Hong Kong protests: Police clash with democracy protesters for a second day ahead of talks
Updated 27 minutes ago
Photo: A policeman holding a baton advances towards pro-democracy protesters on a street in the Mong Kok district. (AFP/Ed Jones)
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Pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong are continuing to protest after violent clashes erupted in Hong Kong early on Sunday ahead of talks with the territory's embattled government this week.
Protests are now in their fourth week with no sign of a resolution, despite a meeting between government and student protest leaders scheduled for Tuesday.
Beijing signalled through Hong Kong's leaders it was not willing to reverse a decision in August that effectively denies the financial hub the full democracy the protesters are demanding.
"Unless there is some kind of breakthrough in two hours of talks on Tuesday, I'm worried we will see the stand-off worsen and get violent," Sonny Lo, a professor at the Hong Kong Institute of Education said.
"We could be entering a new and much more problematic stage. I hope the government has worked out some compromises, because things could get very difficult now."
Hong Kong's 28,000-strong police force has been struggling to contain a youth-led movement that shows little sign of waning.
Demonstrators in the Mong Kok district launched a fresh assault early on Sunday, putting on helmets and goggles before surging forward to grab a line of metal barricades that were hemming them in.
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Hundreds of police officers hit out at a wall of umbrellas that protesters raised to fend off police pepper spray.
Protesters screamed and hurled insults and violent scuffles erupted before police surged forward with riot shields, forcing the protesters back.
"Black Police! Black Police!" protesters shouted.
One activist in a white T-shirt and goggles was hit with a flurry of baton blows, leaving him bleeding from a gash in the head. Several protesters were taken away.
Senior policeman at the scene Paul Renouf said 400 to 500 officers were deployed to force the crowds about 20 metres back from their original position near an intersection.
Dozens of people were reportedly injured in the two nights of clashes, including 22 police officers. Four people were arrested early on Sunday, police said.
The clashes came hours after Hong Kong's pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying called for the talks which will be broadcast live.
On Sunday, Mr Leung said more time was needed to broker what he hoped would be a non-violent end to the upheaval.
"To work out a solution, to put an end to this problem, we need time. We need time to talk to the people, particularly young students," he told Hong Kong's ATV television station.
"What I want is to see a peaceful and a meaningful end to this problem."
Pro-democracy protests raised in talks between US, China
The situation in Hong Kong surfaced in weekend talks between US secretary of state John Kerry and Chinese state councillor Yang Jiechi in Boston.
Pro-democracy protestors write messages of support
Photo: Messages of support for pro-democracy protestors are written on small paper umbrellas in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong. (AFP/Nicolas Asfouri)
A senior state department official said Hong Kong was discussed as part of "candid exchanges" on human rights while a Chinese foreign ministry statement said Mr Yang had told Mr Kerry that no country should interfere in Hong Kong, because it was "purely an internal affair of China".
Hong Kong is ruled under a "one country, two systems" formula that allows it wide-ranging autonomy and freedoms and specifies universal suffrage for Hong Kong as an eventual goal.
But Beijing is wary about copycat demands for reform on the mainland and it ruled on August 31 it would screen candidates who want to run for the city's chief executive in 2017.
Democracy activists said that rendered the universal suffrage concept meaningless. They are demanding free elections.
Hong Kong's Security Chief Lai Tung-kwok said some of the clashes in recent days had been initiated by activists affiliated to "radical organisations which have been active in conspiring, planning and charging violent acts".
The city's embattled police chief, Andy Tsang, also expressed his frustration when he broke three weeks of silence on Saturday to say "extremely tolerant" policing had not stopped protests becoming more "radical or violent".
In Mong Kok, protesters resting during the day on Sunday were defiant and also angry that the city government was portraying their campaign as increasingly radicalised and violent.
Besides Mong Kok, about 1,000 protesters remain camped out on Hong Kong Island in a sea of tents on an eight-lane highway beneath skyscrapers close to government headquarters.
Reuters
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