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Hong Kong Officials Label Democracy Protests Public Safety Threat

Brian Padden

   (Anita Powell and Yihua Lee of VOA Mandarin Service contributed to this
   article.)

   HONG KONG -- Hong Kong pro-democracy groups scaled down demonstrations
   over the weekend, as government officials increasingly categorize the
   protests as a threat to public safety and equate violence committed by
   activists with domestic terrorism.

   For the last four months, Hong Kong has been disrupted by often massive
   and violent protests against what is seen as Beijing's efforts to erode
   the autonomy and civil liberties that the Chinese-ruled city enjoys
   under its "one-country -two systems" model.

   Rainy protests

   On a rainy Sunday, over 1,000 protesters lined the balconies of a
   shopping mall in central Hong Kong, chanting "fight for freedom."

   Some masked activists in the mall disrupted a suspected Chinese-owned
   restaurant by sending in hundreds of fake food orders on electronic
   kiosks.

   At police headquarters a group of senior citizens called the
   "Silver-Haired Marchers" held a weekend-long sit-in at police
   headquarters to show support for the predominately young protesters.

   A group of demonstrators made paper folding cranes at an event in in
   Kowloon, across from Hong Kong Island.

   However, an expected rally in the Causeway Bay shopping district did
   not happen, in an area where last week tens of thousands participated
   in a march across the city center.
   Riot police fired tear gas at a protest rally on Sunday in an area
   where last week a protester was shot with live ammunition.

   In June, participation in anti-government demonstrations peaked when
   nearly 2 million came out to opposed a now-withdrawn extradition bill
   that critics said would give Beijing wide power to arrest Hong Kong
   residents.

   Sinister character

   While the vast majority of protests have been peaceful, there have been
   increasing incidents of violence during which masked activists have
   vandalized businesses and the city subway system, and attacked police
   with bricks and homemade gasoline bombs.

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