War of resistance: For 'the braves' there is no turning back in battle for Hong Kong

Young and fearless protesters pose new challenge to Communist authorities.
By Violet Law
Bruised and exhausted young protesters have promised to keep on fighting against the Hong Kong government.

Hong Kong -- A Catholic schoolgirl who left a promising career to lob petrol bombs at police. College students whose raison d'être is to keep the fight going.
A protester who beat arrest to mount his fourth election campaign and win office.
As Hong Kong's anti-government protests have dragged on from summer into winter, these are the kind of people who have emerged as "the braves" -- people prepared to use extreme tactics that set them apart from the vast majority of peaceful demonstrators.
"The braves", whose number is hard to gauge and whose ranks have been replenished by younger and younger protesters give the government the most headaches.
Police have branded them "rioters" determined to round them up in order to quell the unrest.
Few protesters set out to be braves, but nearly all were frustrated by the failure of the Umbrella Movement of 2014, a mass sit-in to demand universal suffrage to elect the full legislature and chief executive.
Back then they played in defence and were met with defeat.
After million-strong marches in June failed to move the government into heeding the people's demands to withdraw the controversial bill that had set off the protests, more extreme action brought results. 
The bill was shelved and later scrapped, after protesters stormed the legislature.
"It was the government who taught us peaceful protests are useless," the braves spray-painted on the walls inside.
"This was the breakthrough (that) opened up the space for radical actions," said Gary Tang, a professor at Hang Seng University who studies youth movements.
"And the process of mutual escalation, between the police and the protesters, where the police are seen to have used disproportionate force, has further solidified sympathy for the braves."
As the current struggle has become the longest the self-governing Chinese territory has seen in more than half a century, the braves, although bruised and exhausted, say they will keep fighting -- while they still can, and while they still enjoy the rights and freedoms of the "one country, two systems" framework, under which the former British colony was returned to China in 1997.
Beijing is to assume full control by 2047.

'Resist now'
"If we don't resist now, what would happen to us [then]?" asked Christie, 20, who recently recovered from having her pelvis cracked by a pepper-ball grenade from the police.
Since being shot, Christie is easily rattled by loud bangs, but she is just as ready to throw a Molotov cocktail at police; mad at herself whenever she misses.
Before throwing herself into the protests, Christie was a pastry chef at a five-star hotel, earning three times the monthly income of the average university graduate even as a secondary school drop-out.
When the police rang her at work and pressed her to tell on fellow protesters, she quit her job.
Her injuries now make it difficult to find employment.
She used to have her own flat.
These days, she shuttles between the couch of a politically aligned host family and a bunk bed at an Airbnb rental shared with three fellow protesters to avoid police searches of their family homes.

Hong Kong's protest movement could not have lasted as long without broad support from the majority middle-class who are avowedly non-violent.

"For me, there's no return," she said.
"All we want is for the government to listen to us."
Once outside, Christie and other braves say they see a "parallel universe," where business ticks along as usual, and passers-by walk oblivious past the defiant graffiti demanding democracy and heralding "the revolution of our time."
If only they would make the personal sacrifice, Christie thinks, to go on strike to bring the economy to a halt and the government to its knees.
But she said she can understand.
Many people have "baggage": a mortgage, children, elderly dependent parents.

Middle-class support
That said, Hong Kong's protest movement could not have lasted as long without broad support from the majority middle-class, who are avowedly non-violent.
They have poured money into the cause, forked out for safe houses and medical treatment, as well as supermarket and fast-food restaurant coupons to keep the protesters fed.
Opinion polls in November suggested twice as many respondents blamed the authorities rather than the protesters for the mounting violence but maintaining that support requires care.
"If the police show restraint and even de-escalate the situation, it remains to be seen how the braves will carry on," said Tang, the researcher.
"If they use more force than the police, they'd risk crossing the line and losing legitimacy with the non-violent majority. That's the dilemma they're likely facing."

The police is using disproportionate force against protesters in Hong Kong.

Used to toggling between odd jobs and Triad activities, Jay, 30, has found purpose in the current protests.
He is careful to avoid being caught.
His Airbnb hideout is strictly for sleeping and killing time.
Other than an "Anonymous" mask and a pair of spent latex gloves, nothing hints at his involvement in protests.
His team's armoury is on a street minded by the Triads.
Jay, too, intuits any escalation of violence must be calibrated.
"You need to wait till somebody is shot and killed on the spot for supporters to think killing the cops becomes fair game -- that hasn't happened yet," he said.

'War of resistance'
But in Hong Kong's leaderless movement, cool heads do not always prevail.
Most often emotions, rather than calculations, push events along.
In mid-November in the police siege of the Polytechnic University more than one thousand protesters including many of the braves were trapped after rushing to help their comrades.
At least a few hundred were arrested, bringing the total to more than 6,000.
If a brave is charged and freed on bail, they generally retreat from the front lines because if they are arrested again, they will have to stay behind bars until their court date.
The siege also allowed the police to seize crucial equipment including goggles and helmets.
The shortage of respirator masks means fewer can face-off against police tear gas and grenades.
As police objections to the mass demonstrations stifled turnout among the non-violent demonstrators -- the last million-strong march was nearly four months ago -- people turned to the ballot box to voice their anger.
In late November, opposition candidates won a landslide victory in district councils elections.
At least five people known to be among the braves won a seat.
On his fourth bid for public office since the Umbrella Movement, Michael finally trounced his opponent, an incumbent from a pro-government labour union.
In his low-income neighbourhood, he has long cultivated a "boy-next-door" image with his mild manner and easy smile, even for those who disagree with his politics.

Pro-democracy protesters have defied Hong Kong's decision to ban the use of masks during demonstrations.

Joining the system has some benefits: Michael, 28, plans to plough the resources from his district's discretionary budget into supplying the protesters with protective gear.
While buoyed by his victory, he is more pensive about where the movement goes from here.
"Now we're at a bottleneck," he said.
"The movement has lost its focus. The protest slogans are sounding a bit hollow."
In the hotel room he's called home since discovering three months ago that police were tailing him, Michael and his friends liken the movement to a war of resistance.
"The best we can hope for is to keep the heat up," Michael said.
"It's getting more and more like guerrilla warfare. It doesn't take that many people, but it takes guts. And the goal is to disrupt and destroy."

Hong Kong protesters seek international support on rights

By Felix Tam

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong protesters rallied outside diplomatic missions on Thursday to urge foreign governments to follow the United States and pass human rights bills to raise pressure on Beijing and support their pro-democracy campaign.
Hong Kong protesters march to foreign consulates in Hong Kong, China, December 19, 2019. 

U.S. President Donald Trump signed legislation last month requiring the State Department to certify, at least once a year, that Hong Kong retains enough autonomy from Beijing to justify favorable U.S. trading terms.
About 1,000 people, most of them dressed in black and wearing face masks, marched on a route that took them by the consulates of Australia, Britain, the European Union, the United States, Japan and Canada, to drop off a petition.
British, EU and U.S. diplomats came out to receive it and took photographs with the protesters.
“What happens in Hong Kong is not just a local issue, it is about human rights and democracy. Foreign governments should understand how this city is being suppressed,” said Suki Chan, who participated in the protest.
“We need to continue to seek international attention and let them know this movement is not losing momentum.”
Hong Kong has been rattled for more than six months by anti-government protests amid growing anger over Chinese meddling in the freedoms promised to the former British colony when it returned to Chinese rule in 1997.
Beijing has denied such meddling, blaming the unrest on “foreign forces” and saying attempts to interfere in the city are doomed to fail.
The U.S. legislation, which also threatens sanctions for human rights violations, followed similar “citizen diplomacy” petitions in Hong Kong this year and has been cheered by protesters.
Beijing denounced the U.S. legislation and Hong Kong’s government said it sent the wrong signal to the demonstrators and increased economic uncertainty in Hong Kong, a major financial hub.
The marchers’ petition condemned police brutality and urged governments to pass legislation to punish Chinese and Hong Kong officials by denying them visas and freezing their assets.
Police said separately on Thursday they had arrested four people suspected of "money laundering" in relation to the protests and had frozen HK$70 million ($9 million) in bank deposits.
Chan Wai Kei, from the police’s financial investigation and narcotics bureau, told reporters the four were part of a group that had asked for donations for arrested and injured protesters but used some of the money for personal investments.
At the U.S. consulate in Hong Kong, protesters called for U.S. Congress to pass a “Be Water Act”, legislation championed by Missouri Senator Josh Hawley and named after a protest slogan borrowed from martial arts legend Bruce Lee.
The bill would freeze assets of Chinese nationals and state-owned enterprises believed to have contributed to suppressing freedom of speech in Hong Kong.
Thursday also marked the 35th anniversary of a treaty between China and Britain on Hong Kong’s future, which set the stage for its handover.
British Foreign secretary Dominic Raab urged China in a statement to open dialogue with the protesters and respect the commitments in the treaty.
Hong Kong’s special status, which helped it grow into a global financial center and avoid U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports, is important to Beijing, which uses the city as its main gateway to global capital.

Chinazism

Eye blinded covering Hong Kong protests, Indonesian reporter seeks justice

By Jessie Pang


HONG KONG -- Hit by a projectile fired by Hong Kong police while covering an anti-government protest nearly two months ago, Indonesian journalist Veby Mega Indah was blinded in one eye, but that has not blotted out the traumatic flashbacks filling her mind.
Working as an associate editor for Suara, a newspaper popular with Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong, Indah, 39, had been live-streaming in the Bahasa Indonesia language on the frontlines of demonstrations.
At the time of the shooting Indah was reporting on the street protests alongside other journalists from the vantage point of a footbridge. 

She believes she was hit by a rubber bullet. 

Whatever the projectile was, it has caused the permanent loss of sight in her right eye.
“I felt like I could not bear it anymore. I thought it’s going to be my end,” she told Reuters.
Indah recalled hearing fellow journalists behind her shout: “We are journalists, stop shooting at us!”
The Chinese-ruled city has been roiled by more than six months of sometimes violent protests as activists call for greater democracy and an independent inquiry into police actions, among other demands.
Police, who have at times fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse demonstrators, say they have shown restraint in the face of escalating violence.
Indah and her legal representative told Reuters they have filed a legal request asking the police to name the officer involved in the incident so they can pursue a civil case, but that they have had no meaningful response so far.
Hong Kong police did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
While Indah still feels pain, she is adjusting to life with one eye, although she is still haunted by the experience.
“When I was in the hospital, I keep waking up because some images (keep) flashing back ... the projectile keeps coming back and coming back to my right eye,” she said, while holding back tears.
She has been unable to return to work.

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.”

Self-Defence vs. State Terrorism

Why We Should Not Condemn Violence by the Hong Kong Protesters
By Chu Chia-An
P
Some people think that if we hold the Hong Kong police to account in using violence, we must also place the same standards on the use of violence by the protesters.

I oppose this argument, and my reasoning is as follows: Saying “both sides should be equally condemned” unfairly favors the police, and ignores the fact that ultimate responsibility for the violence lies at the feet of the Chinese and Hong Kong governments.
During the protests, the Hong Kong police have used batons, pistols, and tear gas to beat back the crowds. 

According to later rumors, even a sonic weapon would be deployed. 

On the internet, you can see video clips of police firing guns, as well as reports confirming that Hongkongers have been severely injured in these shootings. 

One youth fell from a building to his death upon being attacked by police, and other reports have surfaced accusing the Hong Kong police of sexually abusing and beating detainees.
A number of mysterious deaths have surfaced in Hong Kong over the past few months in which the corpses were suspiciously found in the water, unclothed, or without identity. 

Hong Kong government officials have acknowledged that the rate of suicides and discoveries of dead bodies has increased. 

At press conferences, the authorities have acknowledged that police officers had impersonated protesters, and officers who left the force said that police behavior had gotten out of control.
On the other side, the protesters have thrown bricks and Molotov cocktails at the police. 

Over the last few days, protesters at some universities in Hong Kong have dismantled public facilities to make roadblocks, and set fires to impede the advance of police. 

According to reports, a policeman was hit in the leg by an arrow fired by a protester, and others had their masks hit by steel pellets.
Some people think that while the police have caused injuries and abused their power to commit violence, the protesters have also engaged in violent acts such as damaging public facilities, throwing bricks, and setting fires, so if one agrees that the former should be condemned, the latter must also be held responsible.
I don’t see things this way. 

I think there are a number of factors that make it easy for us to overestimate the seriousness of violence by protesters, as well as factors that place most responsibility for the violence on the Hong Kong and Chinese governments.

Real violence doesn’t need to look “violent”
Many times, some people appear very violent precisely because they were not all that violent.
When the protesters set fires to prevent police from advancing, the damage pales in comparison to the persistent effects on the human body and general environment caused by tear gas grenades fired by the police. 

The average person, however, will consider setting fire to be an act of violence, and shooting tear gas to be stopping violence. 

On the one hand, the officers’ identity as police helps to legitimize their violence; on the other, the police have tear gas grenades to use, and don’t have to fashion Molotov cocktails. 

The irony is clear: protesters lack sophisticated equipment for carrying out violence, so in being forced to resort to Stone Age technology, their methods of resistance seem more violent.
By the same token, the protesters seem violent and chaotic when they tear down fences to make roadblocks. 

However, if ready-made roadblocks and gabions like the ones used by the police were available to the protesters, who would want to tear down fences?
To reiterate, those who are well equipped can choose to perform violence in a “civilized” way that doesn’t appear violent. 

If a Hong Kong policeman asks you nicely to “go with me” while carrying a gun in his hand, will you go with him or not? 

In a civilized society with established rules, it is easy to treat “system violence” that often occurs as not being violence, which leaves us powerless when those in power begin to abuse the rules.
Finally, the people who are supported by the police and government authorities can commit violent acts without anyone seeing them do it at all. 

Reviewing the recent news, look at how the detained Hongkongers were abused and sexually assaulted by the police. 

If dismantling fences and throwing Molotov cocktails can keep people I know from being arrested by the Hong Kong police, I would go for it too.
Human judgment does not exist in a vacuum, but is influenced by culture and conceptions. 

Those who hold political power can not only influence what you see, but also how you understand what you see. 

For this reason, I hold the view that criticizing the protesters for their violence, or highlighting the need to “condemn violence committed by both protesters as well as police” are statements that ignore the elephant in the room.
If violence were avoidable, who would want it?
In condemning violence, one question to ask is whether the actor has non-violent options available. As concerns the Hong Kong situation, we may consider the following: which side has the greater margin of “options other than violence” with which to resolve the problems?
When compared with the protesters, the answer is the Hong Kong government. 

Had the Hong Kong Government adhered to the “one country, two systems” promise and democracy, Hong Kong people would have no need to take to the streets in the first place.
When compared with the Hong Kong government and the protesters, the answer becomes the Chinese government. 

Had the Chinese government not forced everyone to accept its authoritarian rule, the Hong Kong government would not find itself under such pressure to violate the spirit of democracy, and neither would the people of Hong Kong need to protest.
The Hongkongers did not choose violence from the beginning, with the 2014 Umbrella Revolution being a typical case of non-violent protest. 

However, judging from the history of Chinese rule, Hong Kong may become the next East Turkestan if the Hongkongers do not put up strong resistance. 

Regardless of whether the object of comparison is the Hong Kong police and government, or the Chinese government, the Hong Kong protesters don’t have any meaningful options apart from violent resistance, unless you consider submitting yourself to abuse, surveillance, and repression to be a meaningful course of action.
There is not much point in criticizing the Hong Kong protesters for their violence. 

If anyone should take responsibility for the violence, it is China. 

The Chinese government hardly provides for the security and livelihood of its own people, yet always wants to rule over others. 

This is the source of all violence in the Hong Kong protests.

Revolution of our Time

Hong Kong hospitals find themselves on protest frontlines

By Farah Master

A doctor wears a protest ribbon during a picket by medical staff denouncing what they say is police brutality during recent anti-government protests, at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Hong Kong, China August 13, 2019. 

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong’s public hospitals, long known for professionalism, have become a new front in the anti-government protests that have engulfed the city for more than five months.
An incident in which riot police armed with shields and batons interrogated a pregnant woman at her bedside in a hospital labor ward has become a rallying cry for medical professionals who fear that patient confidentiality and high standards of treatment are under threat.The two officers ignored requests by medical staff to not enter the room of the pregnant woman, a 19-year-old arrested on suspicion of taking part in an illegal protest.

The Oct. 7 incident was corroborated by medical staff, the city’s government-funded Hospital Authority and police.
Police rarely entered areas like labor or emergency wards before the protests escalated in June, according to Arisina Ma, president of the Hong Kong Public Doctors’ Association (HKPDA), which represents public hospital staff, and six other doctors and nurses who requested anonymity.
Now, arrests and interrogations of suspects in public hospital rooms have become commonplace, they said.

That has raised concerns that protesters requiring medical care might avoid the public hospital system for fear of arrest.
On a Facebook post that was widely shared, the HKPDA questioned why police had entered the pregnancy ward, and stressed the “need to protect the rights of the patient”.
“Armed riot police are coming to public hospitals with full gear, which is scary,” said one nurse who gave his name only as Cheng. 

“The reputation of the hospitals is being ruined not only by Hong Kong police but also the administrative managers of the Hospital Authority who try and suppress freedom of speech among health care professionals.”The Hospital Authority has instructed staff not to take part in public assemblies and express opinions on the protests as they say it affects hospital operations.
Ma of the HKPDA said the Hospital Authority’s management had been under “intense pressure” from the mainland and local governments, which made it hard for them to support their colleagues.
The Hospital Authority declined to comment. 

The police have defended their actions, calling them necessary to combat protests that have become increasingly violent.

TREATMENT AND PRIVACY FEARSThe protests were triggered by government plans to introduce a bill that would have allowed suspects to be extradited from Hong Kong to the mainland.
The plan has since been withdrawn, but the protests have continued amid widespread public anger that the government has refused to set up an independent inquiry into alleged police brutality and amnesty arrested demonstrators.
More than 2,100 people injured in protests have been admitted to public hospitals since June, the Hospital Authority says. 

Police are also treated in public hospitals, but some are later transferred to private facilities, the HKDA’s Ma said.
The city’s medical sector employs around 100,000 people. 

Hundreds of healthcare staff have worked as first-aid volunteers on the frontlines of demonstrations in their own time, tending to protesters injured during clashes with police.
Many have also staged protests against police brutality against demonstrators.Hospital staff have been accused by Chinese state media and officials of failing to take a harder line against the protests. 

Many say that those seen as sympathetic to the protests have also been targeted by Beijing supporters and pro-police lobbies via online trolling or verbal complaints.

A patient is wheeled past as healthcare staff hold posters and participate in a human chain to protest against what they say is police brutality during the anti-extradition bill protests, at Queen Mary Hospital, in Hong Kong, China, September 2, 2019. 

China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office in Beijing did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The HKPDA said its website had been inundated with thousands of critical messages posted by “supporters of the People’s Republic of China” after the doctors’ group condemned the shooting of a protester by police.
“Even if you don’t participate in anything, but you don’t stand out to condemn the protests, you will be the one doing something wrong,” said Ma.
Many protesters say they are too scared to seek treatment in public hospitals, preferring the pop-up clinics manned by volunteers that have sprung up across the city.
“It’s a very critical time because our medical system has linkages with the police force,” said a 30-year-old protester seeking treatment in a clinic who identified himself only as Ben. 

“People are scared to go to hospital.”
The group running the clinic said it also gave free treatment to patients on the streets. 

Fung, a 24-year-old medical student volunteer, said the clinic had helped thousands of patients, using social media applications like Telegram to communicate, helping minimize official scrutiny.
At the public hospitals, staff say they are walking a tightrope.
“We feel scared,” said one 26-year-old nurse at a public hospital who gave his name as Stephen.
Staff wearing black clothes, the color worn by many protesters, are routinely checked by police officers before entering the hospital, he said.
“For health workers it is hard to voice our views because we cannot just put down our jobs. We have to take care of our patients.”

Hong Kong Uprising

The violent Hong Kong authorities have lost their legitimacy 
Financial Times

Public execution, Tiananmen style: Hong Kong police cold-bloodedly shoots a young protester with a live round.


Hong Kong is on the edge of a precipice.
Late into Tuesday evening, protesters at several locations hurled Molotov cocktails at police who fired back volleys of tear gas.
Since the weekend, a protester has been shot by police with a live round, and a man horrifically set alight after confronting demonstrators.
Violence that has been building for months has reached a critical pitch.
With neither side appearing ready to back down, the danger is now real of a tragedy on a far broader scale.
Blame for the current crisis must be laid primarily at the feet of the Hong Kong government and Beijing. 
Since the protests began in April, both have underestimated the demonstrators’ seriousness and resolve.
Concessions have been too little, too late.
Had Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive, withdrawn the extradition bill that originally triggered the demonstrations when they were still peaceful mass marches, she might have defused the situation.
Instead, she initially only suspended the bill instead of cancelling it, and only after the first bloodshed.
This sent protesters a damaging message: that only violence brought results.
Continued mishandling of the crisis by the Hong Kong authorities has led to the loss of their legitimacy in the eyes of the population. 
In a sign of how sentiment has shifted, office workers in suits could be seen cheering black-clad demonstrators in full battle dress as they ran through the city’s central business district on Tuesday. Having lost popular legitimacy, the authorities have resorted instead to police rule. 
In the absence of any political resolution, the brutal police find themselves, invidiously, on the front lines, expected to govern what has become an ungovernable city through force.
Since they only have one set of tools, an inevitable cycle of escalation has set in.
The city no longer has a law and order problem, but a rule of law problem. 
Now there are signs that Beijing is preparing to take an even harder line.
Protesters fear further steps to erode the rights and freedoms Hong Kong has enjoyed since the end of British rule in 1997, which are guaranteed in the Basic Law that came into effect at the handover. Chinese officials have signalled a desire for legislative and education reforms in the city, including strengthening security legislation.
An article of the Basic Law said Hong Kong should enact laws to prohibit “treason, secession, sedition [or] subversion” against the central government.
But a move to implement that through a national security bill in 2003 was dropped after half a million people protested.
Any attempt to introduce a national security law now would be seen as a final straw by demonstrators.
If Beijing intends to push through such legislation, the only way it might succeed could be by also enacting another unfulfilled article of the Basic Law — which set the “ultimate aim” of choosing Hong Kong’s chief executive by universal suffrage.
This has become the biggest of the demonstrators’ five demands.
The chances appear slim indeed.
Granting the universal suffrage demand would risk making Beijing appear cowed by violence, and setting a precedent for other parts of China.
Yet, balanced with an eventual commitment to introduce a national security law in Hong Kong, it could in theory provide the framework for a visionary compromise.
It might be the only route left to a peaceful end to the protests — and to averting the ever-increasing danger of a bloody military intervention from the mainland.

Hong Kong Protesters Stage Fiery Clash With Police

Protesters angry over the shooting of a young demonstrator blocked roads, forced train delays and threw gasoline bombs under thick clouds of tear gas.
By Mike Ives, Ezra Cheung and Katherine Li

Protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in the Sha Tin district on Tuesday.

HONG KONG — Antigovernment demonstrators angered by the shooting of a Hong Kong demonstrator fanned out across the city on Tuesday, blocking major transit arteries and staging a fiery standoff against riot police officers on the fringes of a university campus.
Protesters disrupted the morning commute and brought parts of the central business district to a standstill around lunchtime.

At the gates of the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Tuesday evening, they set a giant blaze and threw gasoline bombs at police lines under a barrage of tear gas canisters.
The protests in the semiautonomous Chinese city began in June over a contentious, but since-withdrawn, extradition bill. 

The demonstrations have since morphed into calls for greater democracy and police accountability.
Here’s the latest on the Hong Kong protests.

University campuses are new flash points.
Protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Tuesday.

Black-clad student demonstrators have been making a concerted effort to defend their campuses against what they see as unwarranted police encroachment.
On Tuesday, protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong built roadblocks outside an entrance while police officers elsewhere tackled demonstrators to the ground and fired tear gas at a group gathered on a sports field.
As the clashes escalated in the evening, the university’s vice chancellor, Rocky Tuan, met with students in hopes of brokering a cease-fire between protesters and the police.
“The deal is that we each need to take a step back,” he said as he urged the students not to escalate the confrontation. 

In response, the students shouted: “We don’t believe you!” 

They repeatedly interrupted him and called for the release of students who had been arrested.
Barely minutes after Tuan left the site, the police fired tear gas at the protesters.
The protesters poured more fuel onto a large barricade that they had already set ablaze. 

They hurled gasoline bombs, set off fireworks and chanted: “Reclaim Hong Kong, a revolution of our times,” a popular protest slogan.
Officers fired a barrage of tear gas over the blockade, sending protesters scrambling. 

At least 30 people were being treated Tuesday night in a makeshift first-aid center on campus, apparently for exposure to tear gas and injuries from rubber bullets.
Around 10 p.m., police cannons briefly sprayed blue-dyed water at protesters. 

Groups of officers began to retreat soon afterward, with the smell of tear gas and pepper spray still heavy on the air.
Even though many confrontational protesters are undergraduates, violence on the campuses of Hong Kong’s universities has been rare. 

The university said that classes would be canceled on Wednesday for a third straight day in light of road blockages, “severe damage” to campus facilities and the “high risk of ongoing confrontation between protesters and the police.”

Passengers walked on the railway after train service was suspended in the Sha Tin area on Tuesday.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s embattled chief executive, criticized protesters on Tuesday for disrupting transit, saying that they were “extremely selfish” for wanting to paralyze Hong Kong.
Lam told reporters that the protesters were out to “create a phenomenon in which Hong Kong seems to have come to a standstill and people are not able to go to work and go to school.”
School administrators should urge students to stop taking part in illegal activities, she said, adding that her government would do its “very best” to ensure that local elections planned for Nov. 24 were held in a “fair, just, safe, orderly” manner.

Thesre was more unret downtown.

Protesters gathered in the Central district, a business hub, on Tuesday.

Hundreds of protesters, including many office workers, stormed Hong Kong’s central business district at lunchtime. 

Some formed human chains to pass along bags of bricks that front line activists were using to block traffic.
Across the harbor, activists in the Mong Kok neighborhood placed barricades in front of buses and punctured their tires.
The city’s subway operator said on Tuesday morning that services were also delayed after gasoline bombs had been thrown onto the tracks of a major rail line that runs to the border of the Chinese mainland.
Large groups of commuters were seen walking along the line’s tracks — a rare scene in a city known for its efficiency and order.

The protests follow a day of widespread violence.
Police officers making an arrest during a protest on Monday.

The demonstrations on Monday brought some of the worst violence that the city has seen in recent months. 

Lam, the city’s leader, called the combative protesters “enemies of the people” and warned that the city’s escalating unrest could take it on the “road of ruin.”
A police officer shot a black-clad protester at point-blank range on Monday morning in a neighborhood where traffic had been snarled by roadblocks. 

Elsewhere, a man was doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire after he scolded protesters, video footage shows. 

The police have said they are treating the immolation as an attempted murder.
The medical status of the protester who was shot had improved to serious from critical condition by Tuesday morning, the Hospital Authority said. 

But the man who had been set on fire remained in critical condition.
Tensions in Hong Kong had been building after the death last week of a student who fell from a parking garage amid demonstrations.
The police said that 287 people were arrested on Monday, the majority of them students.

A fire set by protesters at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Tuesday.

On Monday night in Washington, the State Department spokeswoman, Morgan Ortagus, said the United States government condemned “violence on all sides" in Hong Kong and urged the government to “address the underlying concerns driving the protests.”
Ms. Ortagus also reminded the Hong Kong government that the United States grants it a favorable trade status unlike that of mainland China, but only under specific conditions.
Congress and President Trump could enact a bill that mandates that the executive branch impose sanctions on Hong Kong officials who violate human rights and also review the special status of Hong Kong each year.
Many protesters have called for the bill to be passed, thinking the new law would give them leverage, but Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and Senate leader, has not held a floor vote, even though the bill passed the House by unanimous consent.

Hong Kong's out-of-control police must be stopped

Protester Chow Tsz-lok's death shows force needs total overhaul
By Joshua Wong

People attend a vigil for student Chow Tsz-Lok in Hong Kong on Nov. 9.

Hong Kong has been through a difficult weekend as we learned with grief about the death of a 22-year-old university student, Chow Tsz-lok, on Friday -- the first death directly related to the city's protests over the past five months.
The news caused shock and sadness across the city, but also sparked new rounds of protests and clashes. 

On the night of Chow's death, from injuries sustained after falling from a third-storey car park a few days before, police officers fired a live round into the air in a densely-populated district in Kowloon, while tear gas canisters were used in Tseung Kwan O, where the tragedy happened.
Over the weekend, vigils and prayer meetings were held to commemorate the tragic loss of our freedom fighter, attended by hundreds of thousands of people.
Needless to say, the news about Chow, alongside the suspicion over the police's role in the incident, has fueled public anger. 

Five months ago, the slogans chanted on the streets were "Hong Kong people, add oil!" 

When the emergency law banning the wearing of masks was enacted a month ago, the slogan changed to "Hong Kong people, resist!"
However, at a spontaneous protest last Friday lunchtime, a new phrase was raging: "Hong Kong people, revenge!"
Yet this anger or even hatred did not come out of nowhere. 

On Friday night, a riot police officer was filmed shouting they would open a bottle of champagne to celebrate Chow's death while dispersing grieving protesters.In a statement, the principal of Chow's university, Wei Shyy, demanded "clarifications from all parties -- especially from police, regarding the cause of the delay in those most critical moments that might have saved a young life. We will be outraged if there is no acceptable explanation offered to us."

Suspicions about the role of the police have been building. 

The police claimed at a news conference that they did not enter the car park until 1:05 a.m. 

However, dashcam footage showed that police might have entered the site as early as at 11:29 p.m. -- before Chow's fall. 

That makes the police's testimony completely untrustworthy.
On top of that, riot police blocked ambulance access to Chow after his fall by setting up cordons in the area, causing a delay of 20 minutes in the rescue operation.
Despite a significant conflict of interest, the police rejected the idea that an outside agency should investigate the case, which casts more doubt on the credibility of its investigative report.
Chow's death is closely related to police violence. 

Current investigative mechanisms can no longer restore public trust; they fail to meet the expectations of the whole society.
Even a member of the review panel of international experts, who are responsible for studying the scope of the Independent Police Complaints Council's remit, publicly criticized the police watchdog for its lack of powers "to match the scale of events."
Public confidence in the police force has hit a record low. 

According to the latest poll by Ming Pao newspaper, over half of the city's population said they do not trust the police at all, while nearly 70% demanded immediate police reform. 

Police press briefings are full of sneaky responses and deliberate lies. 

"Investigate police violence, stop police lies" has become the new demand of the city.
Riot police disperse anti-government protesters after Chow Tsz-lok died at Tseung Kwan O on Nov. 9: Public confidence in the police force hits a record low. 

At this point, an independent inquiry is a necessary but not sufficient solution to soothe the tension. It comes too late and too reluctantly.
With the disproportionately high number of pro-democracy supporters detained, arrested, charged, beaten, tortured and humiliated by police, it is not just a case of a few bad apples in the force.
The people of Hong Kong now call for a police overhaul, a fundamental reform of our entire law enforcement agency. 

The rationale behind this demand is simple: genuine checks and balances must be restored lest the authorities be uncontrolled.
To find an end to this perilous political crisis, the authorities should seek a political solution instead of the intensified use of state violence. 

Otherwise, disenchanted with an ineffective system, people's grief will eventually be transformed into irreversible hatred and anger. 

But Xi Jinping and his aides clearly intend the opposite.
This month's district council elections, essential to put pressure on Beijing and Hong Kong's government, have been overshadowed after Friday's clashes. 

A pro-government plot to call off the election is now emerging, with establishment hawks calling for the election to be suspended because of self-inflicted social unrest.
Eliminating this last resort for channeling public discontent into an institution would be no less than declaring the collapse of Hong Kong's "One Country, Two Systems."
Early Monday morning, we woke up to find the police had shot another unarmed young protester in a bustling commuter neighborhood. 

This is going to be another long and angry day.

‘No Regrets’: Hong Kong’s Protesters Test China’s Limits

Demonstrators and the embattled authorities are locked in an impasse.

By Andrew Jacobs and Tiffany May

A core group of combative young Hongkongers has come to define the antigovernment protests that have convulsed Hong Kong since June.

HONG KONG — Fat Boy is a college dropout with a youthful blush of acne who excels at playing video games and lives with his mother.

He is also a wily commander who leads a ragtag band of protesters willing to risk injury and arrest as they face off against the police.
Fat Boy oversees 50 or so Hong Kong protesters, ages 15 to 35, who focus their attacks on the police, government offices and Chinese-owned banks or other businesses they view as hostile to their movement. 

Their weapons — bricks, poles and Molotov cocktails — are often met with tear gas and rubber bullets. 

Occasionally, the police have responded with live fire.
They are part of a core of combative young Hongkongers, garbed in black, who have come to define the antigovernment protests that have convulsed this semiautonomous territory for more than four months and that have posed a bold challenge to the dictatorship of China’s Communist Party.
“You have to earn your rights and freedom,” Fat Boy, 20, said one afternoon this month at his apartment as he and three team members picked at takeout food and talked about their anxieties and aspirations. 

“For this, we can have no regrets.”

The protest leader known as Fat Boy in Hong Kong on Saturday.

With self-confidence, he showed off photos from the day he hot-wired an excavator at a construction site and drove it to the entrance of a police station.
“After I did that, other people copied me,” he said.
The protesters have escalated their use of aggressive tactics, smashing storefronts, setting bonfires at subway stations and taking justice into their own hands.
On Oct. 13, a protester stabbed a police officer in the throat with a box cutter, leaving him in serious condition. 

The same day, a homemade bomb detonated by cellphone exploded in a sidewalk planter, though it caused no damage or injuries.

Parts of a homemade bomb that exploded on Oct. 13.

Protesters and the authorities are locked in an impasse that feels as if it is edging closer to a fatality or perhaps even an intervention by Chinese troops that could further endanger the civil liberties long enjoyed by the territory’s seven million residents.
The protesters have been driven to extremes by a government that won’t meet their demands for greater democracy and an investigation into police conduct. 

Francis Lee, a journalism professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong who has conducted public opinion surveys on the unrest, said the police and protesters were trapped in a vicious cycle of surging violence.
“We have reached a stage where it is difficult for either side to escalate their actions without creating backlash,” he said.
The city’s leaders and the police, seeking to drive a wedge between the front-line protesters and the broader public, have cast the demonstrators as rioters and violent vigilantes. 

Protesters clashing with police officers in riot gear in the Sha Tin area of Hong Kong on July 14.

For now, Hong Kong’s residents continue to back the protests by wide margins despite the violence, said Professor Lee, whose polling suggests that at least creating an independent commission on police conduct would go a long way toward defusing the crisis.
“These demands are not radical at all,” he said. 

“Doing them is very likely to be adequate to kick-start a process of de-escalation.”
Fat Boy, his three teammates and one other front-line protester agreed to be interviewed on the condition that they be identified by nicknames or first names only, for fear of being arrested.
The teammates include Jeff, a 24-year-old musician and skateboarder who quit his full-time job renovating apartments to devote himself to the protest movement; Kitty, a 21-year-old English major who recently left school for the same reason; and Tyler, 34, a construction manager who supports the brigade by supplying the helmets and carbon fiber shields that protect its members during confrontations with the police.
They said they wanted to push back against the Hong Kong government’s narrative likening them to thugs and mainland China’s propaganda that describes them as separatists. 

Their goals: to seek police accountability and secure the universal suffrage that Beijing promised when this former British colony was returned to China in 1997.
Like many Hong Kong youths, the front-line protesters assert an identity that, unlike in generations past, is fiercely distinct from that of mainland China.
Their anger is rooted in a growing sense that China’s Communist Party has worked swiftly to erode Hong Kong’s civil liberties, and as examples they point to the ousting of opposition lawmakers and detention of city booksellers by the mainland authorities.

With their gas masks and ninjalike attire, the front-liners are an unmistakable presence during demonstrations.

Samuel, 24, a freckle-faced protester and aspiring songwriter who is not part of Fat Boy’s group, explained, “We just don’t want to become like those Chinese who have become accustomed to living without freedom.”
During protests, Samuel erects roadblocks to slow down advancing columns of officers. 

He and the others defended their tactics and said they were being driven by mounting police brutality and an inflexible government.
A few of the democracy advocates conceded that the homemade bomb gave them pause.
Longhaired, lanky and contemplative, Jeff, the musician, equivocated when asked whether he approved of the bombing. 

He said that he didn’t think he could use such a weapon but that he might reconsider if its sole aim was to sow chaos and disperse charging police officers.
“I used to be someone who wouldn’t even throw a brick,” he said. 

“But every time I encounter an escalation by the police, my limit goes higher.”

A protester with a shield made from a street sign.

With their gas masks and sleek, ninjalike attire, the front-liners are an unmistakable presence during demonstrations. 

They have adopted the martial arts hero Bruce Lee’s ruminations on flexibility in the face of obstacles — “Be water, my friend” — saying they should behave like a wave that appears at once to pound the enemy and then promptly recedes into countless drops that cannot be contained.
They coordinate moves on encrypted messaging apps and are aided by four tacticians on three continents who remotely monitor the street battles.
It is impossible to know the number of antigovernment protesters who have embraced a more violent approach, but Fat Boy says he is aware of as many as 30 groups whose leaders meet face to face once or twice a month. 

The groups operate autonomously, with infrequent contact, an arrangement that helps protect them from arrest.
Fat Boy and those who direct the activities of the other groups are the closest thing to commanders in a movement largely characterized by the absence of readily identifiable leaders.
“It would be dangerous to talk to each other,” he said. 

“If one gets caught, all of us get caught.”

Police officers last month with protesters they had arrested.

So far, the police have arrested around 2,700 people, though most have been released on bail. 

About 200 could face 10 years in prison on charges of rioting. 

Roughly a third of them are under 18, and 100 of them are under 16.
Many of Fat Boy’s claims could not be independently verified, but his mother and the three front-liners on his team corroborated much of what he said.
He has named his team Hogwarts, after the mythical school of wizardry in the Harry Potter series, and says his group was one of the first to use Molotov cocktails, a weapon that was quickly embraced by other front-line protesters as a way to slow the advance of the riot police.
His team has been especially busy this fall. 

On Sept. 29, two days before National Day celebrations in China, several team members set fire to a subway station entrance, producing huge plumes of black smoke and drawing a battalion of firefighters.
On Oct. 1, they donned Guy Fawkes masks, burned paper portraits of Chinese dictator Xi Jinping, near military barracks and quickly vanished.

Protesters set fire to a subway station entrance in Central Hong Kong on Sept. 29.

At first glance, Fat Boy is hardly menacing. 

He shuffles around his mother’s luxury apartment in slippers, toggling between cable news channels and video games like Red Dead Redemption. 

He rarely sleeps more than a few hours each night.
“I’m mentally and physically exhausted,” he said. 

“I think the police are tired too.”
As he spoke, Fat Boy’s mother cleaned up the apartment while Jeff and Kitty cuddled on the sofa — their romance began at a protest this summer.
Fat Boy’s mother was once largely apolitical but now attends the protests, handing out food and tending to those overcome by pepper spray or tear gas.
“Every time he goes out, I worry he and his friends will get hurt, or that they might not come home at all,” she said, wringing her hands.
Fat Boy said that his schooling influenced his political awakening. 

He attended an elite Hong Kong academy that he described as pro-China. 

It sent him and his classmates to the mainland for a week of military training, where he learned the value of leadership and how to fire a gun.
He later went to school in Canada, where he gained an appreciation for Western-style democracy and civil liberties. 

He is also well versed in military history and especially World War II, which he says taught him the importance of standing up to tyranny.
Fat Boy’s evolution from peaceful demonstrator to firebomb-throwing provocateur mirrors that of other combative protesters.
On June 9, he joined a million people who took to the streets in the very first protest against a contentious bill that would have allowed residents to be extradited to mainland China. 

Fat Boy and many others were infuriated after the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, said the legislation would proceed as planned, driving home the idea that peaceful demonstrations were useless.

On June 9, a million people took to the streets in the first protest against an extradition bill that was eventually withdrawn.

Three days later, on June 12, he joined thousands of protesters in surrounding the legislative complex to block debate about the bill. 

A core group lobbed umbrellas and bricks at the police, who responded with what critics say was excessive force, beating protesters with batons and dousing them with pepper spray and plumes of tear gas.
“On June 9, I was just a guy passing out fliers on the street. By June 12, I had 100 people at my side,” he said, referring to the confrontational core of protesters.

The protests escalated on June 12, when protesters surrounded Hong Kong’s legislative building.

To prevent infiltration by undercover officers, Fat Boy scrutinizes the social media accounts of new recruits. 

So far, he said, only five or six of his members have been arrested, all of them during street fights with the police.
Their support network includes Hong Kongers in Canada, Australia and Britain who help coordinate attacks on the police, he said. 

Studying protester chat groups and the live feeds from videographers on the ground, these remote tacticians can direct the front-liners — and help guide their retreat.
As he spoke, the rest of the crew was entranced by a particularly graphic video game that Fat Boy was playing on a large-screen TV. 

His mother winced as a Wild West gunslinger lassoed a man and dragged him to his death.
“It’s so realistic,” she said.
Fat Boy seemed to appreciate the moment’s irony and briefly put down the controls.
“Now it’s like we are playing a video game on the street,” he said with a sigh. 

“Except it’s real, and it’s not fun.”

Demonstrators faced police officers in Kowloon in August.

What keeps the months-long, massive Hong Kong protests going? "60 Minutes" reports

"When you lose freedom, you lose everything," a successful Hong Kong businessman says, explaining why he is part of the pro-democracy street protests
By Holly Williams

This weekend, as they have each weekend for the past four months, pro-democracy protesters took to the streets of Hong Kong, with a message meant to reverberate all the way to Beijing. 

CBS News foreign correspondent Holly Williams, on assignment for "60 Minutes," has been inside the crowds where hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, have joined these demonstrations.
Hong Kong is famous for its freewheeling capitalism. 

After 150 years as a British colony, the city returned to Chinese control in 1997. 

China promised Hong Kong partial autonomy for 50 years -- with an independent legal system, and freedom of speech guaranteed. 

But the Chinese government is now chipping away at those limited freedoms, so Hongkongers are demanding full democracy: the right to elect their own leaders, without interference from Beijing. Jimmy Lai speaks with Holly Williams while protesting in Hong Kong

Who are the protesters? 

And what are their chances of success?
To find out we went to Hong Kong, but to understand what's going on there, you have to start here in Beijing on October 1. 

They threw a carefully choreographed birthday party for the Chinese regime. 

It's been 70 years since the communists took power. 

The show of strength and stability by a rising superpower was also a warning to Hong Kong.
1,200 miles south, people were in no mood to celebrate. 

Hong Kongers are demanding unfettered democracy for their city of 7 million people. 

Many wear face masks to hide their identity from the police.
On the 70th anniversary, the march started peacefully as they normally do.
Holly Williams: You're right in the front.
Jimmy Lai: Yes, always.
At 71, Jimmy Lai has lived the Hong Kong dream. 

Born in mainland China, he fled the communists when he was 12 years old. 

He went from rags to riches, from a worker in a textile factory to a billionaire with a chain of fashion stores. 

And then this.
In 1989, when Chinese tanks massacred students in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, he got involved in politics, starting a media company in Hong Kong that isn't afraid to criticize the Chinese government.
Jimmy Lai: I like to participate in delivering information. Because I think information is freedom.
He told us Hong Kongers are demanding real democracy and are fighting to hold on to their basic human rights.
Jimmy Lai: The intention of the Chinese government taking away our freedom is so obvious that we know, if we don't fight, we will lose everything.
Holly Williams: What do you mean lose everything?
Jimmy Lai: When you lose the freedom, you lose everything. What do you have?
Holly Williams: I mean, you have a wonderful city. Prosperity.
Jimmy Lai: That's what Chinese think. That -- they think that we just have a body, we don't have a soul. "You guys just make money, have a good life. Don't think about politics. Don't think about freedom. Don't think about human right. Don't think about rule of law. Just -- just eat. Enjoy life."
Holly Williams: Why is that not enough?
Jimmy Lai: Because we -- we are human being. We have soul. We are not a dog.
And not willing to accept increasing interference from Beijing.
At the anniversary celebration, Chinese dictator Xi Jinping predicted a brighter future for Hong Kong -- but Hongkongers don't trust him.
This gentleman marched proudly with an American flag.
Holly Williams: This man is a refugee from mainland China. He says he swam here in 1962 and he hates the Chinese communist party.
Many of the protesters carry umbrellas. 

That started five years ago in previous demonstrations when they used umbrellas to protect themselves against pepper spray. 

Now the protesters even have their own anthem.
They've released this orchestral version. May freedom reign, go the lyrics. Glory be to thee, Hong Kong.
Jimmy Lai: We share the same value as you Americans. What we are fighting for is the first battle of the new cold war.
Holly Williams: The cold war between the U.S. and China.
Jimmy Lai: -- And China.
Holly Williams: And you're saying your values here in Hong Kong line up with the West?
Jimmy Lai: Yes, because of our -- our British past. They did not give us democracy. But they gave us the rule of law, the free market, the private property right, free press.
Holly Williams: And they have none of those in mainland China?
Jimmy Lai: No. They have none of those.Jimmy Lai

For Jimmy Lai, those values don't come cheap. 

The Chinese government has pressured companies not to advertise in his paper, he told us, costing him millions of dollars a year. 

That's why few business people here dare to criticize China's rulers.
Jimmy Lai: I take the responsibility to fight because this give me -- a meaning to my life.
This young woman, barely in her twenties, calls herself Paris. 

She dresses this way when she protests to protect her identity.
Paris: The people of Hong Kong have been subject to citywide terrorism.
For four months she's been on the front lines.
Paris: The risk I'm taking is pretty much ten years in jail on rioting charges, you know, maybe even more.
Holly Williams: Why are you willing to risk your future for these protests?
Paris: If Hong Kong doesn't have a future, then like, what is my future here? I can't see Hong Kong having a future you know if the movement fails.
Holly Williams: Are you and other protesters willing to risk death?
Paris: No. I'm not willing to die, but you know, I accept that it's a possibility. I think Hong Kong is at a point where things can't turn back, things can only escalate from here.

Paris

The protesters say the police keep overreacting, beating them when they're already down. 

When this group set upon police with metal rods, an officer shot one in the chest at point blank range. He survived, becoming one of more than a thousand protesters to be treated in hospitals. 

2000 have been arrested.
Paris: I think it's difficult when all we have are umbrellas, and police have many weapons at their disposal.
Holly Williams: You don't only have umbrellas. We saw protesters who were throwing petrol bombs. And we've seen—
Paris: Yeah, Molotov cocktails. I would say that the police have pushed us into doing this.
We watched protesters empty a suitcase full of molotov cocktails and set fire to a subway station. The Beijing government uses scenes like this to paint the protesters as rioters, paid off by foreign agents.
The protesters say they won't leave the streets until their demands are met, but the Hong Kong authorities don't want to give in. This is a stalemate and it's only the Chinese government in Beijing that can break it.
China has quietly doubled the size of its Hong Kong garrison in recent weeks. This video seems to be a thinly veiled threat about what Chinese troops might do.

Bernard Chan is a Hong Kong delegate to China's rubber-stamp legislature.
Holly Williams: For 30 years, the West has condemned China for the way that it handled the Tiananmen massacre in 1989. How do you think the world will view Beijing's response to these protests in 30 years' time?
Bernard Chan: I certainly believe that they do not want to see another repeat of what happened back in 1989. So I think that's why they still very much want Hong Kong police to handle our own problem.

The spark for these protests was a proposed law that could have seen people arrested in Hong Kong sent to mainland China, where Hong Kongers don't think they'd get a fair trial. 

Last month, the Hong Kong government finally withdrew the bill, by then though the protesters' demands had expanded to include full democracy.
Samson Yuen: This protest is all about politics. It's about values. It's about civic freedom.
Professor Samson Yuen is studying the protesters. 

His researchers have interviewed more than 13,000 of them. 

He told us most of them are young, middle class, and highly educated. With no official leaders, they organize through online forums.
Samson Yuen: People come up with tactical ideas on how to escalate a protest. How to be innovative. And people actually put this into action.
Holly Williams: Can you give me an example of that?
Samson Yuen: People come up with the idea of protesting at the airport. That idea get a lot of support so it turned into a real action.
Jimmy Lai, the dissident media mogul, says his relatives in mainland China have been threatened with arrest, unless he tempers his criticism. 

He refuses.
Jimmy Lai: I decide long time ago I'm not gonna be intimidated by fear. I say, "No. To hell with it." I'm not gonna think about consequences what I do. I just do what's right.
Lai says his home is under constant surveillance, an apparent attempt to frighten away visitors.

This week, China pressured people outside of Hong Kong; Apple took down an app that could help protesters evade police. Google dropped a game about the Hong Kong protests; and an NBA team executive apologized after tweeting support for the demonstrators.
But on the street, the government's intimidation tactics have backfired, according to professor Samson Yuen.
Samson Yuen: More people are joining the fights because of repeated police brutalities.
Holly Williams: Even the peaceful protesters think that perhaps violence is necessary.
Samson Yuen: Yes. I think definitely. It is not indiscriminate violence. It's more targeted at the police authorities or the government authorities. I think right now, the government is still trying to repress the protests and not willing to negotiate with the protesters.
The young protesters are idealistic, and perhaps naïve, but Jimmy Lai says they're Hong Kong's last chance for freedom.
Jimmy Lai: When I saw the kids went in the front and confront the police, I was very touched. I admire them.
Holly Williams: Why does it touch you?
Jimmy Lai: Because they risk their life to protect this place we call home.
Lai told us his generation has failed them.
Jimmy Lai: In the 30 years, we haven't done anything, the older generation, to secure the freedom, the way of life for our kids. And that's why now they have to stand up to fight for themselves.

Police Terrorism

Hong Kong protests: journalist blinded in one eye as attacks on media escalate

By Emma Graham-Harrison in Hong Kong


 A number of journalists have been injured in Hong Kong protests over the past week.

An Indonesian journalist hit in the face by a rubber bullet during protests in Hong Kong has been permanently blinded in one eye, her lawyer said, the most serious injury among the media since the movement began in June.
Adding to concerns about police tactics, a leaked memo showed authorities had relaxed guidelines on using lethal force the day before a teenage student shot in the chest by police.
Police have insisted the officer was acting "lawfully" in self defence, and the 18-year-old was charged with rioting and assaulting a police officer on Thursday.
There are growing concerns about the threat to journalists from the escalating violence, and an increasingly hostile climate that saw one reporter arrested on Tuesday, after several others were injured by police in a day of chaotic violence.
All were wearing high-visibility jackets and “press” markings.
Indonesian Veby Indah was injured during protests two days earlier, while standing with colleagues on an overpass, filming a livestream.
Police opened fire at relatively short range towards the group; footage shows someone shouting a warning “hey it’s journalists on this side”, but seconds later she was hit and collapsed to the ground.

Hong Kong: thousands protest over police shooting of teenager

She was later told that damage to her right eye was irreversible.
“Doctors treating Ms Indah have informed her that regrettably the injury she received as a result of being shot by police, will result in permanent blindness in her right eye,” her lawyer Michael Vidler said in a statement late on Wednesday.
“She was informed that the pupil of her eye was ruptured by the force of the impact. The exact percentage of permanent impairment can only be assessed after surgery”.
The 39-year-old is an associate editor of Suara Hong Kong News, a local outlet which serves the city’s Indonesian community.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association said it would investigate Vedy’s case.
“We are particularly concerned ... [because] the journalist was not in the immediate vicinity of protesters at the time of the incident, she was clearly identifiable as being a member of the press and was with a number of other journalists at the time also wearing high visibility press markings.”
The “one country, two systems” arrangement put in place when Hong Kong returned from British colonial rule to Chinese sovereignty protects freedom of the press, and the protests have been covered by hundreds of local and international reporters.
But police violence and heavy-handed policing is obstructing the media.
On Tuesday several journalists were injured in ‘day of grief’ protests called to mark China’s national day.
 Pang Pui Yin, a reporter for the Chinese-language news website Local Press, was arrested by police as they dispersed protesters in Mong Kok district, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Even though he was clearly identified as a member of the press corps, police initially accused him of unlawful assembly, then bailed him after alleging that he assaulted a police officer.
He has been released on bail, but the CPJ called for authorities to drop all charges, and “cease harassing journalists covering protests.”
Journalists who were injured that day include one working for public broadcaster RTHK, who was hit in the head with “some kind of projectile”.
In response the outlet’s English language unit withdrew all reporters from the ground.
Apple Daily said a tear gas canister hit one of its reporters in the stomach, and officers fired at but missed two of its team.
Stand News reported several injuries, including one journalist who was hit in the face by what was thought to be a sponge-tipped round.
Another was hit by a rubber bullet.
Police were also accused of pushing and shoving reporters, and one video posted online showed officers aiming a gun at the face of reporters, who were wearing “press” markings and high-visibility vests.
Protesters on Wednesday apologised for spraying corrosive material on a journalist while targeting police officers.
Police officials have not commented on media injuries.
The Hong Kong Journalists Association warned that journalists had a right to work without violence or obstruction.
“We strongly condemn all acts of violence against front-line journalists and urge the police to refrain from maliciously obstructing their regular interviews,” the Hong Kong Journalists Association sad in a statement.
“Anyone who intimidates or attacks front-line journalists on the ground seriously interferes with the freedom of the press and weakens the public’s right to know.”