{"id":5325,"date":"2020-07-02T19:07:31","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T19:07:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=5325"},"modified":"2020-07-02T19:07:31","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T19:07:31","slug":"hong-kong-police-fire-tear-gas-and-rubber-bullets-ahead-of-key-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=5325","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong police fire tear gas and rubber bullets ahead of key anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hong Kong police on Sunday toughened their crowd control measures, pushing back forcefully with tear gas and water cannons against pro-democracy protesters as tensions continue to spike ahead of China\u2019s National Day celebrations on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Running street battles with the riot police began in the early afternoon after\u00a0thousands of demonstrators\u00a0descended on Hong Kong\u2019s normally crowded central shopping district of Causeway Bay for an unauthorised march.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Chaos and violence broke out as protests against Beijing\u2019s rule gripped the city for the 17th consecutive weekend, in what began as a movement against a controversial mainland extradition bill\u00a0but has now morphed into a wider cry for democracy and universal suffrage.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>The civil unrest has intensified in recent days as protesters become more determined to amplify their message ahead of the Chinese Communist Party\u2019s highly choreographed events to mark the 70th anniversary of the People\u2019s Republic of China.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Although Sunday\u2019s march drew thousands of peaceful participants, it quickly took an aggressive turn as police stopped and searched a number of young people dressed in black and fired tear gas before the planned 3pm start time, sending panicked shoppers and protesters fleeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure>\n<noscript><\/noscript><figcaption>\nMultiple arrests were made during violent protests on SundayCredit:<br \/>\nTyrone Siu\/Reuters<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The remaining crowds, some holding \u201cChinazi\u201d flags, combining the words China and Nazi, chanted insults at the riot police,\u00a0shouting \u201ctriads!\u201d and \u201cyou are not even a Hong Konger, go back to Mainland China.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Violent clashes spread out across the city centre as the demonstrations moved towards the government and financial districts and a small, hardcore group of black-clad protesters smashed the glass window of a train station and hurled Molotov cocktails.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Riot officers tried to clear the streets by firing rubber bullets, tear gas and blue dye from water cannons &#8211;\u00a0 the latter aiming to stain protesters to make them easier to identify later. Journalists and a local politician were also targeted during several rounds of pepper spray and a during one confrontation a live warning shot was reportedly fired in the air.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Multiple arrests were made during the mayhem, with The Telegraph counting at least 30 within the space of a few hours.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>As Beijing\u2019s key anniversary approaches, the Hong Kong police have also increased stop and search operations at subway stations and on public transport, focussing on citizens wearing black, the colour of the protests.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>After four months of the worst political unrest since Hong Kong\u2019s handover to China in 1997, demonstrators still seem determined to defy Beijing and secure their freedoms.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure>\n<noscript><\/noscript><figcaption>\nRiot police advance towards Hong Kong protestersCredit:<br \/>\nVincent Yu\/AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cI have no idea what will be the next stage, but what the government is doing now is definitely wrong. It affects me, it affects the next generation, and others.\u201d said Winnie Tang, 22, a university student.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to do something&#8230;many of us now understand that we have freedom of speech, and the government can\u2019t limit our rights.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile on Sunday, thousands rallied in Sydney and Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, to support Hong Kong and kick off a day of global &quot;anti-totalitarianism&quot; demonstrations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In Taiwan, a democracy of 23 million which Beijing claims as its own, thousands braved torrential rain as they marched with \u201cNo China\u201d posters and chanted \u201cTaiwan with Hong Kong! Free Hong Kong!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the biggest fear of the Taiwanese people is that we don\u2019t want the Chinese government to take control [of us] because they are not free, they are authoritarian and they don\u2019t care about people\u2019s opinions,\u201d said one participant, Ching, 23, who runs her own fashion business.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhenever something happens in Hong Kong, there is always a slogan saying today Hong Kong, tomorrow Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hong Kong police on Sunday toughened their crowd control measures, pushing back forcefully with tear gas and water cannons against pro-democracy protesters as tensions continue to spike ahead of China\u2019s National Day celebrations on Tuesday.\u00a0 Running street battles with the riot police began in the early afternoon after\u00a0thousands of demonstrators\u00a0descended on Hong Kong\u2019s normally crowded&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5325"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5325\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}