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On what was supposed to have been Hong Kong election day, hundreds of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets on Sunday, where they were met by a heavy police presence, firing pepper balls and arresting almost 300 people.
It was one of the largest gatherings of protesters since China’s implementation of the national security law, a broad set of anti-seizure laws that, according to a coalition of United Nations think tanks, risks violating multiple international laws and human rights.
In July, the Hong Kong government announced that it would postpone the legislative council election for a year due to the dangers posed by a new coronavirus outbreak in the city. However, the decision was met with derision by pro-democracy figures and opposition politicians, who accused the government of using the pandemic to delay an election that it could lose.
The decision was made amid an ongoing crackdown on dissent, which included mass arrests of pro-democracy figures, police raids on newsrooms, and a chilling effect on educators, the media, academics and politicians.
On Sunday, hundreds of people demonstrated against the repression and the delay of their democratic vote, initially meeting in Yau Ma Tei and Mong Kok. Many protesters also called for the release of 12 people arrested by the Chinese coast guard as they tried to flee by boat to Taiwan. .
Galileo Cheng
(@galileocheng)Unexpected number of protesters here pic.twitter.com/hE26dbVk8d
In response to the crowd, which included a large contingent of media, the police fired pepper balls and raised warning flags. Several journalists reported being attacked by the police and detained or ordered home under threat of arrest, even if the journalist had press clearance. Video sharing on social media it showed plainclothes officers dragging a man across the ground.
By 9 p.m., more than 290 people had been arrested, including 270 suspected of illegal assembly, five of misconduct in a public place and five for failing to present valid identification, Hong Kong police said.
Police had also previously said that a woman was arrested under the national security law for spreading slogans “promoting Hong Kong’s independence”, but this was not included in subsequent statements.
The Facebook page of Figo Chan, deputy convener of the activist group Civil Human Rights Front, said that Chan, Raphael Wong Ho-ming and former lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung were among those arrested.
After a video was widely shared on social media that showed a group of police officers tackling and then pinning him to the ground a girl of school age, the force issued a statement expressing concern “about the participation of underage girls in prohibited groups.”
He said police had detained and searched some people who refused to leave, including a 12-year-old girl, who then fled “suspiciously”. She was later accused of violating the pandemic measures against the meetings.
Police also alleged that protesters had thrown umbrellas, bottles and hard objects at officers, and scattered rubbish on the roads, and previously said that a large group of people chanting independence slogans in a shopping mall allegedly violated the law of National security. They did not say that no one had been arrested. Earlier Sunday, police said 2,000 officers and vehicles with water cannons would be on standby.
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