Hong Kong is bracing for another huge
anti-government march on Sunday afternoon with seemingly no end in sight
to the turmoil engulfing the finance hub, sparked by years of rising
anger over Beijing's rule.
The city has been plunged into its worst crisis in recent history by
weeks of marches and sporadic violent confrontations between police and
pockets of hardcore protesters.
The initial protests were lit by a now suspended bill that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China.
But they have since evolved into a wider movement calling for democratic
reforms, universal suffrage and a halt to sliding freedoms in the
semi-autonomous financial hub.
In a city unaccustomed to such upheaval, police have fired tear gas and
rubber bullets while the parliament has been trashed by protesters -- as
Beijing's authority faces its most serious challenge since Hong Kong
was handed back to China in 1997.
- Security tightened -
Sunday's rally -- which will follow a now well-trodden route through the
main island's streets -- will be the seventh weekend in a row that
protesters have come out en masse.
Generally the marches have passed off peacefully but are followed by
violence between riot police and small groups of more hardcore
protesters.
Security was tightened in the city centre, with metal street fencing
often used by protesters to build barricades removed ahead of the march,
and large water-filled barriers thrown up around the police
headquarters.
The huge crowds have had little luck persuading the city's unelected
leaders -- or Beijing -- to change tack on the hub's future.
Under the 1997 handover deal with Britain, China promised to allow Hong
Kong to keep key liberties such as its independent judiciary and freedom
of speech.
But many say those provisions are already being curtailed, citing the
disappearance into mainland custody of dissident booksellers, the
disqualification of prominent politicians and the jailing of
pro-democracy protest leaders.
Authorities have also resisted calls for the city's leader to be directly elected by the people.
- Acrimony deepening -
Protesters have vowed to keep their movement going until their core
demands are met, such as the resignation of city leader Carrie Lam, an
independent inquiry into police tactics, an amnesty and a permanent
withdrawal of the bill.
Yet there is little sign that either Lam or Beijing are willing to budge.
Beyond agreeing to suspend the extradition bill there has been few other
concessions and fears are rising that Beijing's patience is running
out.
Earlier this week the South China Morning Post reported that Beijing was
drawing up a plan to deal with Hong Kong, citing sources on the
mainland.
But the details that were published suggested little appetite to defuse
public anger over sliding freedoms and instead focused on shoring up
support for Lam and the police.
On Saturday, the establishment mustered its own supporters in their tens
of thousands for a rally, a gathering that was covered in detail by
Chinese state media and pro-Beijing newspapers in Hong Kong.
Few see a political solution to the crisis on the horizon.
Steve Vickers, a former head of the police's Criminal Investigation
Bureau before the handover who now runs a risk consultancy, said the
public order situation would likely "worsen" in the coming weeks.
"Polarisation within Hong Kong society and intense acrimony between
protesters and police are deepening," he wrote in a note to clients.
"The protests are settling into a pattern of peaceful demonstration
culminating in deliberately orchestrated violence, before a lull in
preparation for the next 'battle'," he added.
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