to handle large-scale public order events and to direct activities around the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, which is October 1.

Why are Hong Kongers protesting?
Hundreds of thousands of people in Hong Kong have taken to the streets since early June, spurred by opposition to a bill that would allow people in Hong Kong to be extradited to mainland China. 

That proposal has been suspended — though not fully withdrawn.
Demonstrations have since evolved into a movement calling for autonomy, full democracy and the ousting of the embattled leader Lam.
Beijing has responded saying Hong Kong is facing its worst crisis since the handover from the United Kingdom in 1997, and the communist government has used increasingly pointed language to describe the protests.

Problems that go beyond politics
The demonstrations started as peaceful political rallies but have escalated to a broader, pro-democracy movement. 

The size of crowds on the streets and rising violence have called the well-being of Asia’s financial hub into question.
Flights were canceled by Hong Kong’s largest airline, Cathay Pacific on Monday, as part of a general strike that halted the city.
The United States raised its travel warning for Hong Kong on Wednesday, advising Americans to exercise caution when visiting the city.
Also Wednesday, a senior Cathay Pacific executive said the company is facing a decline in bookings for travel to Hong Kong. 

The “double digits” drop is largely due to widespread protests in the Asian financial center, he said.
Retail, real estate and other business sectors have also seen sales declines over the last few months. The city’s public transit system has also been disrupted on multiple occasions.
The discontent from protesters may go beyond politics. 

While the city’s rich have grown richer, the wealth gap in the city has grown wider, according to David Dodwell, a long-time observer of Asia politics.
Many people feel left behind and neglected by the government, and their frustration is fueling increasingly disruptive protests that have coursed through the city, said Dodwell, who is executive director at HK-APEC Trade Policy Group and a former Financial Times Asia correspondent.
“There is a very widespread anxiety in Hong Kong among the ordinary working person about their prospects going forward,” Dodwell told CNBC. 

He added that more than 90% of local Hong Kongers work for small and medium-sized enterprises, which have not seen the kind of economic growth that big multinational corporations have.