Hong Kong Protesters Apologize After Chaos at Airport
China doesn’t understand Hong Kong’s protests. That’s a big mistake.
Heartfelt apologies when up against court injunction to ease off. Smart.
On Wednesday, protesters at Hong Kong’s airport offered travelers apologies, aware of the negative image they had presented in scuffles the day before. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
By Austin Ramzy
Aug. 14, 2019
HONG KONG — Protesters began issuing apologies on Wednesday for causing disruptions at the Hong Kong airport, as fallout from scenes of violence and chaos there, along with a court injunction, threatened to eliminate the transportation hub as one of their most effective venues for demonstrations.
The airport said Wednesday that at 2 p.m. it would begin limiting terminal access to ticketed passengers and airport workers.
Demonstrations at the airport began Friday and stayed peaceful for days, as protesters made their case to many of the 200,000 passengers it handles each day. When disruptions to flights began on Monday, some travelers complained, but others said the movement to protect Hong Kong’s civil liberties was more important than their inconvenience.
Protesters briefly scuffled with riot police officers on Tuesday night. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
But uglier scenes developed on Tuesday, as a few scuffles broke out between protesters and travelers, who for the first time were being blocked from the departure gates. In the evening, with tensions rising, some protesters surrounded, tied up and beat two men from mainland China — one of whom they suspected of being a security officer, while the other proved to be a reporter for a Communist Party-owned newspaper.
Riot police officers briefly entered the front doors of the airport, and one drew but did not fire his pistol after a scuffle with protesters.
On Wednesday, protesters seemed well aware of the negative image they had presented. “We apologize for our behavior but we are just too scared,” read one post on a messaging channel used by protesters, which gained wider distribution on other social media. “Our police shot us, government betrayed us, social institutions failed us. Please help us.”
“Please accept our sincere apology to all travelers, press reporters, paramedics,” read another post. “We will learn from our mistakes. Please give us a second chance to prove ourselves that we can be better.”
The protests — which began over a now-suspended plan to allow extraditions to mainland China .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/09/world/asia/hong-kong-extradition-protest.html?module=inline , but have grown to include calls for more direct elections and investigations into the police’s use of force — have been largely leaderless. A march in June drew as many as two million people, according to organizers, and thousands have continued to join near-daily demonstrations.
Fu Guohao, a reporter for a Chinese state-run newspaper, was taken from the airport early Wednesday after being tied up and beaten by demonstrators. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
No single voice speaks for all the participants. Some embrace nonviolence, while others say confrontation is needed because the government has ignored the calls of peaceful protesters. Thus far, protesters have embraced overall messages of solidarity, despite differing beliefs about the best strategies.
-- [Insert: Echoes of reactions of conservative trolls here to virtually any criticism of the Trump adiminstration, or of Trump himself. See DrHarleyboy, Father of Fascism Studies: Donald Trump Shows Alarming Willingness to Use Fascist Terms & Styles P -"Your Fascist colors are bleeding through hard today, anything else you want to get off your chest besides totalitarian government control???" P - Yet, another vicious lie of yours. False accusation of fascism, worse with no specifics supporting it. Hate - Racism .. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=150505027 .. and now Fascism. P - Your third today. All non-factual. All conservative propaganda based upon lies and misrepresentation. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=150505661] --
“What a shame for Hong Kong,” People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s main mouthpiece, said in a message on social media.
A quote from the reporter who was beaten, “I support the Hong Kong police,” became a top trending term on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform. The reporter, Fu Guohao, is doing well and was not seriously injured, said Hu Xijin, editor in chief of Global Times, the nationalist tabloid that employs him.
“It’s the utmost disgrace for the protesters to treat a reporter like this,” Mr. Hu said in a message. “This shows that they have lost their rationality. Hatred has muddled their minds.”
Security was tightened at the departures area on Wednesday. Lam Yik Fei for The New York Times
A spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs office, the Chinese government agency that deals with the two cities, denounced the airport violence .. http://www.hmo.gov.cn/xwzx/zwyw/201908/t20190814_21136.html .. in a statement on Wednesday, calling it “conduct close to terrorism.”
Some protesters said that recent police tactics, including undercover officers apparently dressing as protesters to make arrests .. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/world/asia/hong-kong-airport-protest-cancellations.html?module=inline , had contributed to a sense of fear. Video of one recent arrest showed officers, one in the black T-shirt and yellow helmet commonly worn by demonstrators, grinding a protester’s bloodied face into the pavement.
“We hope everyone, including travelers in and out of Hong Kong, would also understand the stress, the panickiness, the suspicion, the restlessness involved in the crowd at the airport ever since the Hong Kong police force’s admission of masquerading a certain number of officers as protesters with the aim of getting them arrested,” Claudia Mo, a pro-democratic legislator, said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The Hong Kong Airport Authority said it had obtained an interim injunction to prevent interference with airport operations. It was not clear what immediate effect, if any, the injunction would have on the protests. Similar orders were used to allow workers, under the supervision of police officers and bailiffs, to dismantle protesters’ encampments during the large pro-democracy demonstrations that swept Hong Kong in 2014.
On Wednesday morning, a few dozen protesters remained in the airport, sitting in an area designated for protests. Parts of the arrivals halls were still covered with posters carrying their messages, which have focused in recent days on complaints about the police’s use of force.
“We are not rioters, we just love HK too much,” read one sign.
Reporting was contributed by Elsie Chen, Ezra Cheung, Katherine Li and Javier Hernandez.
World Economy Edges Closer to a Recession as Trade Dread Deepens [...] “We are using interest rates to fix problems that they cannot solve,” said Patrick Bennett, head of macro strategy for Asia at Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Hong Kong. https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=150387996
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
