HONG KONG: Hong Kong police fired volleys of tear gas to disperse anti-government protesters on Saturday — sending tourists fleeing weeping in Kowloon — only for demonstrators to regroup and gather elsewhere during another tense, hot and restive weekend.

Weeks of increasingly violent protests have plunged Hong Kong into its biggest political crisis for decades, posing a serious challenge to the central government in Beijing.

On Saturday activists rallied across the city, with thousands thronging the airport arrivals hall for a second day, while elsewhere police displayed a new willingness to quickly and forcibly clear them from the streets.

That became a cat-and-mouse chase with demonstrators late into the summer night.

Tear gas was used with little warning not long after several hundred activists who had marched through Tai Po in the north of the territory had barricaded an intersection in the Tai Wai neighbourhood.

They dispersed, as noxious smoke also filled the train station there, bringing train passengers to tears.

Then demonstrators popped up again in Kowloon, a large urban district on the mainland side of Hong Kong’s harbour, only for police to fire another volley of gas from Tsim Sha Tsui police station, sending nearby tourists running with welling tears.

Luxury shops were caught up in the stand-off, with some shoppers even taking pictures of riot police.

“If the government thinks we’ll give up and not come out anymore they’re wrong,” said student Chris Wong, 20, at Tai Po.

“Carrie Lam is now spreading lies and blaming us for destroying Hong Kong’s economy. But she’s the one who is destroying Hong Kong,” he said. “We’ll continue to fight...but we’re also going to be smart and wear them down.” Lam, Hong Kong’s leader, said on Friday the economy — already buffeted by China’s slowing economy and the US-China trade war — was being undermined by the protests, which began in June.

Demonstrators, most of them young, appeared only to be digging in. Late on Saturday they flashed laser pointers at riot police and lifted bricks and scavenged building materials to barricade roads in Kowloon.

China, meanwhile, has also targeted the city’s corporate giants, demanding flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways suspend staff involved in the demonstrations — a move which also brought pressure on the airline from mainland businesses.

Huarong International, the investment arm in Hong Kong of China Huarong Asset Management Co, instructed staff not to fly Cathay if there are other options, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters and confirmed by a source at the company.

In response, the airline told staff on Saturday it would bar any “overly radical” employees from crewing flights to the mainland and said it had removed a pilot who was arrested at protests last week from active duty.

Neither warning — one aimed at residents and the other at a business emblematic of the city — deterred demonstrators.

Leung Wai Man, a housewife in her 60s, said she had been motivated to march in Tai Po because she was angry about what she saw as the violent response by police at some protests.

“We are very angry about the police over arresting our teenagers,” she said. She said she was worried about escalating violence, but added that “the protesters were just trying to protect themselves against police violence”.

More demonstrations are planned on Sunday, including at the working class district of Sham Shui Po, the scene of violent confrontations between activists and police, prompting authorities to plan shutting many public buildings there.

The protests began after Hong Kong’s government tried introducing an extradition bill that would have allowed defendants to be sent to mainland China for trial.

The bill has been suspended, but protesters have stepped up their demands and are now calling for greater democracy and Lam’s resignation.

Young people have been at the forefront, worried about the erosion of freedoms in Hong Kong, while also concerned with issues such as wealth disparities in the city.

Thousands of mostly young activists filled the airport’s arrivals hall for a second day, some sitting and shouting slogans, while others drew protest posters and greeted arriving passengers.

Older people have also been appearing. Earlier on Saturday, in two separate protests, small groups of elderly Hong Kongers and families marched near the financial centre’s business district. Both marches and the airport protests were peaceful.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2019