On the first day of the new year, Hong Kongers marked the occasion by taking out a solidarity march. What would have been a routine affair in a city that has seen demonstrations for nearly seven months became the largest march since June, with over one million having taken part according to organisers (the police contest this figure and say that just 60,000 protesters attended at most).
However, according to the South China Morning Post, ‘radicals’ blocked roads, threw petrol bombs, vandalised shops and targeted branches of HSBC in parts of the city. The police, in turn, fired tear gas and used water cannons on the group, with at least 400 people arrested.
Reuters reported that the police fired “several rounds of tear gas and water cannon at crowds including families”.
The Wanchai bar district saw protesters vandalise HSBC ATMs, prompting riot police to move in and pepper-spray the crowds. HSBC has earned the ire of some protesters who allege that the bank helped the government when it arrested four members of a group who raised funds for the legal defence of those detained by the police. Four members of the Spark Alliance were arrested on December 19, a month after their HSBC bank account was closed.
The bank says their decision to close it was unrelated to the Hong Kong police’s arrest of the four, saying that the account was closed “following direct instruction from the customer.”
Wednesday’s protest march was organised by the Civil Human Rights Group, an umbrella organisation, who said that they had permission for the march but that they were ordered to end it shortly after the clashes began.
Though the protesters received their initial demand, the rollback of the controversial extradition bill, they have since demanded free elections in the city, an independent probe into allegations of police brutality, and amnesty for the nearly 6,500 people arrested during the protests.
Wednesday’s rally was a way of showing that the protests would continue into 2020.
