Hong Kong erupted in a spate of violence over the weekend as pro-democracy protests in the city-state entered their fifth month, and as China promised to ramp up efforts to re-unify and re-educate Hong Kong residents.
At least 200 protesters were arrested over the weekend, Reuters reports, after setting fire to metro stations and vandalizing buildings, including the Hong Kong headquarters of Chinese state-run media.
“Cat-and-mouse clashes between riot police and demonstrators continued into the early hours of Sunday morning after police broke up an assembly of thousands on Saturday afternoon by firing tear gas into a park,” the news agency said.
Protesters are technically under a rally ban, but that didn’t stop thousands from showing up for the 22nd week in a row, to demonstrate against what they believe to be increased Chinese control over Hong Kong’s government, and China’s clear efforts to curb some of the freedoms Hong Kong residents enjoy.
As demonstrators took the streets on Saturday, police responded with force, deploying water cannons and, eventually, firing rounds of tear gas into the crowds, even though the protest was largely peaceful, and candidates for Hong Kong’s city council made appearances, in the hopes that law enforcement officials would consider the gathering a political question and answer session.
Protesters responded by increasing their own level of aggression, “smashing windows and the glass entrance door [at China’s Xinhua News Agency Hong Kong bureau], splashing red ink, spraying graffiti and setting a small fire in the lobby. Graffiti that was sprayed on the wall next to the entrance read ‘Deport the Chinese communists.'”
The pro-democracy city officials did not emerge unscathed. One, District Councilor Andrew Chiu, was seized “by the neck and shoulders” and part of his ear was bitten off by an unidentified man who had just finished a “stabbing spree” in the park where candidates for city office were holding court.
China responded to the weekend’s violence Monday by summoning Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, to Beijing. Both China and Lam are mum about the meeting, Foreign Policy reports, but China reportedly has a plan to replace Lam, who caved to protesters and shelved a bill that would have expanded China’s ability to investigate and detain political dissidents who seek shelter from the Chinese government in Hong Kong.
Last week, China also said that it plans to ramp up efforts to “integrate” Hong Kong “by strengthening patriotic education and overhauling how the city’s leader and other top officials are appointed and removed,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed, weeks ago, to “crush the bones” of anyone who foments pro-democracy leanings in Hong Kong, and China seems intent on following through on the threat, even if Hong Kong officials aren’t interested in further engaging protesters.
Those who support democracy in Hong Kong say the effort sounds more like re-indoctrination, and protesters say they aren’t giving up.
“Hong Kong seems to be trapped in a weekly cycle of unrest and repression, conflict between protesters and authorities, with no clear endgame on either side,” one observer told WSJ. “The protesters are not giving up as the government had hoped, while the government is taking no action at all to resolve the crisis.”