Hong Kong warns protesters not to return after clashes close government HQ
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HONG KONG — Thousands of Hong Kong pro-democracy
activists forced the temporary closure of government headquarters on
Monday after clashing with police, defying orders to retreat after more
than two months of sustained protests in the Chinese-controlled city.
Hong
Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said police had been very tolerant but
would now take "resolute action", suggesting that patience may have
finally run dry.
Chaos erupted as commuters made
their way to work, with hundreds of protesters surrounding Admiralty
Center, which houses offices and retail outlets, in a stand-off with
police. The central government offices and the legislature were forced
to close in the morning, as were scores of shops.
The
latest flare-up, during which police charged protesters with batons and
pepper spray, underscored the frustration of protesters at Beijing's
refusal to budge on electoral reforms and grant greater democracy to the
former British colony.
"Some people have
mistaken the police's tolerance for weakness," Leung told reporters. "I
call for students who are planning to return to the occupation sites
tonight not to do so."
He did not respond when asked if police would clear the sites on Monday.
The
democracy movement represents one of the biggest threats for China's
Communist Party leadership since Beijing's bloody 1989 crackdown on
pro-democracy student protests in and around Tiananmen Square.
Hundreds
of riot police scattered the crowds in several rounds of heated clashes
overnight, forcing protesters back with pepper spray and batons.
Scores
of volunteer medics attended to numerous injured, some who lay
unconscious and others with blood streaming from head gashes. Police
said at least 40 arrests were made.
As police
tackled the running battles in Admiralty, tensions escalated across the
harbor in the working-class district of Mong Kok, which had been the
scene of violent clashes in recent weeks before the clearance of a large
protest encampment from a major area there last Wednesday.
The
unrest came as British lawmakers said they had been told by the Chinese
Embassy they would not be allowed to enter Hong Kong as part of an
inquiry into Britain's relations with its former colony and progress
towards democracy.
Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Beijing had told Britain it was opposed to
the inquiry and that as China had responsibility for Hong Kong's
foreign affairs, it had every right to decide who to let into the city.
Hong
Kong returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two
systems" formula that gave it some autonomy from the mainland and an
undated promise of universal suffrage.
The
protesters are demanding free elections for the city's next leader in
2017 rather than the vote between pre-screened candidates that Beijing
has said it would allow.
The overnight clashes came after student leaders called on activists to escalate their protests.
Despite
several waves of clampdowns, crowds of protesters, many in protective
goggles and body armor, refused to leave the area and continued to press
against police lines, chanting "We want universal suffrage!". They
threw bottles, helmets and umbrellas at police as tensions simmered into
mid-morning.
Scores of demonstrators held up umbrellas, which have become a symbol of the pro-democracy movement, to protect themselves.
The
Hong Kong rallies drew more than 100,000 on to the streets at their
peak. Numbers have since dwindled and public support for the movement
has waned.
(This story was refiled to drop redundant reference to "Leung" in second paragraph)
(Additional
reporting by Diana Chan, Kinling Lo, Clare Jim, Michelle Chen and Ben
Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree and Nick Macfie)
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