Source: The Independent (11/12/19)
Hong Kong is trying to impose Tiananmen by stealth – Carrie Lam herself is now the ‘enemy of the people’
This isn’t a confrontation between the government and rebellious youths. It is a clash between a lame-duck government imposing the iron will of Beijing and millions of citizens
By Stuart Heaver

The regular weekend street protests in Hong Kong have spilled over into pitch battles in the middle of the working day in the city’s busy financial district, as Carrie Lam’s beleaguered government gives the police a free hand to impose a Beijing style crackdown on all forms of dissent.

There may be no tanks, but many believe the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) troops are already here, disguised as Hong Kong riot police as part of a concerted policy to impose Tiananmen by stealth and create a climate of fear.

It can’t be verified but riot police in full body amour looking like stormtroopers from a science fiction movie, wear masks, show no official ID and are often heard speaking in Putonghua dialect. They could be anyone. The average height of Hong Kong police officers appears to have increased by about 10cm since July and photos circulated online by the Demosisto party, appear to show Hong Kong police mustered inside a PLA barracks. Their primary job is to intimidate. Continue reading →

Source: Sup China (11/11/19)
Hong Kong’s Monday of mayhem

Photo credit: SupChina illustration

For most of the 24 weeks of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, the city has seethed on weekends but returned to something resembling normalcy on weekdays. Only twice have there been significant exceptions to that — a general strike on Wednesday, June 12, and further strikes and an occupation of the airport for days in early August. Today was the third exception, as a protester was shot and critically injured by what appeared to be a traffic cop at about 7:15 a.m., according to the Hong Kong Free Press.

Later in the day, a man was “set alight following a heated argument” with demonstrators, and was admitted to a nearby hospital with severe burns, AFP reports. The South China Morning Post has more on the status of the two injured persons, and other details on what it calls the day’s “unprecedented working-hours mayhem”: Continue reading →

Source: NYT (11/7/19)
Anger in Hong Kong After Student Dies From Fall Following Clash With Police
The death of the student, Chow Tsz-lok, ignited public fury after months of antigovernment demonstrations.
By Austin Ramzy and Ezra Cheung

Protesters with placards that read “missing classmate Chow” gathered Friday outside the home of the president of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Credit…Kin Cheung/Associated Press

HONG KONG — A Hong Kong student died on Friday after falling earlier this week from a parking garage where police officers clashed with protesters, a development that further escalated the public’s fury after months of antigovernment demonstrations.

Chow Tsz-lok, who was a student at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, sustained head and pelvis injuries when he fell one story early Monday morning. His death on Friday morning was confirmed by the city’s Hospital Authority.

Anger with the police has run high over the force’s widespread use of tear gas, pepper spray and batons on demonstrators during five months of protest. A key demand of the protest movement, which began over a now-withdrawn extradition bill, has been an independent investigation into the police’s use of force. Continue reading →

Source: Washington Post (10/25/19)
‘I will die with the city’: A young woman’s chilling message from Hong Kong’s front lines
By Chermaine Lee

A woman is arrested by police after residents and protesters gathered outside the Mong Kok Police Station in September in Hong Kong. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

HONG KONG — Every Friday, Alexa dines at home with her father, a single man who she says is unaware of his daughter’s secret. Afterward, the 21-year-old college student kisses her teddy bear good night.

Then, as the weekend arrives, she slips out of their Kowloon apartment and hits the streets to join Hong Kong’s fight for democracy amid increasing crackdowns by the city’s Beijing-backed authorities.

Often, she doesn’t return home until Monday morning. When her father asks her whereabouts, “I tell him I am working late,” she said. Continue reading →

Source: Verso Books (10/11/19
Hong Kong’s Sinkhole
By Pang Laikwan
The protests in Hong Kong continue to escalate. Yet, the Western left has struggled to come to terms with the situation – torn between the contradictory desire to support the movement and the mainly liberal democratic demands of the protestors themselves. In this article, Pang Laikwan analyses the nature and stakes of the movement.

I am often asked how Xi Jinping compares to Mao Zedong, and whether another cultural revolution is approaching. To this, my responses are always consistent: Xi might want to model himself on Mao for his leadership skills and charisma, and they might share a common will to power; but from the perspective of political philosophy the two Chinese leaders are polar opposites. The former Party chief truly believed in revolution, while the current one seems to be interested only in protecting the status quo. Mao was an exceptional Chinese leader, willing China into chaos with an, ultimately unrealistic, hope that only a radical social upheaval could save the Chinese people from feudalism and capitalism. Xi however understands and appeals to the deep Confucian and pragmatic psychology of the Chinese people with the promise of perpetual order and wealth. Under Xi’s leadership, there is no chance of a repeat of the 1966 Cultural Revolution in China. Yet what is possible is a new political movement, one that could happen at any time and taking a completely different form to wreak havoc once more. Continue reading →

Source: NYT (9/1/19)
Hong Kong Police Shoot Protester, as National Day Demonstrations Turn Violent
Police used a live round against a protester for the first time, as Beijing celebrated 70 years of Communist Party rule.
By The New York Times

Protesters near Wong Tai Sin in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Credit: Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

• Police shoot protester for the first time since protests began.
• Hong Kong is paralyzed as protesters and police clash.
• At a military parade, Xi sends a message to Hong Kong.
• Protesters elsewhere joined a huge, peaceful march.
• New high-tech weapons are put on display.

A Hong Kong police officer on Tuesday shot a teenage demonstrator, the first time in months of protests that a live round was fired at a protester. The shooting capped an evening of violent protests, escalating the territory’s political crisis on the same day that the central government staged a huge military parade in Beijing to celebrate 70 years of Communist control.

The protesters in Hong Kong hoped to upstage Beijing’s celebrations by holding their own unauthorized marches. Violence quickly broke out, as demonstrators in districts across the city engaged in some of the bloodiest and most sustained clashes since protesters began taking to the streets in early June. Continue reading →

The anthem of the Hong Kong protest movement 願榮光歸香港: