Hong Kong Tensions Rise Between Protesters, Opposition
By Choong En Han and Clement Tan
Oct 26, 2014 12:13 PM ET
27 Comments
Photographer: Brent Lewin/Bloomberg
A demonstrator uses plastic zip ties to secure a barricade on Nathan Road in the Mong Kok area of Hong Kong, China, on Oct. 22, 2014.
Tensions in Hong Kong rose as pro-democracy demonstrators and those opposed to the movement, which has blocked major thoroughfares, snarled traffic and disrupted businesses for a month, sought opinions on whether the protests should continue.
The protests, entering their fifth week, were sparked by China’s decision to exercise control over nominating procedures for the city’s first leadership election in 2017. Opponents say that would effectively let China choose the slate of candidates.
Protest leaders will hold a referendum today and tomorrow to decide on their demands, after talks with the government on Oct. 21 failed to resolve the impasse. People opposed to the disruption from demonstrations rallied last night in the Tsim Sha Tsui district to express their views.
“You can disagree, but you cannot just sit in the middle of the road,” said Betty Yung, 65, a retired principal who spoke on stage in Tsim Tsa Tsui. “This is not the right way to do things. What if the ambulance that’s supposed to bring me to the hospital ends up being stuck in traffic because the roads are blocked by the students?”
Benny Tai, founder of the Occupy Central With Love and Peace protest group, told reporters at the Legislative Council Complex last night that the referendum will indicate the direction supporters think the movement should take.
Vote Significance
“The significance of the vote this time, is to provide an opportunity for the supporters of the umbrella movement to indicate their stand on the issues put forward,” Tai said. “I still believe this is a democratic process we are working on, and I am confident we can continue to work on this democratic process to allow consensus to be built, even though we might have differences in opinion.”
There are two motions in the referendum, according to Occupy Central’s Twitter account: Whether to demand that a report by the Hong Kong government suggest that China’s central government review its Aug. 31 decision to vet candidates; and a call for the multiparty platform that handles political controversies to take charge of procedures for 2016 legislative elections and the 2017 chief executive vote.
The vote is meant to enable demonstrators to express their stance and put pressure on the government, Tai told assembled protesters in the Admiralty district Oct. 24. The referendum isn’t a mechanism to get people off the streets, he said.
Leung Adamant
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying reiterated his refusal to resign as he attended a function at the Hong Kong International Airport. Protest leaders and lawmaker James Tien have called for him to step down, saying the people have lost trust in the government.
“I will not resign,” Leung said in comments broadcast on Cable TV yesterday. “We will need to go back to the existing legal framework to solve Hong Kong’s current issues. Anyone who has a different political view will have to go through the legal framework and not using illegal ways to express their views.”
Hong Kong’s High Court extended until Oct. 27 interim injunctions banning pro-democracy protesters from defending their barricades, as police said events were turning chaotic.
High Court Judge Thomas Au ruled Oct. 24 to continue the injunctions over the weekend, until a hearing to revoke them resumes on Monday. Although the police weren’t instructed by the court to remove barriers, the injunctions forbid protesters from intervening with their removal by third parties, raising the potential for renewed violence.
‘Lawful Action’
Two injunctions were filed on Oct. 20 by an association of taxi drivers and a minibus company at a protest site in Mong Kok, and a third by a property company controlled by Chinese state-backed Citic Ltd. (267) at the main site in Admiralty.
As the injunction hearings are civil suits, plaintiffs have the right to take “lawful action” to remove the barricades, Hui said Oct. 24.
Tung Chee-hwa, Hong Kong’s first chief executive after the city reverted to Chinese rule, on Oct. 24 called on pro-democracy protesters to end their street occupations or risk damaging the city’s economy.
Should they continue, the economy will get “hurt very badly,” Tung told reporters. Student leaders should return to talks with the government, he said.
“I’d like to hope that the students would come back to the table, certainly I think the door is open on the other side,” Tung said.
Occupy protest leaders are in talks with pro-democracy on a plan for mass resignations to force a de facto referendum on political reform, Alex Chow, secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, said yesterday, according to the South China Morning Post.
If lawmakers from each of the city’s five geographical constituencies resign, the government would have to hold by-elections that would serve as such a referendum, the report cited Chow as saying.
To contact the reporters on this story: Choong En Han in Kuala Lumpur at
echoong6@bloomberg.net; Clement Tan in Hong Kong at ctan297@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Stanley James at sjames8@bloomberg.net
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