The Wall Street Journal - 14.11.2019

A16| Thursday, November 14, 2019 *** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

WORLD WATCH

For farmers of saffron and

other cash crops, the develop-

ments blocked communication

with potential buyers. Further,

insurgent groups and street

protesters press pickers, trad-

ers and transporters not to

work to protest the Indian

government’s policy shift.

Mr. Nabi has grown saffron

for 55 years on 5 acres in Pam-

pore, famously known as Kash-

mir’s “Saffron Town” for its

precious, highly aromatic spice.

Mr. Nabi’s lush green farms

yield around 33 pounds of the

spice every season, earning

him an income of over $40,000.

This year, he said he expects to

earn far less. “We might be

forced to sell at a fraction of

the usual price,” he said.

With limited communica-

tions, he lost contact with bro-

kers in other parts of the coun-

try. In a normal year, brokers

would have come early to secure

deals before the harvest, but

they have been afraid to come.

“No one wants to come to Kash-

mir this year,” Mr. Nabi said.

Saffron fields are a tourist at-

traction as well. Their blossoms

mark the beginning of winter

here in the foothills of the Hi-

malayas, transforming fields

into a canvas of purple. Few vis-

itors have come this year.

Picking began in late Octo-

ber and will continue for a

month. The flowers are

plucked deftly by hand just af-

ter sunrise, then left out to

dry inside homes to retain

their color and fragrance.

Each part of the flower is

valuable. The dark red stigma

is used in food dishes and

sweets, and as a paste to

anoint idols in Hindu temples.

The yellow stamen is used for

dyeing clothes and in beauty

products. The purple petals

are used in medicines.

The stigma strands can be

preserved in glass jars for

years. But saving them to sell

later would shrink the total

weight, as moisture evapo-

rates, and reduces their value,

say growers and traders.

New Delhi, trying to contain

the damage, is calling on saf-

fron farmers and traders to sell

JAPAN

Economic Growth

Slowed in Quarter

Japan’s economy grew at the

slowest pace in a year as the

U.S.-China trade dispute and To-

kyo’s frictions with South Korea

weighed on exports.

Japan, the world’s third-largest

economy after the U.S. and China,

expanded at an annualized rate

of 0.2% during the third quarter,

following a 1.8% expansion in the

previous quarter, the government

said Thursday. It was the fourth

straight quarter of growth but

the slowest pace in a year.

Real exports fell 0.7% on the

quarter during the July-Septem-

ber period. Exports of goods

were nearly flat, reflecting weak-

ness in China, while service ex-

ports declined 4.4%, the biggest

drop in seven years.

Spending by tourists in Japan

suffered because South Korean

visitors fell by more than half af-

ter a clash between Seoul and

Tokyo over World War II history

and other issues.

—Megumi Fujikawa

CHINA

Authorities Confirm

Pneumonic Plague

Chinese health authorities

confirmed two cases of pneu-

monic plague in Beijing, as a

dearth of information stirred

public fears.

Health officials in Beijing and

the northern province of Inner

Mongolia, famous for its vast

grasslands, said two people from

Inner Mongolia had been diag-

nosed with pneumonic plague, a

severe form of lung infection re-

lated to the bubonic plague that

is believed to have ravaged Eu-

rope in the 14th century.

Authorities didn’t say when

the cases were identified, but

said the two were being treated

in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, ac-

cording to a statement from the

district government.

—Fanfan Wang

ITALY

Venice Flooding

Nears Record Levels

Floodwaters in Venice rose this

week to the second-highest level

since records began 150 years

ago, inundating parts of the city

that usually stay dry and adding

to anxiety about the future.

The city has suffered severe

damage, including to the St.

Mark’s Basilica, as the water in

the lagoon rose as high as 6 feet

2 inches above its normal level,

peaking Wednesday. The highest

flood yet recorded, in 1966, was

just a few inches higher.

The government has spent

about €5.5 billion ($6.1 billion)

building a flood-protection system

known as MOSE, a deployable un-

derwater dam system that was

supposed to be operational sev-

eral years ago but has been beset

by problems including engineering

setbacks and alleged corruption.

—Eric Sylvers

afterdawnbroke.Asprotests

continued Tuesday, riot police

came deeper into the univer-

sity’s leafy campus—which re-

sembles a self-contained city

built on a hill—to take the

bridge from which they said

objects were being thrown.

Throughout the day, protest-

ers erected barricades, built a

wall of fire and even attempted

to set a school bus on fire. Po-

lice fired tear gas and rubber

bullets in one of the most in-

tense and sustained clashes.

After receiving stitches to

her head wound, Dr. Chu’s pa-

tient sat slumped on bleachers

with bandages around her

head. She said she was a stu-

dent from a nearby community

college and had come to sup-

port the university students.

“I thought CUHK would be

safe,” she said. “People need to

help each other at these pro-

tests. Today the police are at

Chinese University. Tomorrow,

they could be at my home.”

—Joyu Wang

contributed to this article.

onto vehicles moving on a

highway underneath, a police

spokesman said.

Police raids on university

campuses to make arrests

have fueled student protests,

along with anger over their

tactics in fighting protesters

on the streets.

Chinese University—which

has spawned Nobel Prize win-

ners—has been associated with

student activism since its

founding in 1963. “Chinese Uni-

versity is an important symbol

in Hong Kong for pushing for

the development of democ-

racy,” said Richard Tsoi, an

alumnus and organizer of the

yearly Tiananmen remem-

brance vigil here. “The police’s

raid of the campus is an affront

to that safe space for freedoms

it has stood for over the years.”

Tensions began to escalate

on Monday, after protesters

called a general strike and

tried to disrupt morning com-

muters across the city, during

which one man was shot and

wounded by police not long

dess of Democracy stands in

the grounds, to remember

those who perished in the

1989 massacre of protesting

Chinese students around Bei-

jing’s Tiananmen Square.

While police had previously

entered university campuses in

recent months and always been

met with fierce resistance, the

clashes this time escalated amid

growing tensions in the city.

Hong Kong’s police said on

Wednesday that they had the

right to enter campuses if

crimes were committed there.

Officers were responding to

violence and acting to “dis-

perse the mob,” as protesters

dropped objects from a bridge

Students erected barricades,

set fires and hurled Molotov

cocktails to prevent police

from further entering the cam-

pus. In return, they were hit by

waves of tear gas so thick it

was hard to see or to breathe

without a gas mask. Jets from

a water cannon followed be-

fore police retreated before

midnight, in one of the first

negotiated cease-fires amid

five months of protests here.

Around the sprawling cam-

pus, human chains of students

and supporters, young and old,

stretched for more than a

mile. Into late Tuesday, they

passed along supplies of wa-

ter, food and saline solution to

the makeshift clinic and front

lines. By Wednesday, Chinese

University was a well-stocked

fortress.

The university has become

the fiercest front line of vio-

lent citywide clashes between

masked youths and police that

paralyzed much of the city

this week. It is also symbolic:

A bronze statue of the God-

WORLD NEWS

Students packed into its 12

hostels and hotels, according to

receptionists, and some lodges

were filled to near capacity by

Wednesday afternoon. Others

made arrangements to stay

with family and friends.

“My friends and I barely

slept last night,” said a 22-year-

old postgraduate student at the

City University of Hong Kong

who gave her English name as

Nicole. She caught the first

train to Shenzhen at 7 a.m. and

said about 80 of the 100-plus

mainland Chinese students in

her program had left Hong

Kong by noon. In Shenzhen, she

boarded a flight to Shanghai,

where her parents live.

Mainland Chinese students

generally haven’t been a target

of protesters, and some even

participated in earlier peaceful

marches. But a handful of

high-profile attacks caught on

video—including the beating

of a mainland Chinese univer-

sity student last week on cam-

pus—as well as the anti-China

tone of the demonstrations

have unsettled some main-

landers, leading them to avoid

speaking Mandarin in public

or to consider relocating.

Those concerns have grown

more acute as tensions esca-

lated sharply following the

death last week of a university

student who fell from a park-

ing garage near a site where

police were firing tear gas to

disperse protesters.

On Tuesday, as protesters

blocked roads and forced the

shutdown of some subway lines,

some of the most violent

clashes took place on university

campuses. At the Chinese Uni-

versity of Hong Kong in the

city’s New Territories, riot po-

lice entered the grounds and

fired tear gas and rubber bullets

at student protesters who threw

bricks and gasoline bombs and

started large fires. At the Uni-

versity of Hong Kong, the city’s

oldest college, students threw

chairs and other objects onto a

road from an overhead bridge

in an attempt to block traffic.

Life in Hong Kong was crip-

pled for a third straight day on

Wednesday, as commuters

struggled to get to work and

many students stayed home

from school. Huge crowds piled

up in the subways amid the

long delays. Streets were filled

with bricks, poles and garbage.

Large groups of people

dressed in the protesters’

usual black gathered again

alongside office workers in

masks at lunchtime in the

city’s main business district,

chanting slogans like “Stand

with Hong Kong.”

Students interviewed by

The Wall Street Journal said

they intend to stay away for a

few days to a few weeks, or

until the situation in the city

stabilizes. Several universities

on Wednesday said they have

suspended classes for the rest

of the semester, which ends in

early December.

—Natasha Khan, Joyu Wang

and Steven Russolillo

contributed to this article.

Hundreds of mainland Chi-
nese students fled across Hong
Kong’s border into Shenzhen on
Wednesday, seeking temporary
shelter in hostels, hotels and
relatives’ homes after days of
heightened violence on several
university campuses in the city.
Groups of undergraduate and
postgraduate Chinese students
enrolled at Hong Kong universi-
ties packed their bags and left
by bus, ferry or high-speed rail.
Some said they were worried
about their safety. Hong Kong
police said they had arranged
for police boats to ferry stu-
dents who wanted to leave but
were hampered by blocked
roads in parts of the city.
The total number of Chinese
students who left couldn’t be
determined, and there are
many who have chosen to stay
in Hong Kong. There were
12,322 full-time students from
mainland China in the eight
biggest publicly funded univer-
sities in Hong Kong in the
2018-19 school year, according
to statistics from the Univer-
sity Grants Committee. Sepa-
rately, more than 100 Taiwan-
ese students made
arrangements to fly home with
the help of Taipei’s Economic
and Cultural Office in Hong
Kong, said Sophia Ma, a deputy
director of the organization.
The Shenzhen Youth League,
part of a China Communist
Party youth organization, of-
fered free weeklong accommo-
dation to Chinese students in
need of refuge, a move that en-
couraged some people to leave.

BYJINGYANG
ANDSTELLAYIFANXIE

Students Flee Hong Kong Violence

HONG KONG—It took Dr. Chu
longer than usual to administer
stitches to his patient: a young
student protester who had hob-
bled into a makeshift clinic set
up inside a gym at the Chinese
University of Hong Kong.
Surrounded by gym mats
that marked different treat-
ment stations, Dr. Chu’s pa-
tient sat crouched, hugging
her knees to bear the pain of a
cut to her head sustained from
a flying tear-gas canister dur-
ing clashes with police outside.
The doctor gave her four head
stitches, without anesthesia,
by the light of a flashlight held
by a first-aid volunteer.
Dozens of injured protest-
ers visited the clinic at the Ye-
ung Ming Biu sports center
and other makeshift clinics on
Tuesday with injuries suffered
during a daylong defense of
the campus that had tempo-
rarily come under siege from
riot police, volunteers said.

BYNATASHAKHAN
ANDEUN-YOUNGJEONG

University Campus Turns Into Battleground

their produce at a new state-

run spice park in Pampore,

where farmers can access high-

technology harvesting facilities.

“We want to help the farm-

ers preserve the identity and

retain the quality of the

spice,” said Kashmiri Agricul-

ture Director Syed Altaf Aijaz

Andrabi. But a senior official

at the spice park said the new

initiative had few takers.

Anti-India sentiment runs

deep in the only Muslim-ma-

jority state. The Indian armed

forces have been blamed for

using harsh tactics to suppress

local rebellion. Prime Minister

Narendra Modi says the gov-

ernment is trying to boost the

local economy by folding the

Kashmir Valley fully into India

to end what he calls “a vicious

cycle of terrorism, violence,

separatism and corruption.”

Mohammad Shafi anticipates

a loss in business given the

government-imposed security

measures—and threats from

militants and insurgent groups.

Anti-India protesters have dis-

tributed pamphlets and put

posters outside mosques ap-

pealing to Kashmiris not to

harvest any crops and to be a

part of the civil resistance.

Last month, suspected mili-

tants gunned down an apple

trader in Kashmir, according

to the local police. The same

day, a migrant laborer em-

ployed at a brick kiln in Kash-

mir was also shot dead.

“These murders are keeping

us away from the markets. Ev-

ery Kashmiri—from a trader, a

laborer to a grower—is suffer-

ing losses,” said Mr. Shafi.

PAMPORE, India—Haji Ghu-
lam Nabi normally has high
hopes this time of the year,
when the harvest of his saf-
fron crop in the Kashmir Val-
ley is under way.
His fields, along with others
in the Kashmir Valley, grow
one of the most expensive
spices on earth, selling whole-
sale for over $1,000 a pound.
Hordes of buyers normally de-
scend to snap up the product.
But this year is different.
“A pervasive silence has en-
gulfed Kashmir,” the 72-year-
old farmer said. “It all began
in August. We still haven’t
come out of the shock.”
August is when India’s gov-
ernment stripped the part of
Kashmir it administers of the
relative autonomy it had en-
joyed since 1949, along with its
separate flag and constitution.
The disputed Kashmir region is
claimed by both India and Paki-
stan, with each controlling a
part of it.
Anticipating a backlash from
Pakistani-backed militants and
a violent separatist movement,
the government sent in tens of
thousands of paramilitary
troops to supplement tens of
thousands of regular military
troops that already patrolled
the region. It imposed a blanket
communications blackout, shut-
ting down all internet and
phone service. Local political
leaders were detained.
More than three months later,
authorities have restored some
communications, but many mo-
bile phones are still disabled.

BYVIBHUTIAGARWAL

Kashmir’s Saffron Crop Withers After India Lockdown

Workers sift and clear away unwanted particles from dried saffron threads before packing the finished product in the town of Pampore.

SUMIT DAYAL FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Hong Kong’s Chinese

University has

become the city’s

fiercest front line.

A protester shoots a fire arrow during a demonstration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

ANTHONY WALLACE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES