HONG KONG — Hong Kong police for the first time fired live ammunition directly at protesters, injuring at least one seriously Tuesday, in a dramatic escalation against demonstrators as China celebrated the 70th anniversary of Communist Party rule.
The live fire brought a new level of violence that shocked a city already worried about police brutality and erosion of freedoms — all unfolding on a sensitive date for China under its leader, Xi Jinping.
Xi, in a grandiose ceremony in Beijing, spoke of uniting his whole country, an aspiration that appeared to be wholly disconnected with the hundreds of thousands who defied warnings from authorities, the risk of violence and a transportation shutdown in Hong Kong to protest increasing Chinese control.
Authorities in the Chinese city tried to hold muted parallel celebrations with Beijing right after daybreak on Tuesday, but the flag-raising ceremony was under such threat that no one could be outside to watch it. As the fire-red Chinese flag was hoisted accompanied by the rousing national anthem, officials watched from inside a sprawling convention center.
By midday, people were carrying Chinese flags with its stars rearranged into swastikas, and ripping celebratory banners from buildings in protests and marches that spread out over more than five Hong Kong districts.
Police detain demonstrators in the Sha Tin district of Hong Kong on Oct. 1 as violent demonstrations take place in the streets of the city. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images)
The demonstrations descended into panic and chaos by sundown, as police used huge amounts of tear gas, a water cannon and brute force to clear away the protesters, some of whom were peaceful while others threw bricks and petrol bombs at them. Marches earlier in the day had featured families, the elderly and children.
[How it happened: The evolution of Hong Kong’s protests]
According to a pro-democracy lawmaker and a video filmed by the Hong Kong University Students’ Union Campus TV, a protester in the Tsuen Wan neighborhood who was dressed in black, wearing a helmet and respirator, and carrying a homemade shield was shot by a police officer wielding a revolver. The video shows the man swinging a rod at the officer before the officer fired once, at close range.
The shot sent the protester tumbling backward over another officer, who was already on the ground.
Witnesses also saw another protester who appeared to be hit by a live round in his hand in the same neighborhood. Ken Lui, a 21-year-old student at Hong Kong Baptist University and part of the Students’ Union Editorial Board, said he heard a “loud bang” and ran toward it. He saw a man surrounded by police whose hand was bleeding after it was hit by a bullet.
People “were shouting at the police, asking why they had fired at the protesters,” Lui said.
Local media outlets reported that the police used live ammunition in several parts of the city, all of them in the Kowloon and New Territories areas.
A spokeswoman for the police said an officer shot an attacker who was posing a “huge safety threat” in order to protect the officer himself and his colleagues. The spokeswoman identified the injured man as an 18-year-old and said he was shot in the left side of his chest.
A group of Hong Kong police officers speaking privately over the WhatsApp messaging service had already begun discussing how to “protect and support” the officer who opened fire and urged one another not to share his photo, according to a police officer who is part of the chat group.
Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority said at least 51 people were injured, including two men in critical condition. The authority said it had no further details on the man who was shot by police.
In the high-end central shopping area of Causeway Bay and the nearby bar-filled district of Wan Chai, a large crowd, which included families and the elderly, was allowed to march for hours along the deserted main thoroughfare toward central Hong Kong.
Anti-government protesters holding umbrellas march Oct. 1 in Hong Kong as the celebration of the People’s Republic’s 70th anniversary takes place in Beijing. (Vincent Thian/AP)
Just before sundown on Harcourt Road, the scene of numerous clashes over the past few months and a midway point of the march, police opened up on protesters with a water cannon sending many scattering.
From a pedestrian bridge, police then fired a barrage of rubber bullets and tear gas into a group of protesters attempting to advance up the road under the cover of umbrellas. Eventually, the protesters retreated from their position amid plumes of tear gas so thick it was difficult to see even a few feet.
Protesters were hoping to send a clear message to Beijing on the 70th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party rule: protect Hong Kong’s freedoms and grant it full democracy, or face continued and unending dissent designed to shame Chinese leader Xi as he faces challenges on multiple fronts.
“We have to send a message to the government and the police, that we are not afraid of them, and that going out to protest is our right,” said Fok, a 24-year-old who spoke on the condition that he be identified only by his last name, as he has already been arrested for protesting. “It is time to show China they picked the wrong people to bully. This is a war, and we will win it.”
[China marks Communist Party’s 70th anniversary with grand show of power]
Carrie Lam, the beleaguered Hong Kong chief executive who protesters decry as a pawn of Beijing, was not in the city, but instead attending the parade in the Chinese capital. Lam had traveled to Beijing for the anniversary with a delegation of more than 200, including tycoons and pro-China lawmakers.
Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam, center, attends the celebration to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the founding of Communist China in Beijing, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2019. (Ng Han Guan/AP)
The protests started as a rebuke against a now-scrapped piece of legislation that would have allowed fugitives to be transferred from Hong Kong’s independent legal system to mainland China. But perceptions of government inaction and shock over police use of force have turned the movement into a full-blown rebuke of Beijing’s tightening control over the city, and revived a years-long demand for direct elections of city leaders.
Former pro-democracy lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung, who helped to organize Tuesday’s march after permission was denied, said Hong Kong resembled a “semi-police state” and authorities had created a de facto “curfew under sunrise” by closing subway stations and searching vehicles and people throughout the city.
“Most of the people think it should be a day of mourning,” he said of China’s National Day. “For 70 years, the Communist regime has killed people. Carrie Lam is a political puppet of China; that’s why she has refused the demands and relies on the police force.”
In Wan Chai district, the Chan family — a 55-year-old mother and her two daughters, ages 20 and 25 — said they walked for an hour and a half to reach the rally.
“I would like to stand and speak out for the people, to show that we aren’t going to give in to the brutality of the police,” said the 20-year-old, declining to give her full name because the demonstration was illegal. “There is too much injustice going on for us to stop now.”
[Hong Kong police smash anti-China demonstration, creating chaos]
Some of the people in the march wore “We are Hong Kongers” T-shirts, a rejection of Chinese identity, and held their hands up showing all five fingers for their five demands. The government has met one of these demands — the withdrawal of the extradition bill — but has declined to make further concessions, including an independent investigation into the police.
Anti-government protesters toss panels from a National Day signboard in Hong Kong on Oct. 1. (Fazry Ismail/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Signs for the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China are seen at People’s Square in Shanghai on Oct. 1. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg News)
A smattering of pro-China rallies took place around the city, with people gathering in small groups to wave the Chinese flag and sing the national anthem. At the base of the city’s peak tram, a historic funicular that is a major tourist destination, Mandarin-speaking visitors posed to snap smiling selfies with riot police. Hong Kong residents predominantly speak the Cantonese version of the language.
A man waves a China flag at the Hong Kong racecourse to mark the 70th anniversary of Communist China’s founding on Oct. 1. (Billy H.C. Kwok/Getty Images)
In the Sha Tin area, the large malls that often attract droves of mainland tourists were quiet or shuttered. Protesters built barricades to slow police who fired tear gas. Some canisters were quickly picked up by protesters, who tossed them into a nearby river.
“I can see that our freedoms are being taken away,” said one protester with the last name Lee. “When I walk out of the door, I need to bring two phones in case I get stopped and searched by the police.”
Word of the protester shot by the police officer spread quickly through groups of protesters still gathered at the time. Some gasped, and others were in tears.
“I can’t describe it,” said Nicole, a 27-year-old consultant who was marching. “Words can’t describe the things happening in Hong Kong.”
Police detain demonstrators in the Sha Tin district of Hong Kong on Oct. 1 as violent demonstrations take place in the city’s streets on the National Day holiday. (Isaac Lawrence/AFP/Getty Images)
Tiffany Liang contributed to this report.
Read more:
Will China crush Hong Kong protests? For Beijing, there are no good options
‘I couldn’t breathe’: Hong Kong protesters allege beatings and torture by city’s police
A student in Boston wrote ‘I am from Hong Kong, not China’. An onslaught of Chinese anger followed.
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