Hong Kong police arrested 37 people after attempts to clear the remnants of another mass large protest march against the government Sunday resulted in clashes with demonstrators in a suburban shopping mall.
Scuffles broke out in New Town Plaza as police moved clear the last stragglers from a rally in Sha Tin, where an estimated 28,000 to 110,000 protesters had turned out to protest against Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s administration. The unrest came as the Financial Times reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, that Lam had in recent weeks offered to resign, only to be refused by authorities in Beijing.
Eleven police officers were injured, including two who lost fingers, in fights between riot police and umbrella-wielding protesters Sunday evening, Radio Television Hong Kong reported. Several demonstrators were also injured at the mall, which is owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd.
Hong Kong demonstrators have rallied every week since mid-June, garnering global attention for the unprecedented size of the crowds, and as some turned violent. The Financial Times said Sunday that the Chinese government refused to accept Lam’s offers to step down. One of them said Beijing insisted that she remain in office to fix “the mess she created.”
Lam last week declared that original cause of the protests -- legislation that would allow extraditions to the mainland -- was “dead.” She stopped short of officially withdrawing the bill, leaving open the potential for authorities to revive it with 12 days’ notice and providing new momentum for protesters.
Further protests are now being planned in neighborhoods across the city by demonstrators organizing themselves online and vowing to spread the word in districts across the city until Lam responds to their demands.
Sha Tin, where Sunday’s protests was held, is a popular destination for locals and visitors from mainland China and home to the city’s main horse-racing track. Rally organizers said 110,000 people took part in a demonstration in the area earlier, RTHK reported, while police estimated the crowd at 28,000.
On Saturday, scuffles broke also out between police and demonstrators after a rally against parallel traders ended in Sheung Shui, near the China border. More than 30,000 people took part in the largely peaceful march, according to North District Parallel Imports Concern Group convener Ronald Leung. Police estimated the turnout at 4,000.
The Civil Human Rights Front, a leading protest organizer, on Friday called for a new rally July 21 in the Admiralty area, ground zero for previous gatherings that brought hundreds of thousands of people on to the streets. The group’s major demand will be an independent probe into what they call excessive use of force by police in dispersing previous demonstrations with weapons including tear gas, batons and rubber bullets.
Protesters’ ire has in recent days focused on China, which has ruled the former British colony since 1997. Thousands of demonstrators last Sunday walked through the Tsim Sha Tsui area popular with mainland tourists toward the city’s new high-speed rail station to China, in order to reach out to visitors from China.
China has continued to back Lam publicly. Its top official in Hong Kong on Thursday said Beijing continues to “fully” support her and the police’s efforts to safeguard social order in the city. Beijing trusts the government “to continue to govern effectively in accordance to the law,” said Wang Zhimin, director of China’s liaison office in Hong Kong.
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