Hong Kong has seen relentless protests since June as many in the city of 7. Violence has escalated, and tensions have spilt out overseas, sparking friction between China and Britain, which governed Hong Kong until On Thursday Hong Kong Justice Secretary Teresa Cheng fell in London after being surrounded by pro-democracy protesters, in the most physical confrontation involving a member of cabinet since the unrest began.
Black-clad protesters also occupied university campuses, while the city endured another day of transport chaos with suspensions on the vandalised train network and roads blocked by barricades. The Global Times, one of the powerful arms of the Chinese state media, on Thursday fuelled tensions with a tweet reporting that a curfew was imminent. Until this week protests had been mainly in the evenings and on weekends, allowing the international financial hub to still function relatively smoothly during the week albeit with its economy dragged into recession.
But roadblocks and vandalism to metro stations and lines have brought chaos to the city transport network, forcing schools to close and many commuters to stay at home. Their actions have been accompanied by intensifying violence from both sides -- two people have died in a week in incidents linked to the protests. A year-old man died on Thursday from injuries sustained a day earlier when he was hit by a brick during clashes between protesters and people angry with them.
Major universities have also become a hub for the protesters -- the first time a movement characterised by its fluidity and unpredictability has coagulated in fixed locations.
But as dusk fell yesterday, the numbers of university students and protesters appeared to thin out. The government belatedly withdrew the bill months into the unrest, but by then it had morphed into a much wider campaign for democratic freedoms and against the police. Skip to main content. Home Back Page. A pro-democracy protester stands amongst bricks placed on a barricaded street outside the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in Hong Kong yesterday.
