HONG KONG – Hong Kong protesters started the new year the way much of the old one had gone: on the streets.
Nearly a month of relative calm ended abruptly on Wednesday with the sounds of protesters singing and tear gas rifles from police officers.
A peaceful New Year’s march fell in a few hours in violent clashes. Riot police deployed water cannons and pepper spray. Protesters built barricades with umbrellas and cobblestones and vandalized at least two branches of a city-leading bank, HSBC.
The traps of the previous six months were there: the all-black dress code, the face masks, and the weird Molotov cocktail. But the context of Wednesday’s march was decidedly different. When the protests began in June, the tone was one of just rage; now it was rather a doubt.
“The government is unwilling to back down at this time,” said Grace Ng, 30, a public relations professional who has attended half a dozen marches since the protests began. “I want the government to commit, but I don’t think there is enough international attention right now to make them bow to the people.”
As the movement enters the new year, its momentum is in question. It remains to be seen whether protesters have the resistance, public support or inclination to continue fighting the government, which has repeatedly said it will not grant its demands for greater democracy.
It is also unclear how long the city can withstand a move that has already led to 6,000 arrests and an economic recession.
“I think a lot of us have no idea what to do next,” said Jessica Man, 19, a college student. “I don’t know what we could do to move forward.”
At the heart of the protests is concern over the erosion of civil liberties in Hong Kong, a former colony to which a unique set of liberties was promised when Britain returned it to China in 1997. they have been exacerbated by economic problems, including house prices, income inequality and the scarcity of well-paid jobs.
In November, Hong Kong expressed support for the protests at the polls, overwhelmingly electing pro-democracy politicians for neighborhood offices. It was a sharp rebuke to Communist Party officials in China and led to the longest period of relative calm since the protests began.
Wednesday’s march was the second large-scale demonstration the police had authorized since the election and tens of thousands took to the streets, if not more. But hours after it began, police rescinded their permit alleging an outbreak of violence and vandalism. A large number of people were still waiting to march to the stage area of the event when police made the announcement.
The Civil Rights Human Front, which organized the march, called the police decision “absurd” and accused them of escalating tensions by firing tear gas at a crowd. In a statement, he said that unless the demands of the protesters are met, “Hong Kongers will not back down and peace will not be resumed with the ongoing police brutality.”
As night fell, family scenes were being played in the streets, as protesters built barricades, lit fires and fought riot police. Several dozen people were rounded up by police in the Causeway Bay area; some witnesses said some of them had been passers-by. A pro-democracy lawmaker, Ted Hui, was pepper spray directly on the face by a police officer, after the officer ripped off Mr. Hui’s goggles.
Ng Lok-Chun, a senior police superintendent, later said about 400 people had been arrested and that the charges included participation in an illegal assembly and possession of weapons. He said police had revoked the march permit because some participants had “hijacked the procession” and “dropped a petrol bomb on an officer.”
“Police are reluctant to end the march,” he said.
Protests began in June over long-lost legislation that would have allowed extradition to mainland China, where the courts are opaque and subordinate to the Communist Party. Since then, protesters have expanded their demands to include a wide range of grievances, including greater democracy and an investigation into alleged police brutality.
Wednesday’s march further extended the movement’s reach, calling on people to join labor unions with a view to future strikes and to resist the dreaded crackdown on Hong Kong educators linked to the movement.
Many protesters donated money to a booth set up by Spark Alliance, a fund that has raised millions of dollars to provide legal support and other assistance to protesters. The donations defied a police operation last month, in which four people were arrested the suspected money laundering and $ 9 million fund assets were frozen.
On Wednesday, at least five people were arrested for vandalizing a glass door and ATMs at an HSBC branch that had closed its Spark Alliance account. It has been banks and companies that are perceived to have ties to mainland China or the Hong Kong government intended for vandalism or boycotts by some protesters.
A witness, Kan Cheng, said he saw up to nine undercover police officers hitting two youths near the bank’s broken door.
“I saw a protester being beaten and had done nothing,” Ms. Cheng, 60, said. “It hadn’t been vandalized at all.”
For the city’s leadership, protests are the biggest political crisis since Britain’s demise. Hong Kong Executive President Carrie Lam has struggled to address the concern while satisfying her superiors in Beijing.
On New Year’s Eve, Mrs. Lam went to the territory and asked for calm before the protest. “We start 2021 with a new resolution, to restore order and harmony in society. So we can start again, together, “he said in a video message.
“We need to manage the problems we have at our disposal and recognize the shortcomings of our systems, as well as the deep-rooted problems and conflicts that have been accumulating for many years in our society,” he said.
Ms. Lam, who introduced and eventually withdrew the extradition bill that sparked the protests, has pledged to address the social and economic issues that she says are based on unrest. But the government said in a statement on Wednesday that “the top priority now is to stop the violence and restore social order as soon as possible so that people’s daily lives and various business activities can return to normal.” .
It is a message that has resonated in Beijing. Top Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who has allowed an unknown degree of public protest in Hong Kong on the mainland, mentioned the protests in his New Year’s Day speech, saying that “prosperity and stability of Hong Kong is the desire of Hong Kong compatriots and the expectation for the people of the homeland ”.
The reports were provided by Ezra Cheung, Katherine Li and Jamie Tarabay of Hong Kong and Chris Buckley of Beijing.