Outside Admiralty station in Hong Kong half a dozen people were handing out masks. A supply station was being stocked with cases of water bottles, towels, hard hats and in one case some sanitary pads and a bible. Barricades had been turned into makeshift ladders, helping protesters to climb over the road divider from one side to the other. The centre of Hong Kong was a no-go zone for traffic. Taxi drivers had given up for the day and gone home.
Among the protesters opposing the extradition bill that would make it easier to hand suspects over to China there was a sense of unity, purpose and urgency.
‘We will keep fighting’
Justin Lai and Carie Ching were helping to supply protesters with water and food, underneath one of the walkways at Admiralty.
They said they were there “to say no to the policy”. They were aware debate over the extradition bill was called off on Wednesday, but said it was not enough. “They didn’t cancel the discussion they just delay,” said Ching. “We will keep fighting,” said Lai.
‘People feel like this is the last battle’
One young woman, who did not want to be named, sat under an umbrella and on top of a mess of barricades and road barriers that separated police and protesters.
“I feel like the police are being really calm but you would never know what they’re going to do next,” she said. “We have experienced something like this before, the umbrella revolution, and we want to prepare as much as possible … to protect ourselves.”
Like many others, the delaying of Wednesday’s debate on the extradition bill created hope but not enough to convince her to leave.
She said: “We’re intimidating them. We’re just waiting for a miracle … a lot of people feel like this is the last battle and we have to fight it. I just wish the government would listen. The government should work for the people, not the other way around.”
‘We don’t trust China’
One protester, a 55-year-old lab technician who gave his name only as Chan, said: “I am here for Hong Kong, for our next generation.
“We don’t trust China. Rules and laws can be arbitrarily applied and we can see this in Hong Kong already,” he says, citing the recent disqualifications of pro-democracy politicians and jailing of the leaders of the 2014 Occupy Central movement.
He said if the law was passed he would convert his savings to US dollars and seek to move abroad.
Quick guide What are the Hong Kong protests about?
The protests were triggered by a controversial bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, where the Communist party controls the courts, but have since evolved into a broader pro-democracy movement.
Public anger – fuelled by the aggressive tactics used by the police against demonstrators – has collided with years of frustration over worsening inequality and the cost of living in one of the world's most expensive, densely populated cities.
The protest movement was given fresh impetus on 21 July when gangs of men attacked protesters and commuters at a mass transit station – while authorities seemingly did little to intervene.
Underlying the movement is a push for full democracy in the city, whose leader is chosen by a committee dominated by a pro-Beijing establishment rather than by direct elections.
Protesters have vowed to keep their movement going until their core demands are met, such as the resignation of the city’s leader, Carrie Lam, an independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty for those arrested and a permanent withdrawal of the bill.
Beijing’s influence over Hong Kong has grown in recent years, as activists have been jailed and pro-democracy lawmakers disqualified from running or holding office. Independent booksellers have disappeared from the city, before reappearing in mainland China facing charges.
Under the terms of the agreement by which the former British colony was returned to Chinese control in 1997, the semi-autonomous region was meant to maintain a “high degree of autonomy” through an independent judiciary, a free press and an open market economy, a framework known as “one country, two systems”.
The extradition bill was seen as an attempt to undermine this and to give Beijing the ability to try pro-democracy activists under the judicial system of the mainland.
Lam has shown no sign of backing down beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill, while Beijing has issued increasingly shrill condemnations but has left it to the city's semi-autonomous government to deal with the situation. Meanwhile police have violently clashed directly with protesters, repeatedly firing teargas and rubber bullets.
Beijing has ramped up its accusations that foreign countries are “fanning the fire” of unrest in the city. China’s top diplomat Yang Jiechi has ordered the US to “immediately stop interfering in Hong Kong affairs in any form”.
‘We don’t want to get violent’
Brian Chan, 23, a university graduate, was pepper sprayed by police and treated at a makeshift first-aid station. His arms were red from an allergic reaction.
He said: “We don’t want to get violent and it’s wrong, but if the government keeps ignoring us we can’t rule out escalating our actions.” He declined to elaborate.
‘Law could easily be used for political purposes’
Grace Chan, 30, who has a two-year-old child, said: “I don’t want my kid to grow up in a place where we have no sense of security. Although they say the law is for going after fugitives, it can be so easily used for political purpose.”
‘Why did they use tear gas?’
Later, as police began to attack the protesters with rubber bullets and tear gas, Ada, 48, said she was “shocked and upset”. She was on a walkway above the site where police fired the shots. “I had no idea they would keep firing tear gas as people were retreating already. Why did they do that?”
Two young men in their 20s said they were hit by tear gas and were now leaving. One said: “I am not sure if I’ll come back. The situation is too bad now.”
‘The law is a very wrong thing’
“The government just wants to scare the young people [by shooting tear gas],” said 80-year-old Wong Shan. “The government really shouldn’t do this to peaceful protesters. Some police were even holding rifles. Unlike the 1967 riot, nobody is wrecking shops. They are just voicing their opinions. The law is a very wrong thing.”
“Hong Kong has become a dangerous place,” said Freeman Yim, 36, a construction worker. “You can just imagine what Hong Kong will become once the law comes in. Everyone has come out, whatever sector they belong to. But the government doesn’t listen. We cannot put up with this any more.”
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