Hong Kong descends into chaos as protesters storm legislature

HONG KONG (Reuters): Hong Kong protesters stormed the Legislative Council on the anniversary of the former British colony’s 1997 return to Chinese rule on Monday amid widespread anger over laws that would allow extraditions to China. 

A small group of mostly students wearing hard hats and masks used a metal trolley, poles and pieces of scaffolding to charge again and again at the compound’s reinforced glass, which finally gave. 

Some protesters broke into the building but it was unclear how many were still inside. The Council, Hong Kong’s mini-parliament, issued a red alert, ordering the protesters to leave immediately.

It did not say what would happen if they didn’t.

Protesters frantically shouted for and passed on helmets, cling film, masks and other utilities. Periodic shouts of “helmets!”, “gloves” rang out as the crowd tried to get supplies to the front lines.

Riot police in helmets and carrying batons fired pepper spray as the standoff continued into the sweltering heat of the evening. Some demonstrators removed steel bars that were reinforcing parts of the council building.

The protesters, some with cling film wrapped around their arms to protect their skin in the event of tear gas, once again paralysed parts of the Asian financial hub as they occupied roads after blocking them off with metal barriers.

Some were building barricades with steel pipes on the approach roads, facing outwards like a porcupine, to keep the police back, and scouring nearby streets for railings.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam suspended the Bill on 15 June after some of the largest and most violent protests in the city in decades, but stopped short of protesters’ demands to scrap it.

The Beijing-backed leader is now clinging on to her job at a time of an unprecedented backlash against the Government and a series of mass protests that poses the greatest popular challenge to Chinese leader Xi Jinping since he came to power in 2012. 

Opponents of the Extradition Bill, which would allow people to be sent to mainland China for trial in courts controlled by the Communist Party, fear it is a threat to Hong Kong’s much-cherished rule of law and are demanding it be scrapped and Lam step down. 

Hong Kong returned to China under a “one country, two systems” formula that allows freedoms not enjoyed in mainland China, including freedom to protest and an independent Judiciary.

Beijing denies interfering but, for many Hong Kong residents, the Extradition Bill is the latest step in a relentless march towards mainland control.