A pro-democracy protester, right, and a worker remove a fence in accordance with a court injunction to clear up part of the protest site, after the arrival of bailiffs outside the government headquarters in Hong Kong Nov. 18, 2014. (Tyrone Siu/Reuters)
By William Wan and Kris Cheng Lok-Chit November 17
HONG KONG — Authorities began clearing barricades from roads around the main pro-democracy protest site Tuesday after a court issued an order freeing up access to a commercial building.
The action took place after the owners of CITIC Tower secured a court order to unblock the entrance to the building on the edge of the main protest site in Hong Kong’s Admiralty District.
But there was no attempt to clear barricades or tents from the center of the protest site.
Bailiffs read out the court order at 9:30 a.m. local time and asked people to leave the site. Shortly afterward, about 10 workers hired by the property owners began using scissors to cut plastic ties and removing the barriers around the 33-story building, which houses offices, restaurants and shops. About 100 police officers stood by.
Several hundred protesters watched without interfering, although student leaders argued with bailiffs about which barricades needed to be cleared to comply with the order. More protesters arrived as the morning wore on.
Earlier, Hong Kong police said in a statement that they were “ready to give the fullest support to the bailiffs to execute the court order.”
“Any act that amounts to obstruction may render one liable to the offence of ‘criminal contempt of court.’ If anyone obstructs or violently charges the bailiffs when they are executing their duties, Police will take resolute action,” read a police notice Monday.
The court issued a similar injunction last month ordering students leave a site in the working-class neighborhood of Mong Kok.
A third injunction brought by two transport companies requesting that more streets in Admiralty be cleared is under consideration.
For more than a month, students demanding that Hong Kong residents be able choose their leaders without interference from Beijing have camped in major neighborhoods such as Mong Kok, Admiralty and Causeway Bay.
Use of force early on triggered widespread anger and even greater turnout in support of the occupation, after Hong Kong authorities used pepper spray and tear gas on unarmed students in late September. Since then, despite sporadic clashes, the government has been reluctant to deploy similar force for fear of further galvanizing the movement.
In recent weeks, however, the movement — known as the Umbrella Revolution or Occupy Central — has waned, with a hard-core group of just a few hundred protesters remaining on many days.
According to a poll released Sunday by the Chinese University of Hong Kong, support for the occupying students has dropped to 33.9 percent, compared with 37.8 percent in October. Of the respondents, 43.5 percent said they don’t support the occupy movement, up from 35.5 percent in October. The poll also showed that 67.4 percent of respondents to the poll, which was conducted Nov. 5-11, thought students should leave occupied areas.
Three student leaders attempted to fly to Beijing on Saturday to take their demands to China’s top officials. Theywere stopped at the Hong Kong airport.
A much-anticipated televised dialogue Oct. 21 between Hong Kong leaders and five student representatives failed to resolve the issue.
When the former British colony was handed back to Chinese control in 1997, Beijing promised “one country, two systems” that would grant Hong Kong more autonomy than other parts of China. It has also promised democratic elections for chief executive in 2017 and for legislative council after 2020.
But in recent statements, Chinese leaders have made clear that they will allow only candidates vetted and approved by Beijing to be elected.
The dispute also taps into deeper tensions between Hong Kong and mainland China in recent years over the influx of mainlanders to Hong Kong, bringing business but also competing with local residents for housing and goods such as baby formula.
Simon Denyer and Xu Yangjinjing in Beijing contributed to this report.
William Wan is The Post’s China correspondent based in Beijing. He served previously as a religion reporter and diplomatic correspondent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/hong-kong-authorities-launch-move-to-oust-pro-democracy-student-protesters/2014/11/17/b6c15e5e-6ec6-11e4-893f-86bd390a3340_story.html
