The Wall Street Journal - 17.08.2019 - 18.08.2019

A8| Saturday/Sunday, August 17 - 18, 2019 ** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.**

commutes by keeping subway

trains in stations and blocking

roads. Protesters have shifted

tactics in recent weeks, some-

times gathering in large num-

bers rapidly or regrouping in

different parts of the city, con-

founding police and catching

uninvolved citizens off guard.

Julie Magno, a 36-year-old

mother of three who works at

a tech startup, said she has

been relying on co-workers to

keep her apprised of which ar-

eas to avoid. She said they of-

ten send her WhatsApp mes-

sages with information they

have translated from Chinese

social-media posts and articles

containing details about where

protests could take place.

Earlier this week, when Ms.

Magno learned about an air-

port sit-in, she contacted her

17-year-old daughter and

asked her to stay away from a

mall in Tung Chung, a neigh-

borhood near their home that

is also close to the airport.

Chester Chan, an invest-

ment banker at a Chinese

company, said he has been

leaving for work half an hour

early in case he encounters

delays during his 20-minute

commute. He monitors news

on television and his iPads,

sometimes watching live feeds

of protests from multiple

channels concurrently.

Mr. Chan said he used to

take his toddler to Hong

Kong’s Disneyland about once

a month, but has stopped do-

ing so even though the theme

park has been less crowded

since the protests began.

On Facebook, a Hong Kong

parents group has been

flooded with discussions. Indi-

viduals have shared advice for

what people should do if they

accidentally inhale tear gas,

such as rinsing their eyes and

faces with saline solutions and

turning off air conditioners.

Ms. Law, a 46-year-old who

lives with her husband and

three children in Hong Kong’s

New Territories, said she

keeps in close touch with her

teenage daughter when she

goes out at night.

“I’d message her every hour

and she just sends a quick

emoji back,” said Ms. Law. She

also monitors her daughter’s

whereabouts using a map on

the Snapchat app.

Charlotte Yu, a 19-year-old

college student, returned to

Hong Kong on Wednesday

from London, where she is

studying. She said her parents

told her not to go out in black

or white clothing. Most pro-

testers have been donning all-

black, while white has become

the color of choice for the pro-

establishment camp after men

in white T-shirts attacked peo-

ple clad in black in a subway

station last month.

Lavinia Kar and her 7-year-

old son took part in a few of

the earlier peaceful marches,

but she now goes alone to le-

gal protests. The 42-year-old

said she tempers what she

says in public about politics.

Hui Wan Fung, a 31-year-old

Singaporean who works in

public relations, said he and

his wife have cut back on date

nights. “We cook at home

more, and we catch up with

friends less now,” he said.

Mr. Papworth, the British

national whose wife and

daughter accidentally found

themselves at a protest site

last month, said his family has

tried to stick with their usual

routines, but they are vigilant

about their surroundings.

Last Sunday, he took his

daughter to meet “Grandma

Wong,” an elderly woman who

regularly shows up at protests

waving a Union Jack flag.

“She’s witnessing history in

the making,” he said of his

daughter, who is a Hong Kong

citizen, adding it is important

for her to remember this pe-

riod for years to come.

Cathay Pacific

Replaces Its CEO

Cathay Pacific Airways

Ltd.’s chief executive resigned

after the airline, Hong Kong’s

flagship carrier, came under fire

from Beijing over its employees

joining the antigovernment pro-

tests that have rocked the city.

Rupert Hogg, who had been

CEO since 2017, resigned “to

take responsibility as a leader

of the company in view of re-

cent events,” the carrier said

Friday. Paul Loo, Cathay’s chief

customer and commercial offi-

cer, also stepped down.

“There is no doubt that our

reputation and brand are under

immense pressure,” Mr. Hogg

said in an internal memo seen

by The Wall Street Journal.

The carrier said Mr. Hogg’s

successor is Augustus Tang Kin

Wing, who is a representative

of the Swire Group, the parent

company of Cathay’s largest

shareholder.

The airline has been em-

broiled in controversy after the

participation of some of its em-

ployees in the Hong Kong pro-

tests sparked a furor in main-

land China, one of Cathay’s

biggest markets, including calls

for a boycott of the carrier.

Early in the week, Cathay

shares touched their lowest

level in more than a decade as

protests at Hong Kong’s airport

led to the cancellation of flights.

In an email sent to staff

Monday, Mr. Hogg warned of dis-

ciplinary consequences for em-

ployees who supported or partic-

ipated in illegal protests. Just a

week earlier, the airline had

taken a more tolerant stance.

—Natasha Khan

WORLD NEWS

Claire Law tracks her

daughter’s location in Hong

Kong using a map on the

Snapchat app and messages

her hourly. Paige

Macgregor and her family

have stopped taking the sub-

way and buses. Hui Wan Fung

and his wife are going out less.

More than two months of

marches, demonstrations and

sit-ins in one of Asia’s most

densely populated cities are

forcing everyday people to

change their routines and de-

velop contingency plans to ac-

commodate new risks of vio-

lent protests and police action.

Hong Kong traditionally has

had a low crime rate, a highly

efficient public transportation

system and a vibrant night

scene. Since early June, it has

been racked by civil distur-

bances each weekend. What

began as large-scale marches

against a bill that would have

allowed extradition to main-

land China has mutated into

street battles and broader pro-

tester demands for democratic

reforms. Police have fired tear

gas liberally in residential

neighborhoods, shopping dis-

tricts and subway stations,

disrupting businesses and at

times injuring passersby.

On a Sunday evening last

month, Pierre Papworth was

waiting for his wife and

daughter to return from a trip

to mainland China when he re-

ceived a frantic text message.

The pair had emerged from a

subway station in Causeway

Bay, a busy shopping district

near their home, and found

themselves caught in a clash

between protesters and police.

“My wife was terrified,”

said Mr. Papworth, a 47-year-

old British citizen who works

in the toy industry and has

lived in Hong Kong for 17

years. He said the pair tried to

stay close to the police, and

his 10-year-old daughter

dodged a hair dryer inadver-

tently flung in her direction.

They reached home safely

after walking for 15 minutes.

But since the incident, Mr. Pap-

worth said he has mapped a

route home avoiding the main

thoroughfare where protesters

have previously gathered.

The weekend protests have

been peppered by weekday

demonstrations and sit-ins

that have delayed or disrupted

BYLUCYCRAYMER

ANDFRANCESYOON

Unrest Alters Life in Hong Kong

Families share tips on

handling tear gas and

transit disruptions as

clashes upset routines

ANTHONY KWAN/GETTY IMAGES

Residents are finding ways to adapt after more than two months of civil disturbances in the typically efficient, low-crime city.

Police shocked the city last

weekend with fierce baton

charges and new tactics, in-

cluding disguising officers as

demonstrators to make sur-

prise arrests.

Protesters then turned pub-

lic opinion against themselves

Tuesday night by beating and

tying up two men from main-

land China in a bout of mob

justice at the airport.

Meanwhile, Chinese para-

military police and armored

personnel carriers massed

across the border from Hong

Kong in what the Global

Times, a state-run tabloid,

called “a clear warning to the

Hong Kong rioters.”

The events left both sides

drained. Friday brought a

third day of relative calm be-

fore another mass rally

planned for Sunday.

On Friday evening, thou-

sandsofprotestersstageda

peaceful demonstration aimed

at getting attention in the U.S.

and U.K. “We have to draw the

attention of politicians like

[President] Trump and [House

Speaker Nancy] Pelosi,” said a

banker waving an American

flag. “It’s a moral imperative

to assert pressure against Xi

Jinping.”

A 26-year-old engineering

consultant noted that waving

the American flag could in-

spire support from U.S. Repub-

licans. He said, “We’re doing

things similar to the Founding

Fathers.”

China has suggested the

U.S. is pulling the strings in

the Hong Kong protests. But

the banker said: “If the U.S.

was behind our movement, it

would have succeeded a long

time ago.”

Teachers plan to rally Sat-

urday, and pro-democracy

group Demosisto is organizing

secondary schoolers to skip

classes on Mondays starting in

September.

Tycoons in Hong Kong are

under tremendous pressure

following the protests. Their

fortunes, rooted in property,

are at risk if the city’s status

as a financial and business

hub is eroded. They already

are suffering from stock-mar-

ket declines.

Beijing is leaning on these

corporate leaders to support

Hong Kong’s government and

push for a return to order. De-

murring could put their busi-

nesses at risk. China, for in-

stance, threatened to cut off

access to its airspace for Ca-

thay Pacific after Hong Kong’s

flag carrier condoned partici-

pation by its staff in the pro-

tests, and the airline’s chief

executive resigned Friday. But

complying could put them on

the wrong side of public opin-

ion in their hometown.

Hong Kong’s richest man

bought the full front pages of

many local newspapers Friday

morning to run a pair of ads

that cautioned protesters and

authorities against further vi-

olence.

One of the ads taken out by

Li Ka-shing—a 91-year-old ty-

coon with a net worth of $

billion, according to the

Bloomberg Billionaires Index—

was aimed at the Chinese gov-

ernment. It referenced a Tang

dynasty poem that calls on an

empress not to kill her own

children. The other, aimed at

protesters, called for an end to

violence and cautioned that

the best intentions can have

the worst outcomes.

The ads by a businessman

who made a fortune navigat-

ing the tricky politics of Hong

Kong and Beijing followed a

week of some of the worst in-

cidents of violence in more

than two months of demon-

strations.

BYELIBINDER Earlier this month, a senior

Chinese official in charge of

Hong Kong affairs warned a

gathering of the city’s elite in

Shenzhen that the central gov-

ernment wouldn’t hesitate to

intervene if the situation

worsened and leaned on them

to condemn the violence and

support the government.

Last weekend, the compa-

nies of property magnates Pe-

ter Woo; Li Ka-shing’s son and

heir to his empire, Victor Li;

Peter Lee; Raymond Kwok; and

Henry Cheng jointly called for

an end to the violence and a

restoration of order.

Theprotestsweresparked

by a bill that would allow ex-

traditions to China but have

swelled to embrace a broader

demand for more representa-

tive government.

If the violence doesn’t

abate, some business owners

say they are increasingly com-

ing to accept the idea that

some form of Chinese security

force may be dispatched to

Hong Kong to restore order.

Tycoon Warns Protesters, Beijing Over Violence

Lavinia Kar said she has stopped taking her young son to demonstrations. Pierre Papworth mapped a backup route home after he and his family encountered clashes.

NICOLE TUNG FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Li Ka-shing

made a

fortune

navigating the

tricky politics

of Hong Kong

and Beijing.

Thousands of pieces of Chi-

nese video-surveillance equip-

ment that have provoked na-

tional security concerns have

been listed for sale on an online

superstore catering to U.S. gov-

ernment agencies, despite a ban

that went into effect this week.

The listings are for cameras

and recording equipment

made by Hangzhou Hikvision

Digital Technology Co., 42%-

owned by the Chinese govern-

ment, and Dahua Technology

Co., a privately owned Chinese

surveillance-equipment maker,

The Wall Street Journal found.

Hikvision and Dahua don’t

directly sell their wares via the

online store, but their equip-

ment is available via indepen-

dent U.S. resellers that act as

middlemen. Listings of Chinese

equipment by these resellers

claim that the gear has been

made in the U.S. and Switzer-

land. Hikvision and Dahua say

they don’t manufacture equip-

ment in those countries.

The use of equipment made

by Hikvision on U.S. military

installations, police depart-

ments and embassies has

sparked concern about security

vulnerabilities in the equip-

ment that the Chinese govern-

ment might exploit.

Congress last year passed

legislation that prohibits fed-

eral government agencies from

buying equipment from Chi-

nese companies. The ban took

effect Tuesday. Even before

the explicit ban on purchases

from those companies, such

government buying wouldn’t

have been allowed because

China isn’t on a list of coun-

tries from which agencies are

allowed to buy items.

However, their equipment

finds its way onto the online

superstore through resellers

authorized to list goods there.

After agencies place orders,

distributors that work with

the resellers fulfill them.

Three days after the federal

ban took effect, about 1,

Dahua products remained for

sale on the portal, The Journal

found. However, a similar

number from Hikvision ap-

peared to have been taken

down Thursday. A few dozen

Dahua products disappeared

from the site between Tuesday

and Wednesday.

The General Services Admin-

istration, the federal agency

that oversees $66 billion of

government purchases, runs the

online marketplace, called GSA

Advantage, where the items re-

main for sale. “Chinese-made

items...should not be on GSA

Advantage, as there is no trade

act agreement with China,” a

GSA spokeswoman said.

She said the agency has an

automated process that re-

moves items that shouldn’t be

for sale. The GSA was working

to identify Hikvision and Da-

hua equipment listings after

the new ban took effect, she

said, and resellers had been

notified of items targeted for

review and removal.

Hikvision sends cease-and-

desist orders to resellers who

list their products on the GSA

site, a person close to the

company said. A Dahua

spokesman said the company

is investigating the issue.

The GSA spokeswoman said

the agency tries to prevent

Chinese equipment from ap-

pearing on the site, but said

the onus of making sure that

products listed for sale com-

plied with government rules

lay with resellers.

Jim Wrigglesworth, the vice

president of Wrigglesworth

Enterprises in Wilmington,

N.C., another company that of-

fered such Chinese equipment

for sale, said it lists more than

one million products on the

GSA site, so some errors were

possible. “We do our own spot

checks, but every so often one

gets up there,” he said.

The GSA spokeswoman said

no transactions involving

Hikvision or Dahua products

were made within the past

year.

BYASAFITCH

Chinese

Spy Gear

Offered for

Sale to U.S.

Equipment listed for

sale online has

sparked concerns

about security.