You may have seen our earlier post on the protests in Hong Kong. We have a reader there whose son is a photojournalist. He sent photos his son had taken from the streets of the city as the population rebels against communist Chinese rule.
The protests have only escalated in the weeks since. As the AP reported yesterday . . .
Protesters and police clashed in Hong Kong for a second straight day on Sunday, throwing the semiautonomous Chinese territory’s business and shopping belt into chaos and sparking fears of more ugly scenes leading up to China’s National Day holiday this week.
Riot police repeatedly fired blue liquid — used to identify protesters — from a water cannon truck and multiple volleys of tear gas after demonstrators hurled Molotov cocktails at officers and targeted the city’s government office complex.
It was a repeat of Saturday’s clashes and part of a familiar cycle since pro-democracy protests began in early June. The protests were sparked by a now-shelved extradition bill and have since snowballed into an anti-China movement.
“We know that in the face of the world’s largest totalitarian regime — to quote Captain America, ‘Whatever it takes,'” Justin Leung, a 21-year-old demonstrator who covered his mouth with a black scarf, said of the violent methods deployed by hard-line protesters. “The consensus right now is that everyone’s methods are valid and we all do our part.”
Protesters are planning to march again Tuesday despite a police ban, raising fears of more violent confrontations that would embarrass Chinese President Xi Jinping as his ruling Communist Party marks 70 years since taking power. Posters are calling for Oct. 1 to be marked as “A Day of Grief.”
And the split with the mainland seems to be worsening . . .
You will find more infographics at Statista
Over night, our reader sent another batch of his son’s photos. He wrote . . .
Things are definitely ramping up here. The government would have you believe that this comprises a small rouge faction of Hong Kong. The reality is it represents the vast majority of Hong Kong and poll after poll is showing that the people support an increased use of force against the government and those businesses that align with or show support for Beijing.
He asked that his son be credited on the photos. When I asked if that might put him or his son in danger, he replied that he didn’t think so, that his son wanted the credit, and that “it’s worth the POTG seeing what it looks like when you have no arms and you’re fighting the government.”
