As Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests stretch into their third month, one question looms large—how much longer can the stand-off continue?
After all, the center of the city has been colonized by a pro-democracy tent city that looks more permanent by the day. It hasn’t prevented most Hong Kongers from getting to work, but serves as a public daily reminder of the deep ideological rift between Beijing and its allies, and many of Hong Kong’s citizens.
A series of violent clashes between protesters and police—which started Sunday night and reached their zenith early this morning—point to an answer.
The protesters, after more than a week of seeing their encampments systematically dismantled by police, have decided to step up their actions to force the government to react and bring the demonstrations to a head. And police, after months of mostly non-confrontational tactics, seem to have lost any qualms about using violent force. In short, both sides appear to be acting with a new-found determination that seems likely to end the stalemate in a very messy fashion.
Here’s how the situation developed: On Sunday night, student leaders called on protesters to surround Hong Kong government’s headquarters, in a calculated bid to change the dynamics of the protests. At about 9pm, Nathan Law Kwun-chung of the Federation of Students urged people to make a “long journey” through the night. In response, thousands of demonstrators, wearing helmets, face masks and home-made shields came pouring into the area.
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“We feel that the government feels no pressure if this movement simply drags on like this,” Scholarism leader Oscar Lai told the New York Times(paywall). “This escalation shows that Hong Kong people can’t wait anymore.”
What followed was a series of nasty confrontations over more than 12 hours, as protesters filled a tunnel near the government headquarters, surrounded the building, andreportedly threw objects at police.
Police responded by clearing tents in the adjacent Tamar Park and spraying pepper spray into the crowds (which, as Quartz reported earlier, probably came from a family-run company near Ferguson, Missouri):
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For the first time, police also pulled out fire hoses to disperse the crowds,Apple Daily reported:
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They also used metal batons to beat back protesters:
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And, after clearing pro-democracy signs from one walkway over the main protest site, even flipped protesters the bird.
Despite the police’s muscular reaction, as things stand late Monday morning in Hong Kong, protesters in Admiralty seem to have the upper hand, outnumbering police and blocking the entrance to a mall and office complex across the street from the government headquarters:
The government was forced to close government buildings Monday and suspend all legislative meetings. Police report that 45 people have been arrested and an unknown number injured, including one police officer who was removed on a stretcher.
Almost no one in Hong Kong (or for that matter almost anywhere else) believes Beijing will allow Hong Kong citizens to choose their own candidates in the next election. That means there’s a limited number of ways the situation can be resolved: Protesters could decide to voluntarily step down—which now seems increasingly unlikely—or police will use force to completely clear the protest sites across the city. In fact, the government is expected to issue an injunction later Monday to clear some of the rest of the Admiralty protest site.
As some police left the scene on Monday morning, they were heckled and jeered. Reporter Tom Grundy called it the “the angriest scene I’ve seen” at the Umbrella Movement protests.
Expect things to get a lot angrier before it is all over.
