A compelling case for pragmatism
When Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in Macau, the world’s gambling capital, the air was thick with anticipation. Macau,often dubbed the “Las Vegas of the East,” is much more than a beacon of wealth and opulence.
At least 20 protesters were arrested on Saturday for offences including unlawful assembly in Hong Kong’s Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok and Wong Tai Sin areas, where chaos and violence raged.
After police started dispersing protesters in Mong Kok in the west of Kowloon, where an approved rally on Saturday, was suddenly transformed into a smoking battlefield in an unexpected turn of events, South China Morning Post reported.
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Police fired teargas and pepper spray, and pinned protesters to the ground after tense standoffs in at least four locations throughout the city on Saturday evening, following a peaceful march earlier in the day.
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The police said in a statement that protesters had hurled bricks into the station and set fire to objects outside it. Police were also seen subduing demonstrators outside a police station in Mong Kok by forcing them on the ground. Photos showed demonstrators bleeding.
Thousands of civil servants gathered on Saturday in the anti-government protests in Hong Kong for the first time since they gripped the semi-autonomous Chinese territory for the past few weeks.
The protesters demanded the complete withdrawal of the China extradition bill and called for an independent inquiry into the police handling of the protests, NHK world reported.
Last month, Thousands of pro-democracy protesters defied a police ban and began marching through Hong Kong a day after riot-police fired rubber bullets and tear gas in the latest violent confrontation to plunge the financial hub deeper into crisis.
The demonstrations over the last seven weeks were triggered by a controversial bill which would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, but have evolved into a call for wider democratic reforms and a halt to sliding freedoms.
The rally came after an open letter penned anonymously and published on Facebook setting out a series of demands to the Hong Kong government by a group which said it represented civil servants.
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