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Police officers arrest an Apple Daily cameraman in Mong Kok. Photo: Felix Wong
A photographer from the Chinese-language Apple Daily was handcuffed and taken away by police while covering the so-called “re-occupation” protest in Mong Kok on Thursday night.
Police said the man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting police and resisting arrest. He was released on bail on Friday morning.
Speaking to the press, the photographer Wong Chun-lung said he was only shooting video when he was being led away by officers. He was taken to North Point police station to assist investigations.
The incident took place near Sai Yeung Choi Street South at about 8pm.
Video footage taken by the Apple Daily saw Wong being wrestled to the ground by six to seven police officers. In the two-minute-11-second footage posted on the newspaper’s website, police officers also pushed away reporters who flocked to the scene to cover the incident.
His colleague, Lam Po-yick, another photographer from the newspaper, claimed police had also threatened to arrest him and accused him of touching an officer’s gun as he was being chased away from a police cordon.
He told Cable TV: “I told the officer that I was holding my camera with my two hands. How could I have touched his gun? The next moment, I saw Wong being pushed away by several police officers.”
He claimed both he and Wong had been wearing the press badges at the time.
Police said in a statement that Wong “repeatedly hit an officer’s face” with his video camera.
The staff union of Next Media – the parent company of the Apple Daily, criticised the arrest for being unreasonable, saying it “would seriously affect press freedoms”.
The Hongkong Press Photographers Association expressed “extreme anger and regret” over the incident. “The police have once again threatened reporters by means of arresting them. This will affect normal news reporting work … and endanger the safety of journalists,” the group said in a statement.
The Apple Daily reported that Wong had also been involved in a minor dispute with an officer in Mong Kok on Wednesday night when he was covering clashes between police and protesters.
It has been the second case in as many days in which a journalist has been arrested by police while covering the occupation protests in Mong Kok.
On Tuesday night, a Now TV engineer allegedly assaulted a police officer and was arrested. He was freed unconditionally late on Wednesday night.
Re: HK Protest Leaders High! Demands Talks With 11 Jinping In Peking!
Police slammed over 'violence' in Mong Kok
Protesters complain of officers punching, kicking and smacking them on the head with batons during operation to clear Mong Kok
Occupy Central protesters continue their sit-in on Soy Street in Mong Kok early yesterday morning. Photo: Felix Wong
An officer caught on video hitting peaceful protesters with his baton will be removed from the current operation, police said last night after the force came under fire for abusing its power and using "disproportionate" force to disperse Occupy Central activists in Mong Kok.
Pro-democracy demonstrators yesterday recounted the police hostility they experienced during the two-day clearance operation at the occupied zone.
"Officers pinned me down, limiting my movement, causing wounds to my face and neck," said Joshua Wong Chi-fung, convenor of student group Scholarism, who was among the 169 people arrested. "They even attempted six or seven times to hurt my body, including my private parts."
Lester Shum, of the Federation of Students, said officers smacked his head with a baton, punched him and kicked him while trying to arrest him on Tuesday. His head was pushed against the ground, he added.
Shum's account was similar to that of the League of Social Democrats' Raphael Wong Ho-ming, who said police pinned him down and stepped on his head. People Power's Tam Tak-chi said his eye became bloodshot after an officer pushed his head to the ground.
A video by broadcaster DBC showed police dealing with people who appeared to be peacefully leaving the occupied zone. The video showed an officer using his baton to hit two people walking by on their back and waist, and another using a shield to push a man.
A police officer uses a baton on a protester in Mong Kok. Photo: SCMP
"Our anxieties and concerns go particularly to police who apparently exercised disproportionate powers and used disproportionate force on civilians," Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said, while calling for protesters to exercise restraint.
Labour Party lawmaker Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung, who has made known that he has a mentally disabled daughter, said he was verbally abused by police while observing the situation in Mong Kok.
"I nodded to an officer, but he said, 'Don't you nod to me. Go home and take care of your daughter, she's sick," Cheung said. "I feel very sad. Some officers are filled with hatred."
The Professional Teachers' Union slammed Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's administration for not compromising over Hong Kong's political reform, resulting in a breakdown of trust between police and the people.
A police officer pins people to the ground in an effort to arrest them. Photo: Felix Wong
In the small hours yesterday, hundreds of protesters repeatedly tried to re-occupy roads hours after traffic on Nathan Road returned to normal. Police and the crowd engaged in a fair bit of pushing and shoving.
One man was left with a bloodied head and several others were subdued and taken away. Police reinforcements were sent and red flags raised, warning people against charging.
A police spokesman said a minimum level of force was used after protesters failed to comply with multiple warnings, tried to block the roads, charged at police lines and incited others to provoke the officers.
He said the officer seen hitting people with his baton in the DBC video would be "removed from the current operation" and called for information to help the force investigate the matter.
Larry Kwok Lam-kwong, chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Council, declined to comment on whether the police had used excessive force, as it had yet to receive reports about the whole situation.
The IPCC said the police's in-house watchdog, the Complaints Against Police Office, had received 13 complaints regarding the Mong Kok clearance on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Owners of street-level shops in Mong Kok are pessimistic of a return to pre-Occupy business levels unless mainland tourists return en masse - though those based on upper floors said they saw no loss of trade until police moved in to end the two-month protest this week.
Traffic was moving freely along Nathan Road through the heart of the commercial hub yesterday after the pro-democracy protesters were removed. But among shopkeepers, many of whom have seen rents soar in recent years, passions continued to run high.
"If the officers would lend me a gun, I would have gone to Nathan Road and shot all those useless youths dead," said the owner of a leather shoe shop on Portland Street.
The 65-year-old, who has run his business in Mong Kok for 35 years, said the past two months had been the "worst ever". He had seen monthly revenue halved to about HK$150,000 and was forced to let two employees go last month.
Mainland visitors, the biggest buyers of his high-end products, were too scared to go to Mong Kok during the Occupy protests, he said.
Asked for his view on the protesters' cause, he added: "I don't care who the emperor is as long as there is rice in my bowl."
For the owner of a newsstand on Shanghai Street, the protests attracted the "wrong crowd" - ironic, given most of her profits came from selling books banned on the mainland to tourists.
"Everyone was attracted to the show on the street and no one was in the mood to spend," she said, adding that business fell by about a third in the first two weeks of the protest before bouncing back, at least until this week's street clearances. "Now I am only hoping they [mainland visitors] will come back soon."
But two upstairs bookstores, both of which devote much of their space to political gossip books beloved of mainland shoppers, saw little loss of trade except at the beginning and end of the protest.
"The customers we attract are more daring, after all they have to smuggle the books back," said a shopkeeper at one of them, on Sai Yeung Choi Street South. "Many mainland tourists know how to adjust and when it is safer to come and shop."
DAB lawmaker Gary Chan says it would be a problem if NDI trained others how to mobilise people.
Beijing loyalists have been eager to accuse leaders of the Occupy movement of allying with "external forces" - but one American group often linked to the protests has, in fact, been working with the city's leading pro-establishment party.
The US-based National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) confirmed that, over the past decade, members of Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong had joined its events.
"NDI has conducted numerous consultations and workshops for political parties in Hong Kong," it said. "Representatives from the DAB have participated."
The workshops, for candidates and party members, covered topics such as campaigning, media relations, public speaking and voter outreach.
NDI, which is often named when pro-Beijing politicians and media accuse foreign powers of pulling Occupy's strings, has had an office in the city for 17 years. It says it has no relations with the protests and its only activity in the past year has been funding a "neutral" website on democracy.
NDI is funded by the US Congress via the National Endowment for Democracy, which also provides funds to Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor and Solidarity Centre, a Washington-based body that gave grants to the pan-democratic Confederation of Trade Unions.
DAB lawmaker Gary Chan Hak-kan said NDI had held "one or two" seminars on "elections and theories" a few years ago.
"It's all right to talk about theories," said Chan. "But you do not know what they did with other parties. It would be a problem if they provided funding, trained others how to mobilise people and incited them to revolt."
Legislative Council president and DAB leading light Jasper Tsang Yok-sing directed the Post to other lawmakers when contacted about his party's relations with the NDI. He told Chinese-language media that there was collaboration with the NDI, including training and discussion of democratic development.
Tsang did reveal involvement by another US group, which suggested the slogan used by the party since 2005 to recruit candidates: "A party with a future".
"It came from a campaign expert of a group that helped women run for elections. We adopted it. But I don't remember the name. It was not NDI," he said.
Democratic Party member Lee Wing-tat said DAB members were at an NDI seminar he attended in the early 2000s.
Referring to rumours many DAB members were Communist Party members, he said: "If they say holding seminars is equal to interfering in Hong Kong affairs, did NDI support the Communists too? It is nonsense to make a conspiracy theory out of this kind of interaction."
Re: HK Protest Leaders High! Demands Talks With 11 Jinping In Peking!
After Mong Kok clearance, students vow to target government buildings
In wake of the Mong Kok clearance, they say government buildings are now in their sights
This Mong Kok jeweller reopened with special offers to tempt customers - but without much luck. Photo: Edward Wong
The Federation of Students has threatened to set its sights on government buildings in response to the police clearance of the Occupy camp in Mong Kok following violent overnight clashes.
"The further actions include a possibility of some escalations pointed at government-related buildings or some government-related departments," federation core member Yvonne Leung Lai-kwok said yesterday.
A possible target is said to be a footbridge leading to the government headquarters in Admiralty.
At a meeting on Wednesday, pan-democrats and Occupy founders had advocated ending the occupation.
A court hearing yesterday left a number of student leaders and activists unable to return to the cleared protest site in Kowloon, as the Occupy movement for universal suffrage entered Day 61.
Thirty-one defendants - including Scholarism's Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the student federation's Lester Shum and the League of Social Democrats' "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung and Raphael Wong Ho-ming - faced charges at Kowloon City Court, mostly obstructing bailiffs.
All disputed a condition, sought by the prosecution, that they be barred from re-entering an area in Mong Kok bound by Fa Yuen Street to the east, Dundas Street to the south, Shanghai Street to the west and Mong Kok Road to the north. They said it covered a wider area than specified in previous injunctions granted by the High Court.
Shum's lawyer Alvin Yeung said it was "disproportionate".
Leung, representing himself, said his freedom was reduced by five-fold as the new injunction area had increased by five times.
Principal Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen ruled all cases in the prosecution's favour.
A total of 169 people were arrested during the two-day Mong Kok operation this week, including a 29-year-old customs officer on sick leave, who was held for possessing weapons and unlawful assembly in Nathan Road at about 11pm on Wednesday.
A police source said his rucksack was found to contain a 20cm-long flick knife and a 30cm-long wooden knife together with a respirator and a helmet with a label declaring, "fighting for true universal suffrage".
Police were also probing 10 online messaging platforms including HKGolden.com, WeChat and Line that were used to mobilise people to reoccupy the Mong Kok protest zone, according to another source.
Last night, more than 100 people gathered in Sai Yeung Choi Street South. An Apple Daily video photographer was pushed to the ground, handcuffed, and arrested. He was the second journalist arrested in the Mong Kok operation, with a Now TV engineer who was held for assaulting police released yesterday.
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said if people stopped occupying the streets, "we won't need to consider using an injunction" and police to restore order.
Chris Lau, Joyce Ng, Clifford Lo, Samuel Chan, Danny Mok, Peter So
For now, the central government arguably has no appetite for turmoil in Hong Kong. Photo: Bloomberg
The Hong Kong pro-democracy protests are now entering their third month, against a background of the police clearing demonstration sites and arresting student protesters. That's not a good sign.
Hong Kong's many local businesses have already been struggling with a sluggish economy. Recently, the government set its forecast for annual growth at 2.2 per cent, against a global average of 3.3 per cent. If the rallies are protracted, or more violent clashes break out, the impact will extend to the wider economy, not just the catering, retail and transport trades, hitting investor confidence and even employment.
When students block roads, occupy streets and disrupt the livelihood of other residents, they probably don't take those very real matters into account. Beijing has been betting that Hong Kong's silent majority, who have to make money for daily life, won't be willing to accept the heavy price, eventually. Independent polls now show people overwhelmingly oppose continued occupation. It sounds as if Beijing may well be on the winning side.
The protests, however, pose a huge political challenge for the Chinese leadership, at a time when it is dealing with a daunting array of problems on the mainland: it is trying to ensure a tepid economy - by Chinese standards - does not fall below the government's 7 per cent floor for growth while fighting terrorism in Xinjiang and driving an anti-corruption campaign that has rattled powerful vested interests.
Any big misstep could provide ammunition for the party's diehard conservatives who are unhappy about the corruption crackdown and other reform policies. Although President Xi Jinping's corruption fight is immensely popular with ordinary Chinese, it's hard to say how successful it will be in the long run, due to a lack of checks and balances.
For now, the central government arguably has no appetite for turmoil in Hong Kong. Xi may well be keeping a close eye on the situation, and a variety of proposals are under discussion behind closed doors. Full of anxiety, the leadership also wishes to find a face-saving solution to end the unrest, in case it sets off a chain reaction.
The trouble has been largely of Beijing's own making. In the early 1980s, Deng Xiaoping formulated the "one country, two systems" principle for the transfer of sovereignty. In accordance with that, the Basic Law accords the former British colony a high degree of autonomy and promises universal suffrage as an eventual goal, a deal that China's leaders hoped would one day be extended to Taiwan.
Yet, after witnessing what has happened in Hong Kong, Taiwanese are justified in worrying about suffering the same problems in the event of reunification. As everyone knows, today's Hong Kong is tomorrow's Taiwan. So the dream of achieving a peaceful reunification seems out of reach.
For Hong Kong, it needs to return to normal for the sake of its economy. Democracy is, after all, a gradual process. Of course, it's hard for the student protesters to walk away empty-handed. There are still feasible choices for both sides to break the deadlock - such as negotiating a truly representative nominating committee - even though none is perfect. Mutual concessions are vital.
Over 30 years ago, as Deng was pushing for reform and opening up in an impoverished China, he famously proposed letting some people get rich first. As a result, the economy got off to a good start and China is now the world's second-largest economy through hard work. And Deng is acclaimed as one of China's greatest leaders.
So why can't Xi try the same approach and let some people have democracy first? That would also be a good start.
Bill Xiang Yang is an independent investor living in China
Michael Chugani says the conduct of some Occupy protesters in Mong Kok is a good indication of why support for the movement is waning
Michael Chugani
The movement wants a political solution. Political solutions are only possible when there is give and take. Photo: Bloomberg
Isn't Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying supposed to be the loathed lapdog who deliberately misrepresented Hong Kong's democratic aspirations to his Beijing bosses? So how come his popularity has suddenly climbed when political strife continues to tear Hong Kong apart? Even his administration's popularity has rebounded. There's a message there somewhere.
Can it be that people are starting to like Leung? Or is it that they are getting sick of Hong Kong being held hostage in the name of democracy? Either way, it spells trouble for the umbrella movement. It's losing the moral high ground it captured at the start. The movement's message has since become so garbled it is on course to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Polls by two universities show Leung's approval rating rising, by 4.3 points and 4.1 points, to 44.7 and 42.7 respectively out of 100 points. A slew of other recent polls showed more than 70 per cent of people now want the occupation protest to end.
Why are Hongkongers suddenly turning against a democracy movement that, just two months ago, captured the world's imagination? The simple answer is that they're starting to see things more clearly as they become less blinded by fury over the police tear-gassing of protesters. If we dare to be honest with ourselves, this was never a totally peaceful movement, although no one wanted to say so. Those who did were derided as anti-democrats.
Forget about the movement's radicals who rammed the Legislative Council's doors; anyone who watched with honest eyes this week's clearance of the Mong Kok occupy site would agree not all protesters peacefully complied with the court injunction. On both Tuesday and Wednesday, some provoked the police, others confrontationally quibbled over the exact boundaries of the court injunction, and radical protesters returned at night to clash with police.
When police used pepper spray and batons to disperse the agitators, they were accused of violence against peaceful protesters. The movement is losing support because people are now seeing it for what it has evolved into - a leaderless and disorganised movement that has squandered its moral authority, hurt the livelihoods of ordinary people and made a mockery of our rule of law.
Didn't the original script call for peaceful occupation without resisting arrest? So why did the Mong Kok protesters don goggles and hard hats instead of respecting the court injunction by voluntarily leaving or letting the police arrest them without resisting? It is pointless now for recriminations as to who turned violent first - the students who scaled the security fence of government headquarters, which then drew thousands to the streets demanding their release, or the police, who fired tear gas at surging crowds.
But it is disingenuous for the pan-democrats to say Leung has turned the police force into a political tool. The movement wants a political solution. Political solutions are only possible when there is give and take, not when one side insists its demands must be met. The movement is losing public support because it is losing the moral argument.
Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung meets the press outside Kowloon City Court on Thursday. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
The two student groups which lead Occupy Central protests will not attempt to retake Mong Kok, Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung said today, as such a plan is not likely to succeed under a heavy police presence.
Speaking during a Commercial Radio programme this morning, Wong also urged other protesters not to try to reoccupy Mong Kok, as police were using unnecessary force on people in the district.
He said that now even passers-by in Mong Kok could be hit by police batons.
“The police are over the top in the degree of force they are using. Their attitude is bad,” he said.
Wong said that by not retaking Mong Kok, protesters would also show the Occupy campaign had good intentions to reduce its negative impact on residents’ lives while pressing the government to meet their demands.
“It is the government – not the public – that we want to pressure,” he said.
Wong has been barred by a court from entering areas surrounding the previous protest site in Mong Kok. He is on bail and charged with obstructing a public officer in performing his duty when bailiffs and police cleared the protest site in the district on Wednesday. A previous charge of contempt of court against him has been dropped.
Wong said the student groups will insist on their demands that the central government retract its August 31 decision on the city’s political reform and that Hong Kong start over its consultation on political reform.
Speaking on the same programme was a man who was shown on video being hit by a senior police officer with a baton.
A video by broadcaster DBC showed police marshalling people who appeared to be leaving the occupied zone peacefully. The video showed a superintendent using his baton to hit two people walking by on their back and waist, and another using a shield to push a man.
The man, who identified himself as Osman, said he was not a protester and was “just passing by” at the time.
“I said at the time: ‘Don’t hit us. We are just passers-by. Here are members of the public and many girls’. Then I was hit twice,” he said.
Osman said his neck was injured and that he doubted if the police in Mong Kok were now fit to carry out their duty.
“I seriously doubt if they can control their emotions well. If they cannot, can they fully discharge their duty? I really doubt it,” he said.
Osman said he would refrain from going to Mong Kok now.
“Mong Kok is actually a good place for leisure to me. But after that incident I am now a little scared of Mong Kok,” he said.
Police took to the streets of Mong Kok on Friday night to stage a show of force in a bid to prevent crowds of protesters from gathering in the vicinity to re-occupy roads as night fell.
Multiple clashes between pro-democracy protesters and police officers took place over the previous two nights, prompting police to forcibly push crowds back onto the pavement following the clearance of the Occupy camp in Mong Kok.
Police formed a cordon along a section of Sai Yeung Choi South Street as hundreds of protesters gathered on both sides of pavement, chanting “We want genuine universal suffrage” and “We want shopping” – a reference to Chief Executive C.Y. Leung’s call for Hongkongers to return to Mong Kok to revitalise the area by shopping.
Protesters also flashed the three-fingered salute from the movie The Hunger Games that symbolised resistance to totalitarian rule from time to time.
At the junction of Soy Street and Sai Yeung Choi South Street, a large crowd repeatedly crossed the road in an attempt to slow down traffic, despite repeated appeals from police to keep the road clear.
“Please cooperate and move back to the pavement and do not block the road,” a policewoman said through a loudhailer before being drowned out by jeering from the crowd.
At 8.45pm, about a hundred protesters moved away from Sai Yeung Choi South Street to Argyle Street along Nathan Road – prompting the police to set up cordon line and a brief stand-off ensued at the junction of Nathan Road and Argyle Street for about fifteen minutes.
Meanwhile, a young Hong Kong Catholic who once took a selfie with Pope Francis was confirmed as being one of the more than 100 people arrested at the pro-democracy protest site in Mong Kok earlier this week, the Catholic Herald reported on Friday.
The report said Giovanni Pang, who met the pontiff when he visited South Korea in August, was arrested on Tuesday night when he went to the protest site to help students as bailiffs removed barriers.
His friend Henry Chan, a radio DJ, wrote to Pope Francis on Facebook after Pang was arrested. According to the London-based Roman Catholic newspaper, the Hong Kong diocese sent a representative to the police station to check on Pang’s situation.
When they met in South Korea, Pope Francis avoided answering the teenager’s question about the “control and oppression” of Catholics in China.
Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi later said the pope had decided to avoid political topics during the pastoral event.
Umbrella Movement supporters including lawmakers Leung Kwok-hung and Albert Chan Wai-yip, protest outside High Court, while the court deals with criminal contempt cases involved in the Mong Kok injunctions. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
The High Court on Friday approved the Department of Justice’s application for more time to consider whether to proceed with cases against 23 people arrested for criminal contempt during the clearance of Mong Kok roads on Tuesday.
The department said it was waiting for police to provide more evidence before it decided whether to go ahead with the cases.
Only 21 of those arrested appeared in court, as police could not reach two of them. The case has been adjourned to January 5 next year.
Explaining the purpose of yesterday’s hearing, Court of First Instance judge Mr Justice Anderson Chow Ka-ming said he was not dealing with whether the arrestees had actually obstructed the bailiffs as they executed court injunctions, which would constitute contempt.
Rather, he was simply considering the department’s request for more time.
He said those who were arrested for criminal contempt should be brought to court “as soon as practicable” as ordered by another High Court judge, Mr Justice Thomas Au Hing-cheung, who granted the injunctions.
The 23 people were arrested when bailiffs executed injunctions sought by Chiu Luen Public Light Bus Company to clear Argyle Street, said deputy director of public prosecutions Wesley Wong Wai-chung. The court heard that 17 of them were charged with obstructing public officers in the execution of their duty.
Wong said another 32 people had been arrested for contempt on the same day when bailiffs enforced another injunction sought by two taxi associations.
Asked by Chow to make a submission in reply to the department’s request for more time, one of the arrestees, lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, said: “I think the case should be stayed permanently.”
He said the police “should bring the real criminals to justice, instead of asking the court to handle political matters.”
Another arrestee said, “I was walking a bit slowly, and two offences came upon me,” per a court interpreter.
The lawyers for the department declined the press’s request for all of the names of the arrestees.
Russian feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot made a surprise appearance at the Admiralty occupy site tonight via a projected image. Photo: SCMP
Russian feminist punk rock protest group Pussy Riot made a surprise appearance at the Admiralty occupy site tonight via a projected image.
The group, known for its open opposition to Russian president Vladimir Putin, told Occupiers to "add oil" in an image sent via Stand By You: Add Oil Machine for Hong Kong Occupiers, which projects messages sent from all over the world onto the wall of government headquarters.
The image had six masked members of Pussy Riot holding umbrellas and a sign that says Occupy Hong Kong, along a message "Shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand."
Artist Sampson Wong, creator of the machine, said this was an upgraded version of the Add Oil Machine. He said the project has collaborated with The Voice Project and Human Rights in China to seek support from international celebrities to create a "2.0 version" in light of the two-month anniversary of the Occupy protests.
Other celebrities who will appear include Peter Gabriel, Iron & Wine, Samantha Mathis and Mario Batali. Wong said Hong Kong celebrities would also make an appearance over the weekend.
Hong Kong Tramways staff repair and maintain the vehicles at the Sai Wan Ho tram depot. Photo: Edward Wong
Hong Kong Tramways has urged pro-democracy demonstrators to release its occupied track in Causeway Bay, saying it had lost 3.9 million passengers and HK$7.8 million in revenue during the Occupy Central movement.
But Tramways managing director Emmanuel Vivant ducked a question on whether the company would follow Mong Kok transport operators in seeking court injunctions to have the road cleared.
"We are exploring our best options," he said. "At the moment, we are focused on addressing the situation and trying to deliver the best service."
Vivant said five of the company's six routes remained disrupted, with 50 trams on the eastern side unable to return to a main depot for maintenance.
"We have taken a proactive and sincere approach and tried to appeal to the protesters to lift the blockade," he said. "But we could not reach a consensus with the Causeway Bay protesters despite repeated discussions."
Protesters block a tram route. Photo: Dickson Lee
Tramways reached an agreement with Admiralty protesters to unblock the Queensway section, and services to Happy Valley resumed on October 14.
But it said the occupation of Yee Woo Street in Causeway Bay had left 50 vehicles unable to return to the main repair depot in Whitty Street, Western District.
Contingency measures introduced yesterday allow part of the maintenance work to be done at a secondary depot in Sai Wan Ho.
The measures include using crane-equipped trucks to transport tram bogies to the Whitty Street site for detailed maintenance before carrying them back to Sai Wan Ho for installation.
Senior engineering manager Steven Chan Shih-Yao said the company had prepared for the move for 10 days, and that the work cost about HK$200,000.
But four trams still stood idle as they were in need of major repairs that could be done only at the Whitty Street depot
Vivant said the company had lost up to 55,000 passengers a day since the Occupy movement started in late September.
Before its Admiralty section reopened, the company was losing 45 per cent of its passengers, but this had been trimmed to 25 per cent, he said.
"Hong Kong Tramways pledges that safety will not be compromised in its effort in maintaining the best possible services," its statement said.
Pan-democrats said Carrie Lam failed to respond to their pleas.
Hopes of concessions to break the stalemate of Occupy Central - which blew up again last night - have been dealt a setback with Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor not responding to pleas at a meeting with pan-democrats.
The lawmakers confirmed to the Post yesterday that they held a breakfast meeting with the chief secretary on Thursday but failed to get a response.
Chaos erupted late last night near the pro-democracy protest sites in Mong Kok, where bailiffs had earlier removed barricades after the two-month sit-in.
Hundreds of people gathered near the junction of Argyle Street and Sai Yeung Choi Street South, with many urging police to let them cross the cordoned road. Police swiftly pushed them back, triggering clashes.
Police warned protesters not to charge, to no avail, then used pepper spray and batons to disperse the crowd. Dozens of people were taken away.
Referring to the meeting, Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit said: "We told Mrs Lam that the government must create circumstances that are conducive to ending the 'umbrella movement'. But she gave us no response at all on this."
Lawmakers Ronny Tong Ka-wah, Albert Ho Chun-yan, Lee Cheuk-yan and Kenneth Leung also attended the meeting at Lam's residence on The Peak.
"Nothing we discussed gave us any reason to feel that the August 31 decision will be changed in any way. We will veto the reform proposal." Leong said, not quoting Lam exactly as it was a prior agreement of the meeting.
On August 31, Beijing laid down a restrictive framework for Hong Kong's 2017 chief executive election, giving a 1,200-strong committee exclusive power to nominate hopefuls.
The informal meeting was set up a month after the pan-democrats made a request to talk. Leong said legislators felt they had a role to play in talking to the government in the current stalemate, as Lam had said there was no room for further dialogue with student leaders of Occupy.
A source close to the group said Lam "gave no timetable" for clearing the Admiralty and Causeway Bay protest sites, hinting the government would rather wait for the protests to die down.
The Federation of Students will hold an assembly in Admiralty tomorrow. It asked protesters to bring goggles, helmets and umbrellas.
Protesters hold lights and banner saying "I want universal suffrage" in Admiralty. Photo: Felix Wong
I refer to the article by Stephen Vines ("The real radicals want core Hong Kong values cast aside", November 22).
He said that when talking to the Occupy Central protesters, especially the students, he kept hearing, "We don't want Hong Kong to become just another Chinese city." Vines said the protesters wanted to preserve the characteristics that made Hong Kong unique among Chinese cities, which is the rule of law and freedom.
He then said there were people in Hong Kong who "shout very loudly about the need for adherence to the 'one country, two systems' principle but, in practice, focus only on the 'one country' part of this equation". He said these people wanted the city to become a place where the major decisions were made by the central government, and where core values that distinguish Hong Kong from the mainland system were "cast aside". Such people supported "Beijing's ruling on the future of constitutional reform, even though the Basic Law prominently asserts the 'high degree of autonomy' vested in the government of Hong Kong".
Vines gives the impression that people who support Beijing's ruling on constitutional reform are against freedom and the rule of law in Hong Kong. This is an unfair accusation levelled at those of us who support the Basic Law, which clearly states that chief executive candidates must be nominated by a nomination committee.
The Occupy protesters say the nomination committee will block candidates because of their political leanings. The composition of the nomination committee has not even been decided. Instead of endlessly blocking streets, wouldn't the protesters achieve more by coming up with ideas outlining how the nomination committee members can be elected in the most democratic way?
Even if the committee is formed along the lines of the 2012 election committee, we have to remember that this did not stop Albert Ho Chun-yan from becoming a candidate back then.
The central government has said many times that chief executive candidates must "love Hong Kong and love China". It also said that not all pan-democratic politicians fail this test of patriotism.
Is it not more constructive that the pan-democrats and the students identify such a potential chief executive candidate among themselves and put their efforts into getting this candidate nominated by the nomination committee, rather than engaging in disruptive protests that will get them nowhere?
Pro-democracy protesters imitate a three-finger salute from the movie "The Hunger Games", at Mong Kok shopping district. Photo: Reuters
Mong Kok has, thankfully, returned to normal at last. Order has been restored after several days of clashes between defiant protesters and police officers during a series of clearance operations along Nathan Road and Argyle Street. True, there were some disturbing scenes and finger-pointing. But the operation was by and large successful. The community is relieved to see the occupied areas finally reopened after two months.
The Occupy movement is far from over, though. Thousands of officers are being deployed to guard against possible reoccupation in the area. Many people are still camped out in Admiralty and Causeway Bay without any sign of retreat.
Crammed with dodgy entertainment and business outlets, Mong Kok has been regarded as a high-risk area. There was always a fear that it would be a flash point for violence, as proved by occasional confrontations between rival camps in the early weeks. That the court-ordered clearance of barricades turned into nasty clashes this week is regrettable. As tensions rose, so did tempers and emotions. It is good to see that the violence was quickly followed by law and order.
As shown in TV news footage, some protesters were cooperative and retreated soon after the clearance operation began. But there was also resistance at some stages, resulting in one of the biggest arrest operations in recent years. As in previous stand-offs, there were accusations that the police acted out of line. Journalists at the scene also complained of mistreatment. Officials said the court injunction did not restrict the police from exercising lawful enforcement powers. They also denied using excessive force in the operation.
Subject to the outcome of another court order being sought, Admiralty will be the next target. Earlier, a smaller clearance in the district went ahead without much drama. Unlike the provocation sparked by the use of tear gas to disperse crowds in Admiralty two months ago, the Mong Kok operation was completed without much outcry. The swing in public opinion lately is the clearest sign yet that the community is in favour of a swift end to the stalemate.
The occupiers have made their position abundantly clear over the past 60 days. Instead of bracing for possible violence in future clearances, they would be better off retreating voluntarily and devising a clear strategy that would allow the pro-democracy momentum to carry on in the long run.
Re: HK Protest Leaders High! Demands Talks With 11 Jinping In Peking!
Hong Kong activist leader gets egged leaving court
Chen Chang-Rui and Staff Reporter
2014-11-28
Joshua Wong is hit by raw eggs while he was leaving the court, Nov. 27. (Internet photo)
Hong Kong student activist leader Joshua Wong was pelted with eggs upon leaving Kowloon City Court on bail, after he was arrested at the Mong Kok protest site Nov. 26.
The two egg throwers were immediately taken by police. Before that, three eggs reportedly hit the rear of Wong's head, with some raw egg stuck in his hair.
Wong was charged with obstructing officials clearing barricades at the Mong Kok protest site on Wednesday.
Wong was given a bail amount of HK$500 (US$65) after a hearing. The court injunction forbids Wong to enter an area encompassing Fai Yuan Street, Shanghai Street, Dundas Street, and Mong Kok Road except for transportation transfers.
Wong told the press that he was attacked, receiving injuries to the groin and face during his arrest, and was verbally assaulted during his custody. More than 10 policemen reportedly "ran to put him down" on Nov. 26.
The court will hear his case again on Jan. 14, 2015.
In response to public speculation as to whether authorities would enforce a curfew, after the police had driven out protesters, Hong Kong leader CY Leung, who is currently visiting South Korea, said there is a possibility that the protesters may return. However, there is no need for now to impose a curfew to restore Hong Kong's social order.
Clockenflap festival rock stars voice their support for Occupy Central
Musicians voice support for Occupy Central as rock fans sport umbrellas and yellow ribbons
Los Angeles-based Ozomatli raise a symbolic umbrella as they perform a lively, Latin-flavoured set during the Clockenflap festival at West Kowloon yesterday. Photo: Sam Tsang
The city's infectious "umbrella movement" spread beyond protest zones yesterday to an unusual occasion - a music festival in West Kowloon.
Democracy by way of civil disobedience was the message from local and international bands on stage at the annual Clockenflap as the musicians voiced support for Occupy Central protesters.
Soft Liu, singer with local rock band GDJYB, cheered on Occupy participants before launching into the quartet's medium-paced song Philip the Buster - a title suggestive of pro-democracy filibustering in the Legislative Council.
"Hongkongers, just don't be afraid," she yelled on the second day of the music festival. "Justice will always be on our side."
Her guitarists sported symbolic yellow ribbons on their hair and instruments.
American seven-piece band Ozomatli unfurled a brolly as it gave the crowd a good groove with an upbeat Spanish rock set.
Fans get into the party mood at Clockenflap. Photo: Sam Tsang
Fans joined in the fervour for genuine universal suffrage by tying yellow ribbons on their belongings.
Bobo Chow Po-yin, 24, an Ozomatli fan, said: "Yellow ribbons are not just limited to protest zones. They should be part of our life."
Wrapping up the night's event were Scottish band Travis, who pleased the crowd with Why Does It Always Rain On Me?, prompting fans to open their umbrellas to pogo-jump.
The festival, a concoction of art and music that debuted in 2008, is marking its seventh anniversary this year.
First held at the Cyberport, Clockenflap has over the years brought acclaimed international acts to Hong Kong, including American R&B artist Santigold, British indie rock band Bombay Bicycle Club and Canadian duo Tegan and Sara.
Clockenflap director Mike Hill said the number of spectators had grown from 1,500 to 40,000 over the years.
Expected to play tomorrow is local electropop duo My Little Airport - banned on the mainland over its pro-Occupy song.
Strategy against protesters 'is damaging city'
Ex-police officer says government must act to end impasse, and urges protesters to get off the streets and resolve 'dirty and messy situation'
Police officers clash with pro-democracy protesters in Mong Kok. Photo: Edward Wong
A former senior Hong Kong police officer has described the government's handling of the Occupy Central protests as "damaging" to the city's future and to its judiciary.
Security risk consultant and former head of the police criminal intelligence unit, Steve Vickers, who maintains close links to many in the force, also criticised the protesters, saying it was time for them to get off the streets and find a way of ending what had become a "very dirty and messy" situation.
The government declined to respond to Vickers' comments. But lawmaker Tam Yiu-chung, of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, defended the government's approach, saying it had to act to end "unrealistic and illegal" actions by the students.
Last night, Mong Kok was calm after days of turmoil as bailiffs and then police enforced court injunctions to remove protesters from their encampment, which blocked some of the district's main thoroughfares, sparking violence and arrests.
In his latest security assessment of the situation, Vickers said the government must make a decisive political effort to end the impasse or risk undermining the judiciary and police by "hiding behind bailiffs". But Vickers, CEO of risk consultancy SVA, said: "This is a political situation which cannot be resolved by force. This quasi-judicial-police approach - whatever you want to call it - is not helpful to anyone. It is damaging to Hong Kong's future. It is damaging to the judiciary. It uses a large number of resources and is inefficient."
For Vickers, the government's current strategy risks cannibalising the police - whose hands he says are tied - and sullying the name of the judiciary.
The comments echo those of protest leaders and student activists, who regularly lambast Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying for failing to engage with the so-called umbrella movement.
Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting yesterday said the police cleared the Mong Kok protest zone with "legitimacy it stole from court" and expected the government to use the same methods to clear the sites in Admiralty and Causeway Bay.
But Tai warned that the clearance would not solve the ultimate problem, and that the occupation had already nurtured a generation ready to fight for democracy.
"Is it possible for the police to station such a large number of officers at every [formerly occupied] site … to prevent people from storming the roads again? Couldn't protesters occupy other roads instead?" he asked in a Facebook post.
Protester Nikki Lau, 34, has camped in Admiralty for the past two months. She said the chief executive needed to engage with the protesters. "Any rightful leader would come and address the situation - no matter whether they are pro or anti. But [Leung] has hidden behind everything."
Vickers' criticisms, however, were not reserved solely for those in power, with the former police officer also urging protesters to rethink their strategies. "It is just becoming more violent. It is becoming a very dirty and messy situation," Vickers said.
"With the bulk of people turning against them, it is time for the students to review their tactics."
DAB chairman Tam said the government should not yield to the Occupy protesters, who had been fighting using illegal means for something "unrealistic".
"The protesters have called on Beijing to scrap its decision on reform, which is definitely impossible. They should get back to reality," Tam said.
Task force set to give young people more 'upward mobility' hope
Doubts raised over Leung's notion that lack of upward mobility fuels protests like Occupy
Leung Chun-ying and Carrie Lam leave a meeting yesterday.
A new government task force has been set up to boost the chances of young Hongkongers to get ahead in life as Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said a lack of "upward mobility" was one of the reasons large numbers of young people joined the Occupy protests.
Convened under the Commission on Poverty - a flagship creation of the Leung administration - the task force will be responsible for coming up with strategies to alleviate the feeling of many young people that they could be Hong Kong's first generation to grow up less well off than their parents.
However, the decision raised the eyebrows of two commission members, and one of Leung's key allies said the protesters' concerns were mainly political.
The announcement came as the government pointed to a "marked improvement" in the poverty situation last year, as the latest estimate of the number of poor people - 970,000 - was the first time it had fallen below a million since 2009.
The poverty rate also sat at an all-time low, at 14.5 per cent. The government said this was thanks to cash handouts and other welfare spending.
Speaking at government headquarters, a wall away from the Admiralty sit-in zone, Leung said: "One of the reasons [for Occupy] - I am not saying it is a major reason or minor reason; obviously the main cause is the disagreement on constitutional development - is a lack of upward mobility."
Executive Council member Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun said the student leaders had "no such problem as upward mobility".
Instead, she said, protesters were pursuing "universal values". She said the task force's scope of work should be clarified, and more teenagers invited to join.
Chua Hoi-wai, chief executive of the Council of Social Service and a committee member, said Occupy was never cited as a reason for the task force during discussions in July, when the civil-disobedience movement was not yet a reality. "I'm not sure if there was any misunderstanding, or [Leung] was careless," Chua said, noting that Occupy was joined by teenagers of every wealth level.
Another member, pan-democratic lawmaker Frederick Fung Kin-kee, said Leung was "hugely mistaken". Leung later hit back at Fung for leaving the meeting early.
Leung told international media last month that the nomination process for chief executive contenders could not be about numeric representation, or "you'd be talking about half of the people in Hong Kong who earn less than US$1,800 a month".
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, chairwoman of the commission, said the people of Hong Kong "will all want to have more participation in our political system".
Lam said future room for the poverty rate to drop would be "limited", and drew attention to households that had at least one member at work, did not claim welfare but remained poor.
