Hong Kong airport resumes operations with over 200 flights still cancelled amidst violence

Hong Kong airport

The Hong Kong International Airport resumed operations on Tuesday, a day after all flights were cancelled due to violent acts by protesters.

Media reports said:

Despite resumption of activities of the HK international airport, still over 200 flights in and out of China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region have been cancelled on Tuesday.

Thousands of protesters rallied at the airport, severely disrupting the normal operations of the airport, one of the busiest in the world.

All flights into and out of HK have been shut down by the HK Airport Authority owing to the occupation of the airport by protestors.

Local media reported that flights have been seriously disrupted. Australian reporters present in HK airport reported that many thousands of protestors arrived in the airport and occupied arrivals and departures halls.

Slingshots to air guns

The HK protesters were seen using air guns on August 11. The rioters fired at the police with air gun and then quickly drew back and hid in the crowd. Another weapon used by the protesters was like a modified replica of a US-made M320 grenade launcher. M320 can fire high-powered explosive, smoke and tear gas. Even the air gun can fire steel projectiles.

Throwing petrol bombs at police

HK officials condemned protesters for hurling petrol bomb at an officer on duty in Tsim Sha Tsui police station on Sunday, saying it is an act of terrorism.

The seriously injured officer sustained burns to his legs.

Police said investigations of all violent acts that have caused serious and even life-threatening injuries would be continued.

Illegal violent protesters gathered around the Tsim Sha Tsui police station for hours on Sunday.

Some netizens said that the protesters also used airsoft grenade launchers to shoot projectiles at the police.

A reporter found that, in an opposition online chat group, some said grenade launcher could be converted to launch dangerous objects other than grenades.

“Using airsoft grenade launchers to attack the police is an extreme violent act and a serious violation of law. No matter what their demands are, they have no reason to make such evil acts. In fact, this is an act of terror,” Ronny Chan, chair of the Superintendents’ Association of the Hong Kong Police Force.

Some protesters were carrying concealed collapsible military knives.

Rioters stepped up their use of force, using more nasty strategies and attacking the police in an organized way and sometimes in “flash mob” style.

Protesters were seen destroying CCTV camera, pointing at police with laser pens and fire, and breaking road fences and prepare barricades with those.

Riots have signs of terrorism, says official

The AP photo above shows protesters use homemade slingshot to shoot bricks to the Tseung Kwan O police station on Sunday.

Illegal protesters also used explosives, bows and arrows, and grenade launchers to shoot projectiles at the police.

Signs of terrorism

Police said protesters’ use of more dangerous weapons and endanger the public with the mobs’ violent actions are “signs of terrorism.”

Following days of guerrilla-style and flash mob protests in the city, central government officials and HK police have strongly condemned escalating violence across the city, disrupting public order and putting ordinary Hongkongers in danger.

The Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council said that attacking police officers with dangerous weapons is a crime, which showed signs of terrorism, and such crimes must be dealt with resolutely and in accordance with the law, according to a press briefing on Monday.

This past weekend, black-clad illegal protesters besieged several police stations in various districts, including Kwai Chung, Tsim Sha Tsui, Sham Shui Po, using bricks, stones, steel balls, daggers, hammers and other lethal weapons to attack police offers. They also threw gasoline bombs in Sham Shui Po and Tsim Sha Tsui, injuring police officers.

“No matter how hard protesters disguise violence, they can’t get away with the nature of the violence,” Tang Ping-keung, deputy commissioner of police (operations), said at a press conference in the police headquarters on Monday.

The police conducted dispersal work with minimum force, which was also strictly in line with the law, officials said.

The photo above shows weapons seized by police from illegal protesters on Sunday, including a dagger and hammer. These were shown at the headquarters of the HK police on Monday. Photo: Chen Qingqing/GT

Kong Wing-cheung, senior superintendent at the Police Public Relations Branch, said at the press conference that the violent protesters used bullet forks and steel balls against the police, which may hurt people inside the subway station as well.

Protesters ignored police warnings and constantly provoked the police through insults, dog barks, and flashing laser pens at police officers.

On August 11, some people ignored the police’s objection and got involved in unauthorized rallies. Some of the protesters later went to different places all over HK, blocked main roads and thoroughfares, besieged police stations, and damaged police vehicles.

Protesters also threw umbrella, bricks, and corrosive liquids at police.

Police officers were splashed with corrosive substances and beaten to bleed although police had the ability to contain the situation.

Protesters stormed the Tin Shui Wai police station and smashed the entrance door and windows of the building. A police officer at the station said they face tremendous pressure as rioters leaked their personal information online that led to a spree of verbal abuses.

Authorities claimed police used only non-lethal weapons.

149 arrested

The police said 149 rioters armed with offensive weapons such as petrol bombs were arrested from Friday to Sunday.

The 149 people, arrested between Aug. 9 and Aug. 12, comprise 111 male and 38 female, aged between 15 and 53.

Among the arrested are 15 core members of the mobs on August 11 in Causeway Bay, the HK Island.

A Beijing-based law expert told the Global Times on condition of anonymity “violent protests matter to public security from the angle of law, while terrorism touches on national security.

“If the situation spirals to the level of terrorism, the central government has the responsibility to urge the Hong Kong government to secure both public security and national security,” the expert said.

The Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in HK also condemned the violence.

Mainstream media reports

The mainstream media and some local press blamed HK police for using tear gas on Sunday night inside the Kwai Fong station, where another clash between violent protesters and the police occurred.

The police on Monday defended their actions and confirmed that they only fired one tear gas canister.

“We will use tear gas when violence needs to be stopped, and we do so after considering the environment and the people involved,” said Mak Chin-ho, assistant commissioner of police (operations).

Anti-government forces have spared no effort in assaulting officers’ in person and their images. They have adopted a consistent strategy where they initiate attacks on officers and then cover up their cowardly acts with the help of ill-intentioned foreign supporters and media organizations using biased comments and reports against officers.

The strategy was on vivid display over the past couple of days after these radical forces and foreign media outlets including influential ones such as the UK’s publically funded BBC, rushed to use pictures and videos of a police officer holding a shotgun to support claims of police brutality.

It was soon discovered the pictures and videos were conveniently edited to push their narrative of police brutality and left out crucial facts that the police officer and another colleague were besieged and beaten by a mob of protesters before he drew a gun loaded with nonlethal beanbag rounds. The officer did not shoot.

The exposure of mob violence and manipulation of facts angered many in the city and on the mainland and prompted some to speak out in support of police officers in Hong Kong.

After seeing horrific pictures and videos of the officer being beaten to the ground and of his clearly injured eyes that were edited out in some HK and foreign MSM coverage, many took it emotionally.

More evidence of US diplomats’ engagement in HK riots

Media revealed more evidence of U.S. diplomats’ engagement in stirring the situation of ongoing riots in Hong Kong as they were reported to have met HK separatists before meeting Joshua Wong on the same day, Chinese media reported on Sunday.

Chinese experts said that the contact between the anti-China force and a U.S. diplomat is “solid evidence” the U.S. is behind the riots in HK.

The report cited two photos provided by an internet user on Tuesday.

China on Thursday urgently summoned senior officials from the U.S. consulate general in Hong Kong and lodged stern representations over the contact.
In a statement released Thursday, officials from Commissioner’s Office of China’s Foreign Ministry in HK urged officials from the U.S. consulate general to draw a clear line with HK secessionist forces, stop sending wrong signals to radical protesters indulging in violence and immediately stop interfering in HK affairs.

Wives and children of police harassed

Some police officers, even their family members, said anti-government protesters have constantly attacked them, while Western media and some Hong Kong press gave no voice to them.

May, the wife of a HK police officer who participated in the recent law enforcement work in the city, lives in a neighborhood where many other police officers’ family members reside.

Biased media reports exaggerated police using force and intentionally ignored the reason for the use of force, she told the Global Times.

May said she has been receiving strange phone calls in the middle of the night lately where there is no voice on the other end of the line, and the protesters harassed many others like her.

Children of police officers have also reportedly been harassed or isolated at school after their identities were exposed.

The wife said after the mob stormed into the Hong Kong Legislative Council building in July, her daughter, who is in college, texted her and said “Mom, how about we move to the mainland? It’s too scary here.”

Such scary and helpless sentiment is now shared by many police officers’ families, and also by police officers themselves.

“Kill”, incitement

Since June 9, over 1,200 HK police officers’ personal data and their families’ were leaked online, including their phone numbers, addresses, ID numbers. Some even publicly incited and abetted others to kill police officers and hurt their children, the HK police said on Thursday.

Police officers have received threats and some and their families have even been harassed after their personal information was leaked, Ronny Chan, chairperson of the Superintendents’ Association of the Hong Kong Police Force, told reporters at the police headquarters on Thursday.

“The pressure on the officers, both physical and emotional, is enormous,” he said.

Widespread online attacks against the HK police, and some anti-government protesters leaked police officers’ pictures on social networks like Telegram and LIHKG were observed.

The HK Police Force, which is the only law enforcement agency in the city, has become the biggest victim in political fights incited by local radical groups and some Western forces.

Many people pointed out that if similar riots happened in other countries including Western countries such as the U.S., police officers would have taken more aggressive and even lethal measures.

White House should tell HK extremists to stop violence

China mocked on Wednesday the U.S. claim of Chinese military activities near HK as the Foreign Ministry demanded the White House contribute to peace rather than violence in the special administrative region of China.

Citing an anonymous U.S. senior administration official, a report by Bloomberg claimed the White House was monitoring Chinese military movements on the Hong Kong border.

In response to the report, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said she was not aware of the situation.

But “if the White House really cares about peace in Hong Kong, it should tell the extremists who protested violently to express their demands in a peaceful way, not through violence,” Hua said.

PLA Commander

In a rare comment on the Hong Kong situation, Chen Daoxiang, commander of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Garrison in Hong Kong, on Wednesday condemned violent incidents in the city, which he said have touched the bottom line of the “one country, two systems” principle and are absolutely intolerable, Hong Kong Economic Journal reported.

Chen made the remarks during a speech of a reception on celebrating the 92nd anniversary of the founding of the PLA.

The Chinese military has been paying close attention to the developments in HK, especially after riots in which radical forces besieged the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), Wu Qian, spokesperson of China’s Ministry of National Defense, told a media briefing on July 24.

Residents support police

Chocolates, flowers, “thank-you” cards greeted the HK police officers on Saturday morning as hundreds of local residents visited different police stations around the city including Kwai Chung, Tin Shui Wai, Yuen Long to show their support for the HK’s law enforcement force.

HK residents named the day as “Day of Supporting Police.” None of these visitors dressed up in black or wore masks, drawing a significant contrast to the violent anti-government protesters who blocked the roads and paralyzed the normal functioning of lives.

Local residents started a campaign in support of HK police at the Tin Shui Wai police station on Saturday.

Symbolizing an act to guard HK and to restore social order, over 50 HK tourism workers voluntarily went to the Star Ferry Pier in Tsim Sha Tsui on Saturday.

Residents express their support and gratitude toward the HK police at the Kwai Chung Police station on Saturday.

Many people held placards that read, “Support the police. Thank you!” and raised slogans of “anti-violence and safeguard the rule of law”. Some even took pictures with the blast shield the police used to curb the riots.

U.S. national anthem

Some HK protesters proudly sang U.S. national anthem “The Star-Spangled Banner”.

One netizen wrote: It would be hard to imagine the U.S. reaction if Chinese diplomat were meeting leaders of Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter or Never Trump protesters.

Another netizen wrote: HK media has the right to report on U.S. diplomats who actively interfere in HK situation, and help people understand what they are doing. The U.S. administration is instigating turmoil in HK the way it stoked “color revolutions” in other places worldwide. This is thuggish diplomacy.

U.S. reaction indicates Color Revolution

U.S. words of concern sure seem to suggest that the months-long demonstrations amount to a ‘color revolution.’

On Monday, the Trump administration urged “all sides to refrain from violence.”

One unnamed White House official who spoke to the press said the U.S. supported those “looking for democracy.”

The U.S. president’s legislative ally, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), said directly: “Any violent crackdown would be completely unacceptable.”

One can recall the same phrasing used for Ukraine, during the Maidan protests of 2013 that culminated in a violent coup in February 2014.

The impression is reinforced by the images from HK, showing helmeted protesters in black masks firing grenades and throwing firebombs at police.

But the MSM hail the protesters as “pro-democracy.”

Some protesters even brandished flags of Hong Kong’s former colonial master, the UK. Others embraced the U.S. flag.

Color revolutions are a type of regime change technique developed by U.S. strategists and executed by diplomats and non-governmental organizations. They rely on exploiting legitimate grievances of the local population, amplifying with money and marketing small groups of activists, they either create or co-opt. The goal is to provoke the government into a violent crackdown, to destroy its legitimacy.

The prototype for this approach was the October 2000 coup in Serbia, which U.S. diplomats and the cheerleader media then invoked in subsequent cases.


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