You South Africa – 29 August 2019

Forweeks,demonstratorsclashedwith

riotpoliceonthestreets.Butthingscame

to a head when they stormed Hong Kong

International Airport. Activists went into

battle with officers who were armed with

batons and pepper spray.

The protesters did their cause no favour

when they detained two mainlanders, fear-

ing they were undercover agents trying to

infiltrate their ranks. One turned out to be

a man who was at the airport seeing off a

friend and the other was a journalist. 

Police were prevented from reaching

themen, both of whom were eventually

taken to hospital. A court order was issued

preventing protesters from occupying the

airport but they vowed to carry on their

demonstrations in the city.

And they were true to their word. An es-

timated 1,7 million peaceful protesters, in-

cluding families and the elderly, took to

the streets for an 11th consecutive week-

end on 17 and 18 August. They defied tor-

rential rain and threats from authorities to

show solidarity for the pro-democracy

movement.

WHEN THINGS TURNED NASTY

CHINA’S RESPONSE

Beijing has labelled the protests as

“behaviour that’s close to terrorism”

and warned it would “take 10 minutes”

for its forces to reach Hong Kong.

After the airport siege, satellite

photos showed more than 100 ar-

moured personnel carriers belonging

to China’s paramilitary police amassing

at a stadium in the city of Shenzhen on

the Hong Kong border.

Mainland China is believed to have

dispatched policemen to swell the

ranks of Hong Kong forces. It’s under-

stood to have planted decoys among

the protesters to encourage more vio-

lentbehaviour with a view to turning

ordinary Hong Kongers against the

protestmovement.

Despiteitsshowofstrength,military

actionisa moveChinaiskeentoavoid,

experts say. The country is aware of the

negative effect mobilising its army would

have on Hong Kong’s reputation as a stable

investment prospect. It would also be evi-

dence the Communist party has failed to

win over Hong Kong’s people.

Above all, says Mark Almond, director of

the Crisis Institute in Oxford in the UK, it

would be a shocking reminder to the world

of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

“What Beijing wants most is for the pro-

testers to back down without its involve-

ment, not least because 1 October sees

the 70th anniversary of the founding of

the People’s Republic of China,” he writes

in the Daily Mail. “Bloodshed on Hong

Kong’s streets wouldn’t sit well with this

celebration.”

China also knows the potential cost of

sending an army into Hong Kong. “They’d be

seen as the invaders and could provoke ur-

ban guerrilla warfare.

“That would shatter the economy of Hong

Kong and unleash a tsunami of bad blood to

furtherswampChina’sreputation.”

p

ANOTHER TIANANMEN?

REVOLUTION FORTHEYOUNG

Young people are at the heartoftheactiv-

ism and have taken to usingappstoorgan-

ise themselves. In July, amas

testtookplaceafterorganis

calledfora PokémonGohun

torallysupport.

Onsubways,activists

sharelocationsofmeetings

viaWi-FiandBluetooth, and Uber drivers

turnofftheirGPS to transport protesters.

nersJOSHUA WONG (22, be-

arleft),andJOHNSONYEUNG

left)arefigureheadsof the

ovement.

“Todayyoungpeopleare tak-

ngtothestreets,putting their

vesonthelinebecause their

undamentalrightsareunder

reat,”theywriteinThe Guar-

n.“Wemayhavestopped Chi-

omextraditingpeoplefor now,

argerplottoerodeand pene-

trateourruleoflawandfreedomremains.

“Thebestdefenceisa goodoffence.”

pp g

ss pro-

sers

nt

Campaign

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(27,

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GALLO IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES, GALLO IMAGES/REUTERS

SOURCES: THEGUARDIAN.CO.UK, THETIMES.CO.UK, DAILYMAIL.COM, BUSINESSINSIDER.COM. SCMP.COM, BBC.CO.UK

THENUMBERS

150

How many years Hong Kong was a

British territory

71

The percentage of Hong

Kong residents who say

they’re not proud of being

Chinese citizens, according

to a University of Hong Kong poll

7,3 million

How many people live in Hong Kong

1,7 million

Estimated number of protesters who

took to the streets on 18 August – a

quarter of the population of the city

3 000 The number of trained riot

police, who usually have other roles

within the 30 000-strong police

force, that the authorities can call on

YOU NEWS

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