HONG KONG: Hong Kong was rocked on Wednesday by the worst political unrest since its handover to China, as police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who tried to storm parliament and blocked roads in the financial hub.

The violent protests were the latest expression of widespread public anger over the government’s controversial Beijing-backed plan to allow extraditions to China.

Clashes broke out hours after tens of thousands of people seized key arteries in the morning rush hour and surrounded the city’s parliament, forcing lawmakers to postpone a debate on the proposed law.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam, who is championing the law’s passage, described the protests as “organised riots” and called for calm to be restored.

“The rioting actions that damage peaceful society, ignoring law and discipline is unacceptable for any civilised societies,” she said in a video statement.

Police earlier used tear gas, rubber bullets and batons to battle crowds of black-clad demonstrators — most of them young people and students — demanding authorities scrap the Beijing-backed law.

The scenes echoed the pro-democracy “Umbrella Movement” of 2014 where protesters calling for greater democratic rights shut down swathes of the city for two months and battled police, but won no concessions from Beijing.

This time police appeared determined not to let protesters hold any ground while the young demonstrators respo­n­ded in kind, hurling projectiles including metal poles, bottles and bricks.

Tear gas sent the crowds scattering, but riot police continued to fight cat and mouse battles with their opponents into the evening, pushing them down towards the city’s commercial centre and bringing it to a standstill.

Authorities said 22 people were injured, with wounded police and protesters seen being carried away.

Hong Kong has been convulsed by political unrest in recent years as fears surge that Beijing is trying to stamp on the city’s unique freedoms and culture. But Wednesday’s violence was an unprecedented escalation of the conflict.

“In terms of the level of violence, today has been the most serious since the 1997 handover,” political analyst Dixon Sing said, citing the sustained use of tear gas, rubber bullets and bean bag rounds, as well as the willingness of protesters to take on the police.

“Today’s events reflect a huge gap in the confidence Hong Kong people have towards the government. They increasingly believe the Hong Kong government are a bunch of puppets serving the interests of Beijing,” he added.

The proposed law would allow Hong Kong to send suspects to other jurisdictions around the world — including China.

Hong Kong’s leaders say it is needed to plug loopholes and to stop the city being a sanctuary for fugitives. They say safeguards are in place to ensure that political critics of Beijing will not be targeted.

But it is deeply unpopular, with fears people will become entangled in the mainland’s opaque courts, leaving them vulnerable to a justice system seen as acting at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.

Opposition to the bill has united an unusually wide cross-section of the city in recent weeks, from influential businessmen and lawyers, to religious groups, student unions and workers. On Sunday record crowds of around one million marched against the law.

That rally, however, failed to move pro-Beijing Lam, who has rejected calls to withdraw the bill and vowed to fast track it through the legislature.

Published in Dawn, June 13th, 2019