The New York Times - 06.08.2019

A4 TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019

N

HONG KONG — Antigovern-
ment protesters in Hong Kong
mounted their fiercest challenge
to the authorities on Monday, dis-
rupting more than 200 airline
flights, occupying malls and
blocking roadways and rail lines
to snarl the commute for hun-
dreds of thousands of workers.
The protesters called for a gen-
eral strike in an effort to halt daily
life across the semiautonomous
Chinese territory, wielding a po-
tentially powerful new tool in their
weekslong campaign against the
Hong Kong government.
Hong Kong’s values of efficien-
cy, hard work and, increasingly, a
dedication to public protest are
colliding as protesters from
across society test the limits of the
city’s police force. Officers on
Monday fired tear gas near shop-
ping malls and residential areas
and arrested at least 82 people,
while the city’s leader warned that
efforts to “topple Hong Kong”
could destroy livelihoods and
push the city “to the verge of a
very dangerous situation.”
Monday was the last of three
consecutive days of large-scale
civil disobedience intended to in-
crease pressure on the govern-
ment as it confronts Hong Kong’s
worst political crisis since 1997,
when it was returned to Chinese
rule after more than 150 years as a
British colony.
Many protesters said they
thought they had no choice but to
escalate their actions after the
government was unswayed by
peaceful marches in June that or-
ganizers said drew as many as
two million people.
The protests began nearly two
months ago in response to legisla-
tion, since suspended, that would
allow criminal suspects to be ex-
tradited to mainland China, where
the courts are controlled by the
governing Communist Party. The
movement, driven by longstand-
ing fears of deteriorating free-
doms under Beijing’s rule, has ex-
panded to include a variety of
grievances, including the stalled
expansion of direct elections and
accusations of excessive force by
the police.
It was unclear how many peo-
ple heeded the call to strike. But
protesters began the day by block-
ing roads and train doors using
flash-mob-style tactics, while
more than 200 flights at the city’s
international airport were can-
celed as a large number of air traf-
fic controllers called in sick. Mass
rallies were held at more than half
a dozen sites, including outside
the government headquarters on
Hong Kong’s main island. Officers
fired tear gas at several locations
across the city.
Later in the evening, protesters
in the North Point neighborhood
on eastern Hong Kong Island
were briefly attacked by men
wearing white shirts and wielding
sticks in a scene reminiscent of

July 21, when a pro-Beijing mob

beat protesters and bystanders in

the satellite town of Yuen Long.

Since the protests began in

early June, the police have ar-

rested 420 people and fired 1,

rounds of tear gas, a spokesman

said on Monday. That is signifi-

cantly more than during Hong

Kong’s last sustained protest

movement in 2014, when the use of

tear gas against prodemocracy

demonstrators galvanized the

public in support of a sit-in that

lasted 79 days. The police fired a

total of 87 tear gas canisters then,

and only on the first night.

In recent weeks, the protesters’

anger has largely shifted to focus

on the scale and intensity of the

police response. On Monday, pro-

testers surrounded and vandal-

ized several police stations, set-

ting fires outside at least two of

them. Supporters say the police

have regularly shown restraint.

Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief

executive, warned on Monday

morning in her first public re-

marks in two weeks that the city

“has become unsafe and un-

stable” and that “a series of ex-

tremely violent acts are pushing

Hong Kong into very precarious

circumstances.”

Mrs. Lam accused protesters of

challenging Chinese sovereignty

over Hong Kong, citing a slogan

some of them chanted that is asso-

ciated with an imprisoned activist

who at one point advocated Hong

Kong independence.

“They want to topple Hong

Kong, to thoroughly destroy the

livelihoods that seven million peo-

ple cherish,” she said.

Mrs. Lam is under pressure

from China’s central government

to bring the protests under con-

trol, and the Chinese military

hinted last month that it could be

called in to restore order. The

Hong Kong government has re-

peatedly denied plans to make

any such request.

The response by Hong Kong of-

ficials to the strike on Monday

“was a disaster,” said Antony

Dapiran, a Hong Kong-based law-

yer and the author of a book about

dissent in Hong Kong. “They

came out with a fairly hard line, no

concessions, nothing new.”

Mrs. Lam even faced criticism

from establishment lawmakers.

She “raised many questions at the

news conference, but where are

the solutions?” Ann Chiang, a law-

maker from Hong Kong’s largest

pro-Beijing party, the Democratic

Alliance for the Betterment of

Hong Kong, wrote on Facebook.

“Disappointing!!!”

Mainland Chinese officials re-

sponsible for Hong Kong policy

are scheduled to hold a news con-

ference in Beijing on Tuesday. On

Wednesday, they will meet with

Hong Kong delegates to the Chi-

nese national congress in Shen-

zhen, just across the mainland

border, the Hong Kong public

broadcaster RTHK reported.

Some commuters complained

about the transportation delays

and confronted protesters. Vehi-

cles plowed through barriers set

up by protesters along roadways

at least twice, sending demonstra-

tors diving for safety. But even

those facing delays said the gov-

ernment was to blame for failing

to address public grievances.

“Carrie Lam has caused my ab-

sence today,” said Dancus Au, 24,

an employee at a security com-

pany who was stuck in a subway

station for hours in the morning.

He said Mrs. Lam had made a

mistake by merely suspending

the extradition bill rather than for-

mally withdrawing it, as pro-

testers have demanded.

“She should have said ‘with-

draw’ at the beginning of this fias-

co,” he said. “She is part of the root

cause, while Beijing is another

part of it.”

Labor unions said hundreds of

thousands may have joined the

strike, and some groups, like

workers at Hong Kong Disney-

land, did announce work stop-

pages. Others took a day of leave

or called in sick to join the pro-

tests. After weeks of protests led

largely by people in their teens

and 20s, the general strike was

seen as a way for middle-age sup-

porters of the movement to par-

ticipate.

Janice Lau, a 38-year-old

teacher, pumped her fist in the air

in encouragement as she and her

6-year-old daughter, Zoe, watched

protesters drag steel barricades

to block traffic near the govern-

ment headquarters in the Admi-

ralty district.

“I’m proud of them,’’ she said.

“Society forced them to do this,

and they didn’t harm the society.

These days, people are more

afraid when the police appear

than when protesters appear.”

Some businesses also closed.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club,

which has a government-granted

monopoly on gambling, an-

nounced that off-site betting facili-

ties would stop taking wagers by 6

p.m., citing safety concerns. At

two luxury malls, Pacific Place in

Admiralty and Lee Gardens in

Causeway Bay, many shops were

closed.

Chinese state news media,

which have grown increasingly

vocal in their condemnation of the

protests, renewed their criticism

on Monday.

The People’s Daily, the Commu-

nist Party’s outlet, criticized pro-

testers who had thrown a Chinese

flag into the Hong Kong harbor

over the weekend, accusing them

of wanting to end the “one coun-

try, two systems” arrangement

that defines the relationship be-

tween Hong Kong and Beijing.

Mrs. Lam also mentioned the

episode in her remarks on Mon-

day.

Since protesters started to in-

creasingly target police stations

this past weekend, officers have

appeared to be more aggressive in

making arrests. But the increased

assertiveness risked further in-

flaming public sentiment, and at

least one protest not originally

scheduled for Monday was driven

by anger over an earlier arrest.

“For me the most alarming

thing is we’re kind of on a knife’s

edge here — open disrespect for

the police, police stations being

targeted,” Mr. Dapiran said. “We

are on the cusp of what could be a

general breakdown of law and or-

der. It hasn’t gotten there yet, but

the government hasn’t done any-

thing to stop it.”

Hong Kong Protesters Back Strike; Authorities Fight Back

PHOTOGRAPHS BY LAM YIK FEI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Protests fueled by a strike in

Hong Kong delayed commuter

trains, above, and caused more

than 200 flights to be canceled

as a large number of air traffic

controllers called in sick.

This article is by Austin Ramzy,
Mike Ivesand Tiffany May.

Katherine Li and Ezra Cheung
contributed reporting from Hong
Kong. Elsie Chen contributed re-
search from Beijing.

TOKYO — It was an exhibit
meant to celebrate freedom of ex-
pression. Instead, freedom of ex-
pression was shut down.
A long, bitter battle between Ja-
pan and South Korea over histori-
cal memory and atonement
spilled over into the art world over
the weekend when organizers of
an international fair in Japan
closed an exhibition that featured
a statue symbolizing one of the
Korean women forced into sexual
servitude for Japanese soldiers
during World War II.
The exhibit, “After ‘Freedom of
Expression?’ ” was intended to
showcase artwork that had been
excluded from museums in Japan
or elsewhere.
“I see the current situation as
something that proves freedom of
expression is being undermined,”
Daisuke Tsuda, the artistic direc-
tor of the Aichi Triennale, the host
of the exhibition, said in a state-
ment.
Mr. Tsuda said that he regretted
the decision, which officials said
was made after threats of terror-
ism.
Statues of so-called comfort
women have long been an irritant
to Japanese nationalists who dis-

pute that the women were forced

into servitude. When the exhibit

opened last week, several right-

leaning lawmakers from the party

of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pro-

tested the inclusion of the statue,

the work of two South Korean art-

ists.

Officially, the governor of Aichi

Prefecture, Hideaki Omura, cited

a decision to “put a priority on

safety” in closing the exhibit at the

Aichi Triennale, which is held in

Nagoya, Japan’s fourth-largest

city, and is one of the more inter-

nationally visible Japanese art

fairs.

Less than three weeks ago, an

attacker set fire to an animation

studio in Kyoto and killed 35 peo-

ple. Mr. Omura said faxes sent to

the festival organizers warned of

similar attacks.

But there was little question

that politics was also involved.

After visiting the exhibit last

week, Takashi Kawamura, the

mayor of Nagoya, said he wanted

it closed because it “tramples on

the feelings of Japanese citizens.”

In a news conference on Mon-

day, Mr. Kawamura, who has also

previously disputed that the Japa-

nese Army committed mass

killings in Nanjing, China, during

the war, said that freedom of ex-

pression “is not freedom where

people can do whatever they want

to.” With public funds supporting

the festival, “freedom of expres-

sion has a certain limit,” he said.

However, Mr. Omura, the Aichi

governor, lamented the exhibi-

tion’s closure because of terrorism

threats.

“The government and public of-

ficials should be the ones protect-

ing freedom of expression,” he

said. “Even if the expression is not

to their taste, they should accept

an expression as expression.”

Stylistically, the statue in the

Aichi exhibit resembled statues

erected by activists in front of Jap-

anese embassies and consulates

in South Korea and around the

world. A curator’s note accompa-

nying the work, titled “Statue of

Peace,” described it as embodying

a “spirit to stand against injustice

that has been inherited over gen-

erations.”

Mr. Abe’s government has been

particularly sensitive to the com-

fort women statues. In 2017, his

administration recalled its ambas-

sador to South Korea for three

months to protest a statue, depict-

ing a barefoot young woman in

traditional Korean dress sitting in

a chair, that was placed in front of

the Japanese Consulate in Busan,

South Korea.

Critics accused the organizers

of the Aichi exhibit of using the

terrorist threats to justify bowing

to political pressure.

“The Japanese government re-

peatedly insists in other instances

that it will not bow to threats of vi-

olence or terrorism,” Tessa Morris

Suzuki, professor emerita at Aus-

tralian National University who

has written about ethnic Korean

communities in Japan, wrote in an

email. “How can some threat from

an extremist so readily result in

this capitulation from the authori-

ties?”

One of the artists, Kim Eun-

sang, said the shutdown indicated

that Japanese society was “re-

gressing.”

“We know Japan as a country

that respects arts and culture,”

Mr. Kim said in a telephone inter-

view. “We always knew it as an ad-

vanced and a civil country in that

regard, but as the Abe administra-

tion came in, democracy is being

compromised and even specific

exhibitions are considered some-

thing that the government can

shut down at its will.”

On social media, Michiyoshi

Hatakeyama, a freelance writer,

deplored what he viewed as a

clearly political decision, particu-

larly amid an escalating diplomat-

ic and trade feud.

“There’s absolutely no need for

art to clear up the mess politics

made,” Mr. Hatakeyama wrote on

Twitter. More than 16,000 people

signed an online petition pro-

testing the decision to halt the ex-

hibit.

Kim Seo-kyung, the statue’s

other artist, said it was a shame

that the exhibit was closed so

soon, given that those who had

visited in the three days it was

open seemed to absorb its mes-

sage.

“I think most people, especially

women, found the pain of war in

the statue,” Ms. Kim said. “Many

said while crying, ‘We shouldn’t

have war.’ They stared at the stat-

ue for a long time showing expres-

sions of empathetic sadness.”

Ms. Kim recalled one mother

who came with her young daugh-

ter and asked the girl why she

thought there was a bird on the

seated figure’s shoulder. “The

daughter said, ‘It’s because she is

lonely,’ ” Ms. Kim said.

Japan-South Korea Tussle

Forces Art Exhibit Closing

Part of the Aichi Triennale in

Nagoya, Japan, closed early

over a “comfort woman” statue.

THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

By MOTOKO RICH

Reporting was contributed by
Eimi Yamamitsu, Makiko Inoue
and Hisako Ueno from Tokyo, and
Su-hyun Lee from Seoul, South Ko-
rea.