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HomeWorldAsiaThe flashpoints in a year of anger in Hong Kong

The flashpoints in a year of anger in Hong Kong

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Daily US Times: From the months of anti-government protests, residents of Hong Kong have been remembering key events of the protests that overwhelmed the city last year as democracy activists accuse authorities of trying to re-write history.

Some citizens attempted to leave bouquets of white flowers outside a metro station on Monday to mark the anniversary of a controversial night of the movement, but they were quickly removed by authorities.

There was an outcry in last week when an opposition lawmaker was arrested and accused of “rioting” in another key incident in July 2019 where mob violence had left him wounded and hospitalised.

As arrests keep mounting over the 2019 demonstrations, we look back at some of the defining moments of the pro-democracy movement in Hong Kong.

12 June 2019: The first tear gas and rubber bullets in Hong Kong

The protests in Hong Kong started as peaceful demonstrations against plans to allow extraditions to mainland China. An estimated one million people rallied on the streets on 9 June in a sign of the growing and vast opposition to the proposed bill.

The government was unwilling to engage with protesters but three days later the mood shifted when a small group of mostly young protesters hurled water bottles, bricks and umbrellas at police during one tense confrontation, the ferocity of the officers’ response shook Hong Kong.

Police fire tear gas during the demonstration on June 12 in a notable escalation of clashes. Source: Reuters

Police fired volleys of rubber bullets and tear gas, used for the first time in decades, into the crowd. In chaotic scenes, screaming protesters ran to escape a closed-off road which eyewitnesses described they narrowly avoided a stampede. Videos published in social media showed unarmed protesters who posed no threat to the police being beaten by heavily armoured officers. And in striking interventions, ordinary citizens were seen asking police not to harm the youth.

Leung Kai Chi, a lecturer in Chinese studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said: “It was an important turning point for the movement. There was a sense that justice has to be served and police have to be held to account.”

The next day Hong Kong’s police chief defended his officers saying they had been “restrained” and used an appropriate amount of force.

1 July 2019: The storming of parliament in Hong Kong

In one of the most symbolic and brazen acts of the protests thus far, a group of activists smashed through Hong Kong’s parliament after an hours-long siege.

Hundreds of people who broke away from a mass rally against the 22nd anniversary of the city’s return to China from Britain stormed into the Legislative Council.

The protesters spray-painted defiant messages on the walls after entering inside and tore down portraits of city leaders and unfurled a colonial-era flag in a clear political statement to leaders in Beijing and Hong Kong.

Source: Getty Images

This day is viewed by many as transforming a protest against an extradition bill into a much wider movement for greater democracy.

As scenes of the storming were beamed across the world, the government of Hong Kong was swift to denounce the act as vandalism, Beijing called it “totally intolerable”.

Mr Chan says what was surprising is how the usually law-abiding Hong Kong public broadly sympathised with protesters desperate to have their voices heard.

He said: “It was a very important moment that galvanised the whole movement.”

21 July 2019: White shirted ‘triads’ attack public in train station

The incident is known as 721 incident in Hong Kong and is seen as one of the most defining moments of last year’s protests.

On this night a mob of masked men at Yuen Long subway station, mostly wearing white and brandishing metal rods, attacked protesters returning home from a peaceful rally.

Source: Getty Images

The violence, which left dozens of bystanders and protesters injured, marked a critical turning point in how many of the public viewed the police, who were late to arrive at the scene.

At the time police said they were entangled in other rallies, but protesters accused the police of failing to offer protection against attackers suspected to be triad gangsters.

31 August 2019: The 831 incident

Fresh violence erupted in a Hong Kong metro station at the end of August. This time riot police stormed a train at Prince Edward subway, striking terrified passengers with batons and dispersing pepper spray to them.

Police targeted suspected democracy protesters clad in black, eyewitnesses said, but other passengers too were swept up in one of the most controversial nights of the protests.

Source: Getty Images

Joseph, a high school student on his way home from a rally, told: “My head wouldn’t stop bleeding.”

The police authority has rejected allegations of police brutality, saying officers deployed appropriate force.

But the events of that night remain seared in the minds of many Hong Kongers with ongoing tributes to those injured through artwork and flowers left outside the station.

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